Mill City Museum ponders its empty grain elevator
The Washburn ‘A’ Mill grain elevator on West River Parkway.
It’s big, it’s white, and no one quite knows what to do with it, but the Washburn grain elevator, standing between the Mill City Museum and the Guthrie Theater on West River Parkway, is not just another white elephant.
“It’s a valued white elephant,” said Thomas Zahn, whose firm, with others, completed a re-use study last month for the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS), which owns the elevator as well as the museum next door.
Zahn explained that the museum and the MHS are glad to own the elevator and want to see it used for something. They just don’t what yet, or who will pay for the necessary renovation work.
The MHS has thought of ways it could use the structure – perhaps as space for exhibits, events, workshops, offices or storage – but hired Zahn to explore what else could be done there and who else might want to do it. Ideal partners would have a concept, the desire — and more to the point, the money — to help turn the downtown riverfront landmark into a working building again.
The Washburn grain elevator presents any number of challenges, among them the lack of a front or back door, skimpy access for vehicles, and dazzling spaces 100 feet from the ground with no easy way to get there. The challenge that may be the biggest, at least in size, is what to do with the huge grain bin cylinders themselves.
The study suggested that lots of things might work, from the obvious to the out-there. The elevators could join the ranks of riverfront condominiums, although putting a car lift in a grain bin so residents could park outside their loft doors would make the condos necessarily high-end. Or Minneapolis could follow Montreal’s model and convert the whole thing into a “Silophone,” a giant musical instrument that anyone with a phone or a computer can play www.silophone.net.
Concrete that’s crumbling in places means that stabilizing the structure is the first step. (The study predicted that will cost $600,000, but MHS Director John Crippen said the Mill City Museum experience has taught him to double the first consultant’s estimate.) Beyond that immediate concern, Crippen said the MHS is interested in re-use but would also be happy to have the elevator simply hold up the Gold Medal Flour sign for another decade.
According to Will Stark, who conducted historical research for the re-use study, Minneapolis may have lost its crown as the world’s greatest grain miller in the 1930s but retained its title as grain storage champ into the 1960s. The Washburn elevator, dating from 1906, continued operations into the 1980s.
last revised: February 29, 2008