After decades of sitting idle amid hopes for adaptive reuse, the Damen Silos are being torn down at Damen Avenue and 29th Street in McKinley Park. Long a favorite for urban explorers and rave parties, the silos had become a popular landmark along the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Stevenson Expressway.
The Damen Silos.
The owner of MAT Asphalt purchased the property from the State of Illinois in 2022 for about $6.5 million, outbidding offers from others who had hoped to reuse the site as an entertainment venue and/or a park while keeping the silos intact. Despite continued hopes for their salvation even after the property sold, Heneghan Wrecking is now bringing them down, with a pair of additional buildings already removed from the complex.
The Damen Silos property, via Google Maps
Outlined in black in the Google Maps image above, Building 5 (left) and Building 4 have already been razed. In red, Building 3 (far right) in now being demolished, as is “Silo Structure 2.” In green, “Silo Structure 1,” which includes the 110-foot tower, will be the last demolition to begin.
Everything you’ll ever want to know about the demolition is in this PDF from the Department of Buildings. Except for photos. The photos are below:
Looking west from Ashland Avenue. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
From the Canalport Riverwalk. Photo by Daniel Schell
Ongoing demolition of the “east” set of silos. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Trees and tags planted atop the “west” silos. Photo by Daniel Schell
The first sign of daylight through the concrete. Photo by Daniel Schell
The west silos. Photo by Daniel Schell
The 110-foot tower of the west silos. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Skyline and west silos looking over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
“Building 5,” one of the first two buildings to be demolished, was in the foreground. Photo by Daniel Schell
From the Damen Avenue Bridge over the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Epic skyline views from here, even if you’ll n longer be able to access the tops of the silos. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
There is goes…. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Silo demolition looks beyond Building 3 in the foreground. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Back to the Canalport Riverwalk, about two hours after the first photos were taken. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
This is “Building 3” located on the east side of the site. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Building 3. Photo by Daniel Schell
Building 3, with interior and exterior vegetation. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Looking east across the property to Building 3. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
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Finally – they are coming down. The only reason why a developer would say they would keep them as part of something they create in the space would be because it would save them money not to tear them down. They should of been gone years ago.
When I step out onto my 3rd floor back porch facing an alley off Lawrence/Winthrop while staring at the brick apartment building toward Leland, SERK is spray painted vertically in huge letters. My introduction to the new Lawrence ‘L’ station platform, I look west toward Uptown Theater and see SERK colorfully spray painted horizontally, hugely, on a brick warehouse. I am scrolling through the photos of this article and bam, there it is again, second photo (and far from Uptown). I Google SERK and see it’s a titanium bike…?
Good photos showing massive scale of the silos against the size of the cranes
The $6.5 million paid for this land represents 0.012% of the state’s annual budget.
And that is important for what reason?
I wonder what they plan to do with the space? An entertainment venue, like the others planned for, sounds like a solid idea. There seems to be more space over there than some others (like the Salt Shed) and its easy to get to since you got the freeway there.
Im sad to see them go, I would pass them on a weekly basis when I lived in Pilsen years ago. They were like an urban legend out in the wild reminding us of Chicago’s beginnings..
Life Goes On
Life goes on today…
Happy to see something new replace them. A total eyesore!