MetaFilter posts tagged with urbandecay

Detroit schools urban exploration & reclamation.

Item — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 03:49:39 -0800

Urban exploration has been featured here once or twice before, but Jim Griffioen's site photo-documenting his discoveries in and around Detroit deserves a look. Griffioen was recently interviewed [direct mp3 link] on the American Public Media radio program The Story. Jim is most interested in schools. He's taken photos of trees growing through books and other things left behind. Recently Jim has gone beyond documenting what he sees and is reclaiming what he finds. He collects abandoned library books and other school supplies and gives them to community centers. Previously - blog post by Griffioen on Detroit's abandoned Belle Isle Zoo

Abondoned Creations

TheRoach — Sat, 16 May 2009 11:52:05 -0800

Artificial Owl is a blog about about decommissioned/abandoned modern structures, from beautiful shipwrecks to abandoned factories that look like they're straight out of a Miyazaki movie. Each post even has the Google Maps location of the site, so you can plan your journey to your favorite site of modern decay.

Detriot's Beautiful, Horrible Decline

rollbiz — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:26:40 -0800

Detroit's Beatiful, Horrible Decline: Photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre's work in Motor City. More photography capturing abandoned properties in Detroit. (Previously, and more previously)

Cincinnati's Union Terminal is falling apart

Mick — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:35:45 -0800

Cincinnati's Union Terminal has been named one of the top 50 architecturally significant buildings in America by the AIA. It was a major train station, abandoned, turned into a shopping mall, and now it currently houses the city's Museum Center. One problem, it's falling apart.

15104

kittens for breakfast — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 07:06:10 -0800

Braddock, Pennsylvania has been classified as a "distressed municipality." This may be an understatement: From a high of around 20,000, its population has dwindled to below 3000, many of those people unemployed. Braddock's is a landscape so grim ("a mix of boarded-up storefronts, houses in advanced stages of collapse and vacant lots") that it was selected to serve as a backdrop for the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic novel, The Road. Its mayor, John Fetterman, considers Braddock “a laboratory for solutions to all these maladies starting to knock on the door of every community.” Fetterman -- a Harvard grad, and non-native, who became mayor in 2005 -- hopes to draw new residents with the promise of inexpensive real estate, and to this end has established a promotional website (NYT: "...if you can call pictures of buildings destroyed by neglect and vandals a form of promotion"). Direct links to these in case they fall off the NYT article (both open with commercials): Short video version of the main story with much additional info Fetterman on CNBC, pleading his town's case for stimulus money

Why is Paul McKee ruining the north side?

tss — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 11:30:29 -0800

Blairmont: The Final Dose. Yesterday Rob Powers of Built St. Louis (prev.) completed a 189-post tour of the North St. Louis properties bought and left to ruin by developer Paul McKee's Blairmont Associates LLC. Residents trying to rebuild in this area have had to deal with nearby Blairmont properties catching fire, collapsing due to brick rustlers, and obstructing their efforts to improve their own homes. Four years this has been going on and still nobody knows what McKee is up to. Much more information at Ecology of Absence.

Photographs of Abandoned Places

homunculus — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 14:00:20 -0800

24 Stunning HDR Photographs of Abandoned Places. 42 Essential Flickr Abandonments Groups Dedicated to Abandoned Places, Properties and Buildings.

Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea

lunit — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 08:27:56 -0800

Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea is an exhibit by Swo on composed of seven floating sculptures made from discarded materials. Following a performance tour down the Hudson River, it is docked at Deitch Studios in NYC until October 18th.

Last days of the old North (of England)

idiomatika — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 07:35:27 -0800

Last Days of the Old North (of England). A fascinating selection of photographs - mostly from the late sixties/early seventies documenting an era when it truly was grim up north. Made all the more interesting by the erudite and comprehensive commentary by the photographer.

signage from a bygone era

Dave Faris — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:59:26 -0800

Society In Decline Project: Intrastate Commerce

This Dying City

Jazznoisehere — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 12:52:28 -0800

Cleveland is dying, and it is beautiful. A collection of stark photographs of Cleveland as it is dying before our very eyes.

Destroying Homes Since 1992

jeffamaphone — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 15:56:40 -0800

Discussion of the beauty and consequences of urban decay pops up here from time to time. In 1992 Lambert-St. Louis International Airport began its expansion program. The airport's website has a timeline and lots of photos. Since the planning began, there has been a fair amount of controversy of one form or another surrounding the expansion. Despite all the shininess of their press releases, things are progressing very slowly. The people who have been impacted most, however, are the people who lived in the communities on top of which the expansion is happening. They have all been displaced. Documenting the fate of Carrollton, one neighborhood purchased in its entirety by the airport, is local artist and former resident Desy. Her blog 56 Houses Left and her photo stream is both sad and beautiful as it documents the neglect, decay and ultimate destruction of a once thriving area. It is an excellent counterpoint to the picture painted by the airport. Some houses have been burned, some have been tagged by racists, some have been demo'd, some strangely ignored, and some people are holding out.

Neighbourhood Watch 2.0?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:56:52 -0800

Frustrated with perceived inefficacy of local law enforcement and government, residents of Calle de la Montera have started posting video of criminal behaviour (mainly prostitution) on their street to YouTube. The Data Protection Agency (tasked with privacy enforcement) is not amused (in Spanish; machine translation), but the neighbourhood watch group maintains it is not breaking the law (m.t.).

Will The Last Person To Leave Detroit Please Turn Out The Lights?

fancypants — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 08:59:47 -0800

The city of Detroit is in a bad way. House are cheaper than cars. The city's neighborhoods are in decay. Families are leaving. Even "revived" areas are struggling. Entire portions of the city are starting to revert to prarie and ruins. Can the city be saved or is it time to give up on the Arsenal of Democracy?

One Can Only Imagine What Kind of Development Took Place Here

Gator — Fri, 03 Feb 2006 07:12:56 -0800

Abandoned Memories is short on text but thick with photos. Even without captions for every picture, contextual clues can give us a disturbing idea of what life might have been like in the Wayne County Child Development Center (before it was abandoned, razed, and turned into a golf course). The rather-less-easy-to-navigate Northville-Tunnels.com also has photos and information.

Urban Exploration Commandos

peacay — Tue, 24 May 2005 20:45:03 -0800

Action Squad – Urban Adventurers

"In a nutshell, Action Squad explores. This generally occurs late at night, to aid in avoiding other people, particularly those with badges and funny blue uniforms. We climb buildings, sneak into factories, crawl through all kinds of tunnels, spelunk old brewery caves, poke around abandoned buildings, and run across the rooftops."

Missions of the Action Squad are fully documented with descriptions, photographs (historical & intraoperative) and sometimes maps but always with a sense of wonder at the urban flotsam they enjoy exploring.
This is my particular favourite but poke around, there's a fair bit in this gem of a site worth exploring from the armchair. [via]

My City is Almost Gone

Oriole Adams — Thu, 30 Sep 2004 09:16:55 -0800

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.

Victorian Secrets of Washington, D.C.

ryanshepard — Fri, 14 Feb 2003 12:00:27 -0800

Victorian Secrets of Washington, D.C.: haunting photos and thoughtful essays documenting one man's fight to draw attention to D.C.'s neglected architectural heritage: "This site won't be much of a beauty pagent because we 'll concentrate on buildings that are vacant, abandoned, deteriorated, distressed, or just plain at risk because they are standing in the path of development . . . if even one Victorian finds an angel because of our page, we'll consider it a thousand percent return on investment."

ryanshepard — Thu, 31 Jan 2002 11:32:51 -0800

Urban Exploration, Japanese-style: lavishly beautiful site documenting Japan's modern ruins, via gmtPlus9.