History
The Santa Fe Grain Elevator, or better known as the Damen Silos, dominated the skyline of the South Branch of the Chicago River. Known for many at the time for being the cities first skyscrapers, Grain Elevators dominated the city riverfront and skyline before the advancement in high-rise building technologies. Even when the Montauk was built in 1882, at 130 feet, it was shorter than seven of the grain elevators that lined the river at the time.
In 1887, the first Santa-Fe "Elevator A" was constructed. This elevator sat on the east side of the Santa-Fe slip, opposite of the current location. This elevator did not last, however. A fire ignited within the elevator in 1905 which destroyed the entire structure.

Sanborn Map Company. Chicago, IL, 1894. 

Just seven months after the fire, across the slip from the original, a new Santa-Fe elevator was constructed. This included 35, 80' concrete grain bins with a wood framed head house.
Figure 1.1: Unkown. The Santa Fe Elevator, (Head of The Canal) Chicago). Photograph. Shorpy. South Branch Chicago River, IL, 1906. South Branch Chicago River, IL. https://www.shorpy.com/files/images/SHORPY-4a24002a.jpg.
This was the first building using John S. Metcalf's (below) slip-form concrete framework technique. This technique helped lessen the construction time to just 7 months from when the initial plans were developed. With this being the first of this kind, this design elevator helped skyrocket Chicago to become the world's greatest grain market. Allowing the city to absorb the influx of corn, wheat, and other grains from the Midwest and Plains states.

Unkown. Metcalf. April 9, 2009. Photograph. American Colossus. https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_HFw5DphC6pE/SfnPciA60WI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/TTNbmtwY3JQ/s400/metcalf.jpg.

Figure 1.3: Pg. 423. Photograph. Ketchum, M. S. The design of walls, bins and grain elevators. Mcgraw-hill, 1919.
Figure 1.3: Pg. 423. Photograph. Ketchum, M. S. The design of walls, bins and grain elevators. Mcgraw-hill, 1919.
Figure 1.4: Pg. 424. Photograph. Ketchum, M. S. The design of walls, bins and grain elevators. Mcgraw-hill, 1919.
Figure 1.4: Pg. 424. Photograph. Ketchum, M. S. The design of walls, bins and grain elevators. Mcgraw-hill, 1919.
Figure 1.6: Page 1. Film. Sanborn Map Company. Chicago, IL, 1911.
Figure 1.6: Page 1. Film. Sanborn Map Company. Chicago, IL, 1911.
Figure 1.7: Page 133. Film. Sanborn Map Company. Chicago, IL, 1911.
Figure 1.7: Page 133. Film. Sanborn Map Company. Chicago, IL, 1911.
In 1932, another fire caught within the structure and burned down the head house, unharming the concrete bins. John S. Metcalf was then commissioned to construct a new head house out of concrete. These are the structures that are left erected today.

Figure 1.9: Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, and John S. Melcalf Company. Santa Fe Railroad, Grain Elevator, On Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad slip, South side of sanitary & ship canal, Chicago, Cook County, IL. Cook County Illinois Chicago, 1968. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/il0641/.

Figure 1.10: Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, and John S. Melcalf Company. Santa Fe Railroad, Grain Elevator, On Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad slip, South side of sanitary & ship canal, Chicago, Cook County, IL. Cook County Illinois Chicago, 1968. Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/il0641/.

In 1977, grain dust combined with fumes in the air and caused an explosion within the structure. Forcing the hand of the city to deem the elevator unusable. Leaving the bins abandoned till present day. 
Site Transformation

1929
1929
1963
1963
1997
1997
The Damen Silos were used in the creation of Transformers Age of Extinction in 2014. The movie demolished the conveyors belts connecting the silos during the final battle.
Existing Structures
More Existing Structures
Grain Process
With 35, 23-foot diameter by 80 feet high bins, plus an additional 24 interspace bins, the Santa Fé Elevator system had a total capacity of 1,500,000 bushels of grain.
1 Bushel = 60 lbs / 1 million wheat kernals
Process:
From Farm to International
Farmer’s drops off his 5,000 Bushels to local receiving house (Figure 1.5)
Goes through cleaning process before transported on conveyor belts in measured amounts into different train cars.
Train heads to elevator warehouse (Damen Silos).
 


Figure 1.11: Unkown. Photograph. Library of Congress. https://memory.loc.gov/award/nbhips/lca/128/12835v.jpg

Figure 1.12:  Methods of Handling Materials. Photograph. Pg. 284. Ketchum, M. S. The design of walls, bins and grain elevators. McGraw-Hill, 1919. 

Figure 1.13: Sectional View of the Santa Fé Elevator at Chicago. Image. “The Handling and Storage of Our Huge Grain Crop.” Scientific American 101, no. 24 (December 11, 1909): 444-45. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1211909-444.

Process Continued:

Legs bring grain to the hoppers; gravity then discharges measured amounts into matching grade.
- If destined for storage      -->  Transferred to bins
- If destined for Transport   -->  Transferred to barges

Barges heads through chain of lakes to Buffalo
Buffalo elevator transports grain onto train car that ships out toward Sea-port elevator.
Process repeats, legs and conveyors transfer grain out to ports and onto international ships.

Figure 1.14: Grain Barge. Photograph. Tugster. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 1940. httpstugster.files.wordpress.com202202carn1.jpegw=490.

Figure 1.15: Marine “Leg” at Watson Elevator. n.d. Photograph. www.buffalohistorygazette.net201009grain-elevators-as-they-were-part-one.html.
Figure 1.15: Marine “Leg” at Watson Elevator. n.d. Photograph. www.buffalohistorygazette.net201009grain-elevators-as-they-were-part-one.html.
Figure 1.16: Eastern elevator, Buffalo, New York. Ship The Frank L. Vance. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company
Figure 1.16: Eastern elevator, Buffalo, New York. Ship The Frank L. Vance. 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company
WHY?
Why should we save the Damen Silos?

Grain Industry
Being just one of just four pre-WWI elevators left standing in Chicago, it is crucial to keep one of the last links to the most important trade in the city. Saving these structures provide a direct connection to Chicago’s historic grain industry that should be both recognized and 
protected.

Architectural Significance
Being one of the first successful structures made from slip-form construction, this elevator set the standard and changed the way concrete was erected forever. Revolutionizing not only grain elevator construction, but concrete construction as a whole.
Le Corbusier also had a known fascination with these feats of engineering. A quote from his book Toward an Architecture (1923), he writes:
Atop the Chicago Board of Trade sits a statue of Ceres, the Roman goddess of grain with a sheaf of wheat in her left hand. Representing the grain industry boom throughout the city.
“Architecture is the masterful, correct and magnificent play of columns brought together in light. Our eyes were made for seeing forms in light; shadow and light reveal form; cubes, cones, spheres, cylinders, and pyramids are the great primary forms that light reveals well; the image is clear and tangible for us, without ambiguity. That is why these are beautiful forms, the most beautiful forms. Everyone is in agreement about this: children, savages, and metaphysicians. It is the very condition of the plastic arts.” - Le Corbusier
"Here are American silos, magnificent first fruits of the new age. American engineers and their calculations crush an expiring architecture" - Le Corbusier
Precedents
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