St. Peter's was a seminary built near Cardross, on the outskirts of Glasgow. It is remarkable for its modernist design, the
architects having drawn significant inspiration from Le Corbusier's brutalist
monastery at La Tourette, and has been
A-listed by Historic Scotland. During its construction, the Second Vatican Council recommended that priests should be trained and educated in the communities they were to serve; the quasi-monastic setting of St. Peter's thus meant it was obsolescent before its completion. Although it was briefly adapted to serve as a rehabilitation centre for drug abusers, it was abandoned in the 80s and, by 2008, found itself on the World Monument Foundation's
list of most endangered sites (PDF, see p.58). There has been recent talk of the Scottish Government funding a £10m
restoration project, but it is not entirely clear if the restoration is intended to turn the building into an arts centre, a museum or an 'intentional modernist ruin'.
[more inside]
posted by Dim Siawns
on Sep 19, 2011 -
19 comments
Julia Solis, who brought us
Dark Passage (
previously), is still exploring derelict sites, both
subterranean and in urban decay. Her most recent project is
Abandoned Theaters, a look at grand old movie palaces, school auditoriums, and theaters that have become, shall we say, retired. Julia still keeps a photoblog that she calls
Dark Passage Travelogue, and partnering with
Suzy Poling, she chronicles the decrepitude of hospitals long abandoned in
Fantastic Degradation.
posted by netbros
on Jul 2, 2009 -
10 comments
When thousands of people depart, leaving an entire city dead that’s a real tragedy. There are mainly two reasons why people leave the place where they used to live for years or even generations: danger, and economic factors.
Abandoned Places In The World. ( previously
1,
2)
posted by netbros
on Jun 21, 2009 -
29 comments
HotBits is an Internet resource that brings
genuine random numbers,
generated by a process fundamentally governed by the inherent uncertainty in the quantum mechanical laws of nature, directly to your computer in a variety of forms.
HotBits are generated by timing successive pairs of radioactive decays
detected by a Geiger-Müller tube interfaced to a computer. (Warning: random sounds.)
posted by parudox
on Feb 9, 2009 -
41 comments
Perhaps you think you've had your fill of photographs of decaying architecture and abandoned buildings. If so, the rich color and play of light in
Michael Eastman's beautiful body of work from Cuba, Europe, and the U.S. may change your mind. His site is flash - for non-flash folks, the
Duane Reed Gallery has additional works, including his B&W portfolios on horses, landscapes, and succulents.
(no relation to the Kodak family; via BB-Blog)
posted by madamjujujive
on Aug 23, 2008 -
15 comments
State of decay :"Over the years, Boston artist
Rosamond Purcell has photographed goliath beetles and translucent bats culled from the backrooms of natural history museums; a collection of teeth pulled by Peter the Great; moles flayed by naturalist Willem Cornelis van Heurn; and scores of worn and weathered objects, like termite-eaten books and fish skeletons."
posted by dhruva
on May 28, 2008 -
6 comments
Dead Road - Museum of Communism in the Open. "It was one of the most ambitious projects of the Stalin era, known as the
'railway of bones'. At least 10 people a day died during the four years of its construction [actually 1947-1953], but unlike most of Uncle Joe's grand designs it was never completed and now sits unfinished in the tundra, an icy road to nowhere." The
transpolar railway was built by labour camps
^ 501 and 503 and construction was stopped after the amnesty following Stalin's death in 1953; 800km, about half, was built. Some sections are currently in operation, but much is abandoned:
depot and locomotives in Dolgoe,
Dolgoe itself,
labour camps,
more spectacular decay. (Previously:
Norilsk, which was supposed to see an extension of the line.)
posted by parudox
on Aug 27, 2007 -
13 comments
While reading up on the Detroit City Council's latest brainstorm,
African Town, I stumbled upon this
blog that highlights many of the once great, now decaying buildings of my former hometown. If you've ever wondered what was inside some of those ancient, boarded up buildings, there are some great photos here.
posted by Oriole Adams
on Sep 30, 2004 -
7 comments
Things Fall Apart. Particularly in urban environments. Individually, the moments of entropy-in-action caught here may not mean much; collectively, they recite a visual poem about decay. A slightly melancholy site for you insomniacs out there. (By the way, you have to scroll
right to get to the thumbnails.)
posted by BT
on Apr 3, 2002 -
8 comments
Interview with the certified forensic entomologist. In other words she examines insects in dead bodies for criminal investigations. Its good to know that there are dedicated professionals doing this just in case I happen to wash up on the shores of Lake Michigan. Hey, it could happen to any of us.
posted by skallas
on Jan 9, 2002 -
5 comments
