LEWISTON — Architect Gabrielle Russell was looking for copies of the original Bates Mill No. 5 construction documents — scans that would show what designer Albert Kahn had in mind.

She wound up owning the originals, 16 linen drawings, each 30 by 50 inches.

“These are the original construction drawings, with the elevations indicated,” Russell said. “They have the sections and window details. They’re beautiful. They’re a little tattered, but they’ve been sitting in a warehouse for 100 years.”

Russell plans to share the drawings with the city. They’ll be on display at the Kimball Street Studios at 198 Lisbon St. — across the street from the Lewiston Public Library — for the next three weeks.

The saw-tooth-roofed Bates Mill No. 5 is a 20th-century masterpiece of architecture, in Russell’s mind. She’s been one of the staunchest defenders of the aging structure and would like to see the building preserved.

“I think the advances in technology and good business models could help it work,” she said.

She has tied the display to a series of discussions she’s hosting about the fate of the building. The first, scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Kimball Street Studios, features James Mangrum, an architecture student from Providence, R.I.

Mangrum wrote his thesis project on reactivating the building, using it to house a computer server farm in the basement and an indoor garden on the upper levels. Mangrum’s idea is that the heat from the server farm would keep the garden thriving through a cold winter.

“He’s put together a tremendous amount of research and created an amazing business model,” she said.

More discussions are scheduled on the topic May 10 and 17 at the studio.

Construction on Bates Mill No. 5 began 100 years ago. It opened in January 1914 as the Bates company’s weave shed. It was designed to hold 500 Jacquard looms on the top floor alone.

It was designed by architect Albert Kahn, a renowned American industrial designer and one of the first to use reinforced concrete in his buildings.

It’s huge, with two wide-open floors. Each is large enough to hold the playing surface of the University of Maine’s Morse Athletic Field.

Russell said she contacted the firm Kahn founded, the Kahn Family of Companies in Detroit, Mich., to see about obtaining scans of the original construction drawings.

“They told me that if I was willing to buy the scans and paper copies and pay for a little of their time, they’d send me the originals,” she said.

She agreed, and the linen drawings arrived a few weeks later rolled together and shipped in a nondescript container. The linen drawings would have been treated with ammonia and used to make blueprint copies for construction use, she said.

“The building could still be something really unique,” Russell said. “It connects with a lot of history and cultural aspects, but it could also bring food back to our local control (as an indoor garden).”

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