We often find the most interesting spaces, relics, and treasures in the top, or attic area of a building. As we visit the top of the Red Hook Grain Silo in Brooklyn, NY, what remains are not the technological advancements of the built-in machinery nor the architectural structure of their times, but a cruel reflection that the success of an architecture is still often measured by the financial success of their inhabitants. Built in 1922 to boost NY’s canal economy through the grain preparation and storage industry, along with the expansion of the Brooklyn’s maritime industries, the Red Hook Grain Silo was unfortunately shut down in 1965 by the NY Port Authority due to rising labor costs and storage disputes. The structure has remained unused since, and is widely considered by engineers as the “Magnificent Mistake”, despite the surrounding residents’ love of it as a relic with local personality.
