MULTIMEDIA LIBRARY - APPLIED HYDRAULICS

Grain stores at Parc du Moulin à Vent on 8 May 2002, with Lachine canal in foreground.

Grain stores and grain elevators, Montréal (Canada). The grain stores at Parc du Moulin à Vent were built in 4 stages between 1903 and 1958, to store grain which arrived from Western Canada and departed by Sea. The most recent parts were made of reinforced concrete and comprised 115 vertical chambers, each 30 m deep and up to 8 m in diameter. Due to changes in the global grain market, the elevator became obsolete and was closed in 1996. Cited by architects such as Grosplus and Le Corbusier, the North-American grain elevators were a major inspiration for the Modernist movement.

© Hubert Chanson, Dept. of Civil Engineering, University of Queensland, Australia