Below is an excerpt from an article from the Culture Montreal website regarding the redevelopment of silo number 5 in the old port of Montreal. What are your thoughts or suggestions for the redevelopment of this building? Housing...Cultural Center......Tourist Attraction...Or...?

Article:
Both Heritage Montréal and the Société du Havre regret that the building has fallen into disrepair and stress its unique character: the oldest of Canada Maltage’s silos, it was built of clay tiles in 1905 and is the last of its kind in North America.

On a similar note, the management of the Port of Montréal will launch a call for proposals in mid-June to breathe new life into Silo No. 5, which was built in 1906. Real estate promoters interested in transforming the celebrated grain terminal, abandoned since 1995, will have to maintain the building’s visual and physical integrity: because of its architectural and historical value, Silo No. 5 has been named a “recognized building” by the Federal Heritage Buildings Review Office (FHBRO).

CANUSA

My company is helping the port of Montreal decide what to do with this site.

my opinion...one word...D-Y-N-A-M-I-T-E!!!

KABOOM, BABY!

^I agree, its too large, it blocks view, etc

I agree on tearing this baby down, I just hope that the bike path (between old port and ile ste. helene) won't be closed when construction takes place.
I find it weird that Montreal officials would consider this of any historical value. There is plenty of industrial buildings (in Lachine or montreal-est) that need to be conserved but should cement blocks be in the same list? Don't think so. I wonder what Europeans would say to this ;)

How about housing a city of Montréal museum?

I agree on tearing this baby down, I just hope that the bike path (between old port and ile ste. helene) won't be closed when construction takes place.
I find it weird that Montreal officials would consider this of any historical value. There is plenty of industrial buildings (in Lachine or montreal-est) that need to be conserved but should cement blocks be in the same list? Don't think so. I wonder what Europeans would say to this ;)

I 100% agree with your comments.
Just because some things are old, doesnt mean they were great when they were built either.

A city of Montreal museum? Maybe after its torn down build some sort of museum on the site.

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b38/marek_bielski/2001-07-30.jpg

c'est quand meme impressionant (si on aime le post-industrial), surtout quand on s'approche sur la piste cyclable. Le vrai probleme est le fait que le silo 5 est dans le coin le plus en demande pour les investisseurs. On va voir, mais je hate de voir le casino la-bas.

Wow, it's so huge and imposing. When was it last used? Maybe tearing it down wouldn't be a bad idea...

From Old Montreal Website:

Located at the crossroads of inland and ocean-going shipping, just at the mouth of the Lachine Canal, the huge grain elevators, with their rail-mounted mobile elevators and their conveyors, form a gigantic machine for receiving and transferring grain from the West, by ship or railcar. This machine is still in operation, for while the huge elevator No. 5 is now unused, several neighbouring elevators are still working.

AN EXAMPLE OF MODERNITY AT THE GATEWAY TO THE CONTINENT

The square steel form of the oldest part of elevator No. 5, built between 1903 and 1906 for the Grand Trunk Railway Company, was designed by the John S. Metcalf company of Chicago (Metcalf himself was a native of Sherbrooke, Quebec), a world leader in this type of structure at the time. The port also awarded the company the contract for elevator No. 2—a gigantic structure of reinforced concrete, the latest technological wonder in 1910. The remains of this elevator were conserved after it was demolished in 1978 and can still be seen.
n 1923, when Montreal had become the world's largest grain-handling port, the famous architect Le Corbusier, like other great modernists, marvelled at North American elevators in his book Vers une architecture, and mentioned Montreal's elevator No. 2 as an example. As for elevator No 5, additions and expansions followed in 1913-1914, 1922-1923 and 1958-1959, and all the essential internal and external components are still in place today. While there are many other elevators elsewhere, this one is a particularly impressive and complete example of this type of functional architecture, at the very site of the gateway to the continent, in Montreal.

Let Guzzo buy it.

Since Silo No. 5 has been named a "recognized building" by the Federal Heritage Building Review Office is tearing it down a possibility or does this recognition give it protected status?
I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to tearing it down if the city utilized and developed wisely on the land but I think also it could maybe be made into something spectacular with some real ingenuity.

CANUSA