Abstract

The No. 5 terminal elevator in the port of Montreal is the last of a group of colossal machines for moving and storing grain that once lined the waterfront in front of Old Montreal. The terminal elevators of the port of Montreal were the culmination-point of the national infrastructures of grain shipping that helped to make Montreal the most important grain-exporting port in the world during the 1920s and 1930s. Built and expanded in stages between 1903 and 1958, elevator No. 5 was ultimately shut down in the winter of 1994. Since then, it has remained unused within the setting of the "Vieux Port"--the beautified and reclaimed harbour land relandscaped for leisure and tourism and opened in 1992 to coincide with Montreal's 350 th anniversary. The public dialogue over what can or should be done with a derelict structure of this scale and nature has evolved into an exploration of the artistic and civic possibilities of an obsolete industrial structure. This thesis is a "critical biography" of this building. It traces its built and iconographic history, examines its role in the changing landscape of the port, and delves into the issues of perception, preservation and interpretation of elevator No. 5.