‘Stored Potential’ will expand art themes at Tillotson’s Vinton Street elevator

Illustration from Emerging Terrain, a Nonprofit Research & Design Collaborative

The Vinton Street elevator represents a bellwether for Tillotson Construction Co. Not only was it high and mighty but also close at hand for the company with headquarters in Omaha. Family and friends who never went to the small grain-belt towns where Tillotson put up elevators could see this one for themselves. In fact, they couldn’t miss it. And this was particularly true after Interstate 80 was completed: the superhighway went right past the complex that had risen and then expanded and finally fallen into abandonment.When I worked for a time at Omaha’s very first Federal Express office, a part-time job during my freshman year of college, I reguarly drove past the complex while on my way to the airport, having no idea my grandfather’s company had built the key elevator. And in the many times I’ve gone by since then on my return visits to Omaha, I still had no idea.The other day, speaking with my Uncle Tim Tillotson, he mentioned Vinton Street and said that Uncle Charles, the oldest son of Reginald and Margaret Tillotson, worked the night shift during the construction phase.

He also told me about the public art project.

Photo from Emerging Terrain

The abandoned elevator and silos are “bombproof,” as he put it, not readily lending themselves to any scheme for demolition. Even though my own grandfather and uncle had a hand in putting up this structure, I will admit it became rather tedious.

But I object to the invective of the blogger who used the term “visual pollution” and casually denigrated the elevators. Tillotson Construction took pains to erect symmetrical buildings with graceful cupolas.

In language more suitable for a grant proposal than a black eye, Anne Trumble, a thoughtful woman, describes the Vinton Street elevators as a blank canvas for “a large-scale installation re-purposing a prominent grain elevator no longer used for its original purpose.”

In September of 2010, her nonprofit, Emerging Terrain, weighed in with “Stored Potential: Re-Purposing the Mid-Century Grain Elevator” exercise, which allowed artists to work on a large canvas, draping thirteen banners, each of twenty-by-eighty-feet, on the silos.

The theme was land use, and the result was stunning.

Good news: next month, thirteen new banners will be added, this time addressing transport–the physical kind, not the ecstasy some will experience when seeing the finished result.  

Omaha World-Herald went high above Tillotson’s Vinton Street elevator in ’47 (ourgrandfathersgrainelevators.com)

5 comments on “‘Stored Potential’ will expand art themes at Tillotson’s Vinton Street elevator”

Sharon Davis says:

April 12, 2012 at 1:00 pm

I believe its just beautiful! Nothing is built that durable any longer. I’m a longtime friend of Tim’s and over the years he has talked about this from time to time, about his dad etc. but seeing what hey are doing with it all is wonderful! Sharon

Viewing Tillotson’s Vinton Street elevator from the ground up in Omaha « Our Grandfathers' Grain Elevators says:

May 16, 2012 at 4:29 am

[…] ‘Stored Potential’ will expand art themes at Tillotson’s Vinton Street elevator (ourgrandfathersgrainelevators.com) […]

Tillotson’s Vinton Street shows just how neighborly an elevator can be « Our Grandfathers' Grain Elevators says:

May 17, 2012 at 4:20 am

[…] ‘Stored Potential’ will expand art themes at Tillotson’s Vinton Street elevator (ourgrandfathersgrainelevators.com) Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. This entry was posted in Their Work, Tillotson Construction Company and tagged architecture, Business, construction, grain elevator, Interstate 80, Omaha Nebraska, slip-formed concrete, Tillotson Construction. […]

Emerging Terrain’s banners come down from the storage silos at Vinton Street « Our Grandfathers' Grain Elevators says:

July 24, 2014 at 5:20 am

[…] these pages from the July 22 edition of the Omaha World-Herald show, the community art project that adorned storage silos at Tilltoson Construction Company’s landmark Vinton Street elevator […]

Vandals strike Tillotson’s Vinton Street elevator, leaving the owners with an expensive cleanup « Our Grandfathers' Grain Elevators says:

May 7, 2016 at 4:06 am

[…] 2012, the Vinton Street elevator received national attention after the annexes served as the canvas for a public art project; a nonprofit […]