Urban Decay

[Stormlight]

A lot of great pictures of urban decay:

Urban Decay (http://www.oboylephoto.com/ruins/)

Fascinating stuff. A lot of those pictures could come right out of some horror movie:

Hospital X (http://www.oboylephoto.com/hospx/index.htm#top)
Girl's Orphanage (http://www.oboylephoto.com/girls_school/girls_school2.htm)

[MonCapitan2002]

Those are some interesting pictures.

[Ymir's blood]

Ooh. Now I won't get anything done today...

Looking through the hospital, there just has to be a ghost.

/me puts on some appropriate music.

[livius drusus]

A lot of those pictures could come right out of some horror movie:
Totally. Especially of the supernatural thriller variety. Great find, Stormlight. How did you come across them?

[freemonkey]

Ooooh, I just love peeling paint, rotten wood & rusty stuff. These are really cool. Thanks.

[Julie]

Awww crap someone left an old singer sewing machine there! Poor thing it needs a home!
oh I know I have the perfect spot for it, right next to my 1922 first generation eletric singer!

seriously those are amazing photos. They capture such a sense of dispare.

[Stormlight]

A lot of those pictures could come right out of some horror movie:
Totally. Especially of the supernatural thriller variety. Great find, Stormlight. How did you come across them?

I read a short review of the site in a magazine. I must say that the subject matter of abandoned buildings is quite fascinating. Some of those pictures are beautiful and I might actually buy the Asylum book.

[MonCapitan2002]

I can think of another site with similar subject matter. When I get home I will do some digging and share the link with you all.

[Adam]

Those are amazing. Thanks for posting the link.

[Stormlight]

The second picture of Holy Land (http://www.oboylephoto.com/holyland/index.htm) is awesome. I wonder what the story is behind that place.

[cappuccino]

Those are some seriously amazing and creepy pictures. I love them, I can see plenty of antiques just sitting there abandoned that I'd love to salvage.

Ruins are indeed picturesque and sobering at the same time. I find the various morgue pictures disturbing, my imagination is too good at supplying images of what occured within those bloody chambers. Asylums are cool, they're just a perfect setting for a horror movie.

[MonCapitan2002]

I mentioned earlier that I wanted to share a link to a site with similar subject matter. Well, I was able to retrieve the link that I was referencing earlier. Please click on the link below.

I present to you all Forgotten Detroit (http://www.forgottendetroit.com/index.html). I hope you enjoy the site's content.

[livius drusus]

The photography is more practical, I think, than atmospheric, but the content is extraordinary. I've just browsed the theaters in detail. My favorite pic (http://www.forgottendetroit.com/national/22.htm) so far:

http://www.forgottendetroit.com/national/images/22.jpg

"The word "Asbestos" was placed on the curtain to reassure patrons of the theater's safety in a fire. The curtain would prevent any fire from the stage spreading to the seats."

Wonderful and amazing piece of material history.

[California Tanker]

There's an Alco FA in the railroad yard which is begging for restoration there.

NTM

[Stormlight]

I mentioned earlier that I wanted to share a link to a site with similar subject matter. Well, I was able to retrieve the link that I was referencing earlier. Please click on the link below.

I present to you all Forgotten Detroit (http://www.forgottendetroit.com/index.html). I hope you enjoy the site's content.

Those are great! I especially like the theater pictures. :super:

[Stormlight]

Army Sea Forts (http://www.undergroundkent.co.uk/maunsell_towers.htm)

To my eternal shame I have to admit that I had no idea things like that even exist. :blush:

[livius drusus]

OMG Waterworld! :damn:

[Dingfod]

We shouldn't forget Abdul's Forgotten New York (http://www.forgotten-ny.com/) either.

[Stormlight]

We shouldn't forget Abdul's Forgotten New York (http://www.forgotten-ny.com/) either.

:woohoo:
Great stuff!

[Perry]

I've been doing a bit of "urban decay" photography lately. Here's an email I sent on Monday to some friends:

Subject: Just Another Day in D-Town!

Desert Hot Springs photos:
http://geocities.com/cactus2clouds/photos/dhs/

Yesterday was a slow day, when nobody's getting shot
at the grocery store parking lots, and the meth labs
aren't burning down houses. It looks like somebody
tapped into the water supply with an old muffler and a
vaccum hose. The intersection at Palm and Pierson is
really fucked up! The ambulance was not intentional
in the photo, but it's a typical site. That and
police cars. I'm the only runner in town. If you see
anybody else running the streets it's cuz they did
something. And then there's the "runners" who work
for the drug dealers and monitor the police cars. For
awhile there was a junky car sitting on top of a boat
inside the wash. Every time it rained the car-boat
contraption moved a little bit. I haven't seen it
since the last rain, so eventually it may end up in
that golf course in Palm Springs... (the car-boat
photo is on film. coming to a computer screen near you...)

[i'll get that film developed and scanned, it's quite interesting.]

[Perry]

horror films don't scare me, only the reality of human nature scares me. the second pic in "holy land" reminds me of escher's drawings, at least in style of architecture, not in the optical illusion aspect. escher usually included people.

[Perry]

escher usually included people.

not that he made then feel socially accepted in the group, but i meant in his drawings of architectural things.

i'm going to keep replying to my own posts....

[Legs]

This whole thread is creeping me out :shudder: (but in a good way)

'Come on honey, grab the kids... we're goin' to Holy Land' :eek:

The abandoned hospital pics disturbed me most, with the beds & cribs, silent.

[livius drusus]

Desert Hot Springs photos:
http://geocities.com/cactus2clouds/photos/dhs/ I love the goo on that muffler/water resevoir. I can't believe how pristine the water looks coming out of that contraption.

[Stormlight]

Desert Hot Springs photos:
http://geocities.com/cactus2clouds/photos/dhs/ I love the goo on that muffler/water resevoir. I can't believe how pristine the water looks coming out of that contraption.

That's exactly what I thought, too. :control:

[Clutch Munny]

Army Sea Forts (http://www.undergroundkent.co.uk/maunsell_towers.htm)

To my eternal shame I have to admit that I had no idea things like that even exist. :blush:

Great sense of motion in this one: http://www.undergroundkent.co.uk/Maunsell%20Army%20Sea%20Forts0001.jpg

It almost looks like the towers are walking, George Lucas-style.

[curses]

This thread is fantastic!

I'm sure everyone's seen the following before, and even though the story behind it is false, the site features some great pictures.

Chernobyl pictures (http://www.kiddofspeed.com/)

[livius drusus]

Oh wow, minus.

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chernobyl-revisited/imag13.4.jpg

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/chernobyl-revisited/imag14.3.jpg

[curses]

:D That's one of my favorite sites. I have a few more...
If you feel like digging through 5 pages worth of posts, then Sykospark's Rivethead forum (http://forums.sykospark.net/viewtopic.php?t=15177) has a thread on urban decay.

Here are a few ghost stations (http://underground-history.co.uk/front.php) for the London Underground. The Aldwych Station Tour is my favorite bit.

[MonCapitan2002]

We shouldn't forget Abdul's Forgotten New York (http://www.forgotten-ny.com/) either.
I have been to that site before. It is the awesome. I am glad that Stormlight enjoyed the site I linked to :)

[Stormlight]

This thread is fantastic!

I'm sure everyone's seen the following before, and even though the story behind it is false, the site features some great pictures.

Chernobyl pictures (http://www.kiddofspeed.com/)

I remember that Chernobyl site! Great stuff.

[Perry]

the motorcycle one is a classic. it will probably be ever-popular. i saw that awhile back, and it seemed that she mentioned Kawasaki a lot, but maybe she was just proud of her bike.... ;-)

i should qualify a few statements. *usually* the meth labs don't burn down the houses, but there are a lot of meth labs here ("meth capital of the world"), and my neighbor's house burned last summer. and i'm not the *only* runner in town. i've seen runners on three occasions. they were probably relatives of residents.

[pescifish]

Sykospark's Rivethead forum (http://forums.sykospark.net/viewtopic.php?t=15177) has a thread on urban decay.Wow, I know I've been online for too long when I start finding users I know (OxMat posts there) from a link to thread on an unrelated board.

[Perry]

Another email. Part II:

"I added more Desert Hot Springs photos:
http://www.geocities.com/cactus2clouds/photos/dhs/

The first image is extremely gross and disturbing. Do not click on 0A if these kinds of things upset you or if you are not feeling ready for this sort of thing at the moment. If you normally get upset easily, then don't click on it at all. It's very sad, and I cried when I saw it the first time and realized that the dog was not sleeping. It was probably heat exhaustion. After a few months I calmed down enough to take a picture.

The car-boat contraption in all of it's glory: 6A, 7A, 11A. Look very closely at 11A. Read the bumpersticker.

The muffler-vaccum-hose drinking fountain: 31A and 35A.

1532 has a very different feel. Scenic landscape. Postcard-like. Completely different take on the city. It's the image the city wants tourists to believe, but it is not the reality of what happens in D-Town."

[viscousmemories]

I'd love to wander around in that asylum from the OP link, or the orphanage. Amazing photos.

[Stormlight]

This site has less pictures but a lot of background info:

Defunct Amusement Parks (http://www.defunctparks.com/)

[Legs]

Some more Chernobyl (http://www.genmay.com/showthread.php?t=798610) pics :blinkythefish:

[Ari]

You just can't have a thread about decay without mentioning,
Lost America Night Photography (http://www.lostamerica.com/)

[Deadlokd]

http://www.uploderx.net/dphrag/43_Reinforcements390.jpg (http://www.uploderx.net/x/15408/)

http://www.uploderx.net/x/15408/

This shot gave me the creeps. Not sure why.

[Ymir's blood]

Broken images are pretty scary. :wink:

[Deadlokd]

:glare:

It's working now. Did someone fix it for me?

[Qingdai]

I think it's just working for you.
I see nothing.

[Deadlokd]

Hmm. It's a clickable link anyway.

[Ymir's blood]

It showed up for me after I viewed the image on the site. Not working now. Hotlinking is probably disabled, but it shows up if the image is already in your cache.

[Deadlokd]

How weird. He provides the bloody link.

[Qingdai]

Weird, we have a non-decaying ghost town with it's own website.
I remember this being creepy when I was a kid, but the website makes it down right homey.

Shaniko Hotel and Cafe for sale (http://www.shaniko.com/)

These have some nice black and white photos, but nothing really outstanding.

"Deserted Lands" - Towns of Oregon (A to H) (http://www.geocities.com/athens/acropolis/5821/towns_A2H.HTM)

"Deserted Lands" - Towns of Oregon (L to Z) (http://www.geocities.com/athens/acropolis/5821/towns_L2Z.HTM)

[curses]

Here's a shot from a mausoleum we visited today. I'm guessing we weren't meant to be in this part.

[BrotherMan]

Wow, when that book implied "Everybody Poops" who knew the dead did too?

[Dingfod]

Where dead toilets go to die.

[Ymir's blood]

Please note the headless statue. I'm pretty sure its the patron saint of broken toilets and 'places you really aren't supposed to be in even if the door was unlocked and open.'

Wow, when that book implied "Everybody Poops" who knew the dead did too?
Where dead toilets go to die.
The annoying thing that there wasn't apparently a bathroom in the place, at least the parts open to the public and/or not behind locked doors.

[Kael]

Some beautiful and haunting pics. Thanks all, it made work go by a lot faster.

[Qingdai]

Bumping to put in yet another slide show of modern American ruins, featuring Detroit! Camden, New Jersey and Harlem.

The click the slideshow piece is after the really brief article.

http://www.slate.com/id/2241211/

[godfry n. glad]

On my trip past June I got some pix of my hometown, Ordnance.

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj53/wellingtonkd/waterloopix/P1060934.jpg

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj53/wellingtonkd/waterloopix/P1060938.jpg

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj53/wellingtonkd/waterloopix/P1060940.jpg

It was US government housing, tilt-up concrete slab walls on concrete slab foundations, built for civilian personnel and their families living just off the US Army Ordnance Depot. That was what was across Highway 30. The other way, out through the desert twenty miles or so was the Doolittle Bombing Range, used as a practice bombing range for the fighter/bombers out of McCord Airbase, up Olympia way. Most of the walls in the former town of about 150 households have been pushed down. The entire town, for a couple of decades after it was abandoned for human use, was fenced, the doors torn off the housing units and troughs installed in the yards and the town was turned into a pig farm. That was abandoned more than a decade ago.

Nowadays, just to the north, past the ultra-straight rows of the cottonwood forests, this is a common scene:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj53/wellingtonkd/waterloopix/P1060943.jpg

Turning around the other way, you see one of the most radioactive rivers in the world...not long after it has become irradiated. It's only about thirty miles out of Hanford Arm at this point...the Columbia River. Can you see the glow?

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj53/wellingtonkd/waterloopix/P1060945.jpg

It ain't urban, but it sure as hell is decay. Between mustard and nerve gas, TNT, and dog knows what they use to make their air-delivered ordnance these days, and the leaking radioactive materials, my former hometown is at the center of decay...military decay.

[lpetrich]

Here's my favorite:

Joe Braun Photography - The Ruins of Michigan Central Station (http://www.citrusmilo.com/mcs/depot01.cfm)

The building is still there, but looters and urban scribblers have run loose in it, from its basement to its roof.

Though Amtrak still serves Detroit, in 1988, it moved out of that station to one north of downtown Detroit.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

I'm on dial-up atm, so I don't know if it's been mentioned, but have you guys seen Manufactured Landscapes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufactured_Landscapes)? These years later, the images have stayed with me.

[livius drusus]

Here's my favorite:

Joe Braun Photography - The Ruins of Michigan Central Station (http://www.citrusmilo.com/mcs/depot01.cfm)

The building is still there, but looters and urban scribblers have run loose in it, from its basement to its roof.
It's still so beautiful. I admit I've fantasized about buying a Belle Epoque glory like that for a song and restoring it. The destruction of Detroit makes it actually conceivable for normal people to afford outlandish real estate. Unfortunately the Catch-22 of an impending ghost town is that who wants to invest in outlandish real estate in the middle of a post-apocalyptic "the man in black fled and the gunslinger followed" desert?

Though Amtrak still serves Detroit, in 1988, it moved out of that station to one north of downtown Detroit.
Bah, Amtrak. They've embraced their mediocrity altogether too thoroughly for my taste.

[Qingdai]

Amtrak tried to move out of our downtown, but the city won't let them.

Unfortunately I think the building is decaying anyway. It has nice marble floors and such though.

I've long dreamed of getting a herd of like minded people to move to Detroit and take over and restore the old buildings, build a local economy there or something.

[livius drusus]

OMG that's totally my dream too!1 :happytogether: The only problem is I can barely make a buck myself, never mind build an entire economy. Urban farming mayhap?

[Qingdai]

I know I'm broke too. See we need to start some sort of charitable thing, or religious institution with deep pockets.
The restoration of those buildings (and seismic up-grades) would require millions and millions of dollars.

[livius drusus]

The restoration work would be an economy in and of itself, while it lasts. You know what's werd? I was just thinking the other day that I do have something of a religious feeling about history, the city of Rome in particular. I bet I could scare up a real religion out of it if I made an effort, then welcome to the tax-free non profit charitable wonderland!

[Qingdai]

"The Church of the Immaculate Train Station: It's not now, but it can be with your donation."

:laugh:

[lpetrich]

Here's my favorite:
Joe Braun Photography - The Ruins of Michigan Central Station (http://www.citrusmilo.com/mcs/depot01.cfm) ...
It's still so beautiful. ...

It's a bit lucky to have survived. Last year, it narrowly escaped going the way of Demolished! 11 Beautiful Train Stations That Fell To The Wrecking Ball » INFRASTRUCTURIST (http://www.infrastructurist.com/2009/06/22/11-beautiful-train-stations-that-fell-to-the-wrecking-ball/)

Though Amtrak still serves Detroit, in 1988, it moved out of that station to one north of downtown Detroit.
Bah, Amtrak. They've embraced their mediocrity altogether too thoroughly for my taste.
Another case of urban decay, one might say. It was a bailout of US intercity passenger railroading, which was suffering a seemingly terminal slump in the 1960's. Since its founding in 1971, it's had various ups and downs over the years, with it now having some ups in some of its regional trains.

[Maine Flaim]

This sort of thing is my passion. I do high dynamic range photography of abandoned structures and other things. Check them out in the Photography section (http://www.flaimwritemedia.com/photography.html) of my site. The menu for my galleries are on the right hand column. I am most fond of the "Abandoned Structures (http://www.flaimwritemedia.com/photo_gal/ab_st/ab_st_ix.html)" Gallery. I have a few more galleries ready to post that I'm really happy with. The other section of my website are sparse content wise, but it's a developing project so....little, by little. I only recently made it live on the web to test it out and now I just add to it little by little.

[livius drusus]

Bumperson for what looks like a great new book (http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/03/where-patients-once-sought-asylum/37109/) about abandoned asylums.

The hospitals in this book were created at a time when it was thought that architecture would help in the treatment of the mentally ill. The architects envisioned them as places of healing. It's kind of a romantic notion, but as an architect you want to think what you're creating is going to last forever and have a profound impact not only on the occupants but society as a whole.

Slide show here (http://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2010/03/where-patients-once-sought-asylum/37124/#slideshow). My favorite pic is probably the least urban decay-y.

http://www.freethought-forum.com/livius/yankton.jpg

I love the marble and that dramatic stairwell, but most of all, I love that it's in Yankton which I've only ever come across in one awesome way: via Al Swearengen's imprecations against numerous cocksuckers therefrom.

[godfry n. glad]

Neo-classical marble balustrades and balusters in Yankton, SD?

[livius drusus]

Yup. That's the lobby of the Yankton State Hospital, est 1882. The institution is still active today as the Human Services Center, but its neo-classical and Art Deco buildings are vacant and basically caving in. It was listed as one of 2009's top 10 most endangered places (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/arts/design/28enda.html?_r=1) by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

[Qingdai]

Good looking places they are too.
Part of Obama's stimulus package means they are restoring the caving in roof of the Union Station in Portland.

[Garnet]

What amazes me is the stuff left behind. The equipment in the hair salon, the records in the autopsy room, the suitcases in the attic...

[livius drusus]

That room with the peeling wintergreen paint and the boxes and boxes of files. I want to go through them so badly it makes my fillings hum.

[Tesla]

Awesome

[LadyShea]

OMG the marble! OMG look at that!

[Ymir's blood]

http://assets.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/culture_test/Buffalo_Night_gray_vertical.jpg

:squee:

[livius drusus]

It's the mothership calling you home! :haunted:

[Ymir's blood]

I would replace the chain link fence with brick and wrought iron though.

[godfry n. glad]

Now Yb and I don't share aesthetic sensibilities at all, but yes, I agree, that place needs a wrought iron fence and it is utterly bodacious.

It's where? Buffalo? Is that right?

[Crumb]

It really deserves to be in a horror movie or three.

[livius drusus]

Yup, it's in Buffalo.

[BrotherMan]

And it needs a new sign out front.

[Ymir's blood]

http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=6481&stc=1&d=1268186816

[livius drusus]

I came across photographer Andrew Moore's work (http://www.andrewlmoore.com/index.php) yesterday. He takes some of the most beautiful urban decay pictures I've ever seen.

My favorites are Detroit (http://www.andrewlmoore.com/view_project.php?project_id=13), Times Square (http://www.andrewlmoore.com/view_project.php?project_id=7), and Cuba (http://www.andrewlmoore.com/view_project.php?project_id=2), although the decay in the latter isn't abandoned at all -- it's really quite vibrant -- so I'm not sure if it counts. Detroit, of course, is the most decayed. My fascination with that city increases with every set of pics I find.

I only wish the pictures were better labeled. All I know about this is that it's Model T headquarters in Detroit:

http://andrewlmoore.com/assets/Model_T_HQ-Detroit.jpg

And this is something called Peacock Alley, also in Detroit. It's like 150-proof melancholy; it actually makes me tear up.

http://andrewlmoore.com/assets/Peacock_Alley-Detroit.jpg

[Deadlokd]

Wow.

[vremya]

OMG! A Dali clock!

http://www.andrewlmoore.com/view_image.php?photo_id=376&project_id=13

[Kashmir]

A whole site (http://www.artificialowl.net/) about the abandoned.



http://englishrussia.com/images/creepy_fortress/4.jpg

Brick-cicles (http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2009/02/10/icicles-of-brick/)

[livius drusus]

That is eerie as hell. :scaredbaby:

I dig the lava church from your first link.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q-PuSGjFHvY/SfOF5ghAItI/AAAAAAAAD7I/7gtfJfcabaM/s640/958456.jpg

[viscousmemories]

http://www.andrewlmoore.com/images/photography-large/Boblo-Detroit.jpg
Wow, I might've been on that boat. There used to be an amusement park called Boblo Island, and you would get there by sailing down the Detroit River on those boats. We went there a number of times when I was a child.

[livius drusus]

Oh man... There's probably some greasy doll missing a leg staring unblinkingly into the darkness that used to belong to one of the babby memorieses.

[viscousmemories]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Boblo.jpg

Boblo Island Amusement Park - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boblo_Island_Amusement_Park)

[livius drusus]

Is it weird to see the backdrop of your childhood turn to dust? I think I would be ... unsettled, to say the least.

[viscousmemories]

It's not too weird 'cause we moved away from there when I was seven. I feel more connected with Ann Arbor, which suffers from a different kind of decay: perpetual churn. The downtown area is almost unrecognizable - formerly one-way streets are now two-way, there are tons of new buildings and almost none of the businesses that existed when I was a kid still exist. It's a weird feeling going back there now.

[Qingdai]

I think the perpetual churn is worse, because then there aren't even the ghosts of memories left.
Portland has that, I can give you directions to almost any part of town giving you out-dated street names and missing landmarks.

[viscousmemories]

Word. I recently read a blog entry about the closing of a local bar in Ann Arbor, and the comments section was jam-packed full of people railing against the city for driving the bar out of town with the high cost of real estate, and how they were KILLING the REAL Ann Arbor with such tactics, and how Ann Arbor simply WOULDN'T BE ANN ARBOR without this particular bar, etc. Funny thing is, that bar was an old factory (http://arborwiki.org/city/Leopold_Bros) when I lived there. I hear it was a hopping place, though.

[Pinecone]

Wow. I too went to Boblo Island as a kid. It was a big deal outing for us. I remember my sister and I got blue and white outfits for the occasion. We even made some kind of matching jewelry athough I can't remember if we made necklaces or bracelets or both. We were only just old enough to realize that we thought we were being cool doing 'boat outfits'.
I didn't know ol Boblo Island was all broken down and rusting away.

[Ymir's blood]

Is it weird to see the backdrop of your childhood turn to dust?
Only if you enjoy it.

:muahaha:

[Janet]

I find a certain beauty in destruction. I was working near the Jefferson Chrysler plant when they rebuilt it in the late Eighties. They also moved many residents and tore down the houses. I kind of enjoyed seeing through the broken walls into the building. Maybe it's urban survival tactics, but I still feel that way.

After I moved to Flint I got to watch the destruction of Buick City and a Chevrolet plant from the windows of the Bookmobile. I don't remember enjoying it as much as Chrysler Jefferson, but I did like the view. What can I say? I'm just weird that way.

[Ymir's blood]

I find a certain beauty in destruction.
:lovey:

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

I :heart: abandoned, decrepit hospitals/mental institutions.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1276/739553703_337d6dcc7b.jpg
this looks like a school, but <3

[Ymir's blood]

It kind of reminds me of the elementary school I went to.

[ImGod]

You guys may like this photographer's journeys. I like his series around the Chernobyl area.

http://www.neqo.be/Mambo/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 (http://www.neqo.be/Mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=18&Itemid=257)

[Kashmir]

No holiday in Cambodia would be complete without a visit to Angkor.

http://webpages.scu.edu/ftp/eching/images/Temples%20in%20Angkor%20Wat050%20copy.JPG

http://famouswonders.com/wp-content/gallery/angkor-wat-temple/aerial-view-of-angkor-wat.jpg

http://www.veloasia.com/images/angkor/angkor_thom2.jpg

[livius drusus]

That's not urban decay, though. That's just plain ol' ancient ruins.

[Crumb]

Cool though. :joecool:

[Kashmir]

Angkor was the largest city in the ancient world.

It's old urban decay.

[livius drusus]

Angkor was the largest city in the ancient world.
By what standard of measurement? Because as far as I know, its population, surface area and amount of construction don't even come close to ancient Rome, Constantinople or medieval Baghdad, just to name a few. It wasn't even a city in the normal sense of the word. It's a temple and administration complex; there are no regular homes, no commercial structures.

It's old urban decay.
That's not what urban decay means. It refers to post-industrial cities.

[Naru]

I wonder what Roger Ebert would say about this.

[Kashmir]

By what standard of measurement? Because as far as I know, its population, surface area and amount of construction don't even come close to ancient Rome, Constantinople or medieval Baghdad, just to name a few. It wasn't even a city in the normal sense of the word. It's a temple and administration complex; there are no regular homes, no commercial structures.

All of those. The Khmer built their homes etc. out of wood because they believed only religious structures should be made of stone.

It's been fairly recent since it was discovered that Angkor was so large. See the National Geographic documentary Secrets of Angkor.

That's not what urban decay means. It refers to post-industrial cities.

Oh, well, I was mistaken. Thank you for the correction.

[godfry n. glad]

By what standard of measurement? Because as far as I know, its population, surface area and amount of construction don't even come close to ancient Rome, Constantinople or medieval Baghdad, just to name a few. It wasn't even a city in the normal sense of the word. It's a temple and administration complex; there are no regular homes, no commercial structures.

All of those. The Khmer built their homes etc. out of wood because they believed only religious structures should be made of stone.

It's been fairly recent since it was discovered that Angkor was so large. See the National Geographic documentary Secrets of Angkor.

That's not what urban decay means. It refers to post-industrial cities.

Oh, well, I was mistaken. Thank you for the correction.

I don't think you were mistaken at all, Kashmir.

This thread is entitled "Urban Decay"... What you brought to everybody's attention is indeed "urban decay", it's just not "industrial urban decay".

But, then, the thread title doesn't say that, does it?

Besides, when attempting to discredit your point, 54 listed two ancient cities, Rome and Istanbul, and a mediveal city, Baghdad. None of those is industrial decay, so how are they germane to this particular discussion if it's about "industrial" decay? I would also note that those locations, in comparison to Angkor, are arid or semi-arid environments. Ankgor has, and had, lush jungle vegetation which overwhelmed the entire site; even the stone structures were buried due to duff buildup and vegetive overgrowth over centuries.

I guess Mohenjo-daro is not 'urban decay', either.

http://drfarrukhmalik.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/mohenjodaro2.jpg

[Kashmir]

Besides, when attempting to discredit your point, 54 listed two ancient cities, Rome and Istanbul, and a mediveal city, Baghdad. None of those is industrial decay, so how are they germane to this particular discussion if it's about "industrial" decay?

That was addressed to my claim that Angkor was the largest city in the ancient world.

Urban decay, ancient ruins, ancient urban decay, autoerotic asphyxiation... it's not worth fighting over.

Angkor is just cool.

[capslockf9]

There are parasites that are not really parasites in that the are beneficial to the host. And there are parasite that kill the host. Man is the latter.
Everywhere man has been, the planet is left as if lke scabies on a dog.

[livius drusus]

Oh hey I dug that speech in the Matrix too.

[Dingfod]

Angkor was the largest city in the ancient world.
By what standard of measurement? Because as far as I know, its population, surface area and amount of construction don't even come close to ancient Rome, Constantinople or medieval Baghdad, just to name a few. It wasn't even a city in the normal sense of the word. It's a temple and administration complex; there are no regular homes, no commercial structures.

It's old urban decay.
That's not what urban decay means. It refers to post-industrial cities.You have to admit, whatever industry Angkor had is definitely post.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

English Russia » An Abandoned City (http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2006/09/05/an-abandoned-city/)

while I was on the hunt for this (http://www.flickr.com/photos/robot-fotomat/1131469624/). This is the site of the "abandoned clown train."

http://www.360cities.net/image/chernobyl-amusement-park-ukraine-2#315.60,-1.50,80.0

:sadcheer: My google fu is lacking today, and I can't find pictures of the whole park.

[capslockf9]

Oh hey I dug that speech in the Matrix too.

The enemy of nature is thought.

[livius drusus]

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

[capslockf9]

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

When they have taken away your enemie they'll come after you.

[livius drusus]

I shall fend them off with sheer force of will. Also a moat.

[capslockf9]

A moat or a wall or a fence or a nuclear weapon arsenal are deficient protection when all enemies are imagined.

[livius drusus]

Oh well if they're imagined, then of course my force of will alone will suffice.

[capslockf9]

Yes.

The end of fear.

[livius drusus]

:manhug:

[Adam]

ITT postmodern arabesque.

[Sock Puppet]

Whoa.

[livius drusus]

Unexpected awesome is unexpectedly awesome, amirite?

[Kashmir]

I wonder if a toke of smoke would make capslockf9 seem a sensible bloke. :bonghit:

[Kashmir]

The enemy of nature is thought.

Thought is natural, at least in most of us . . .

[capslockf9]

The enemy of nature is thought.

Thought is natural, at least in most of us . . .



I say-
the brain as part of the nervous system activity that is needed for protection of teh organism. It is needed to keep the organism safe from harm. Which is all fine and nececassary. This mode or survival is instinctual. Instinsts as in all the animals in the world even the most minutest earthworms brain will move it to a better survival.
All that is not thought.
Instincts are not a thought process. A beetle's instincts are not thought. and Other beetles are never it's enemiies.
And as for the thing called thought.
Thought is an anomalie in nature.
Any idea that manifest in man is oppostional to nature. A dam, a road, a fence, a pesticide, a oil spill, a nuclear bomb are not nature.
Urban decay is nature fighting back.
But is unhindered thought will destroy the universe.

[Shake]

Yes.

The end of fear.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

[Shake]

:manhug:

Wait ... manhug? Liv's a man?

:P

[capslockf9]

"Fearless"

You say the hill's too steep to climb,
Chiding!
You say you'd like to see me try,
Climbing!
You pick the place and I'll choose the time
And I'll climb
The hill in my own way
just wait a while, for the right day
And as I rise above the treeline and the clouds
I look down hear the sound of the things you said today
Fearlessly the idiot faced the crowd, smiling
Merciless, the magistrate turns 'round, frowning
and who's the fool who wears the crown
Go down in your own way
And everyday is the right day
And as you rise above the fearlines in his frown
You look down
Hear the sound of the faces in the crowd" ....Pink Floyd

[Dingfod]

:manhug:

Wait ... manhug? Liv's a man?

:PThat is so five years ago.

[teasasue]

A lot of great pictures of urban decay:

Urban Decay (http://www.oboylephoto.com/ruins/)

Fascinating stuff. A lot of those pictures could come right out of some horror movie:

Hospital X (http://www.oboylephoto.com/hospx/index.htm#top)
Girl's Orphanage (http://www.oboylephoto.com/girls_school/girls_school2.htm)

the orphanage is dwon right creapy

[Qingdai]

Hey! New video of urban decay Bannerman Castle.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ROCKETBOOM#p/u/3/v_KpwtQHtdA

[Caligulette]

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/art/blog/2010/01/andrew-moore-detroit-disassembled.html


(and also - how shallow am I that every time I see this thread title I think - "ooh, nail polish"...)

[livius drusus]

That was awesome, Cali. I wish it had gone on longer. I really wanted to hear about the Peacock Alley picture.

P.S. - Urban Decay nail polish fucking rules.

[Caligulette]

I know someone who has the book ($50!) and am tempted myself. I have seen a lot of Detroit, but not been in the big buildings. That could change.

and I know!

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

They make nail polish? I love their bronzer ("baked bronzer").

[Ensign Steve]

P.S. - Urban Decay nail polish fucking rules.

That is a fact and I wish they still made it and also I wish that's what this thread was really about.

[MonCapitan2002]

Hey! New video of urban decay Bannerman Castle.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ROCKETBOOM#p/u/3/v_KpwtQHtdA
Recently a portion of the structure actually collapsed. I am not sure if this segment was filmed before or after that collapse. I am hoping that they can save the structure before it's lost forever.

[curses]

P.S. - Urban Decay nail polish fucking rules.

That is a fact and I wish they still made it and also I wish that's what this thread was really about.

WHEN DID THEY STOP MAKING IT???? Also, I had an even shoot for a local event but it was at another retail store so we couldn't get it cleared through corporate. I got a makeover though.

[wei yau]

Abandoned Six Flags Theme Park and effective use of creepy music:

YouTube - Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans Tour

[Ymir's blood]

Ok, I've only watched 10 seconds so far. It was my intention to get all elitist about whatever music was considered 'creepy.' However, it's Godspeed You! Black Emperor so that's ok.

[mulebear]

Web Urbanist has a section on abandoned structures.
WebUrbanist (http://weburbanist.com/)

This is the direct link to the abandoned section of the site:
Abandoned Places : WebUrbanist (http://weburbanist.com/category/abandonments/)

And more specifically to a section on abandoned zoos:
The Roaring Silence: 10 Cool & Creepy Abandoned Zoos : WebUrbanist (http://weburbanist.com/2010/08/22/the-roaring-silence-10-cool-creepy-abandoned-zoos/)

[livius drusus]

Awesome, awesome blog entry and pics (http://kingstonlounge.blogspot.com/2011/01/north-brother-island-riverside-hospital.html) of the abandoned quarantine hospital, coal furnaces and more on North Brother Island in the East River, New York City. Read the whole thing because the island and its facilities are rich with history. Typhoid Mary was kept there!

http://www.ianferencephoto.com/kingstonlounge/nbi/P1.jpg

http://www.ianferencephoto.com/kingstonlounge/nbi/N7.jpg

http://www.ianferencephoto.com/kingstonlounge/nbi/S3.jpg

[Ymir's blood]

There is more information about the island and its history on the linked page than on Wikipedia.

[livius drusus]

Right? Usually these urban decay photographers don't do a lot of homework, or at least, none that they share.

[Ymir's blood]

The photographs are nice but the history of the place is what makes it compelling. The involuntary incarcerations, the General Slocum tragedy, Typhoid Mary... this place has everything but axe murders, an Italian count and a hidden treasure.

[One for Sorrow]

HuffingtonPost has a slideshow of Detroit's sad state here. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/26/detroit-decline_n_813696.html#218521)

[livius drusus]

For another perspective on urban decay photography, check out this excellent article (http://www.guernicamag.com/features/2281/leary_1_15_11/) about ruin porn by Detroit native John Patrick Leary.

Detroiters often react testily to this kind of attention (as I do), even when it is done skillfully and with good intentions, as much of it is. Some of the criticism of negative publicity is just boosterism, as when the City Council denounced the producers of the ABC crime drama Detroit 187 for peddling the idea that there are criminals in Detroit. Others, weary of condescending criticism from outsiders, will defend Detroit’s reputation, or at least their privileged right to defame it, something like defending a bad parent: I can say anything I want about the old man, but don’t you dare. Ruin photography, in particular, has been criticized for its “pornographic” sensationalism, and my bookseller friend won’t sell much of it for that reason. And others roll their eyes at all the positive attention heaped on the young, mostly white “creatives,” which glosses over the city’s deep structural problems and the diversity of ideas to help fix them. So much ruin photography and ruin film aestheticizes poverty without inquiring of its origins, dramatizes spaces but never seeks out the people that inhabit and transform them, and romanticizes isolated acts of resistance without acknowledging the massive political and social forces aligned against the real transformation, and not just stubborn survival, of the city. And to see oneself portrayed in this way, as a curiosity to be lamented or studied, is jarring for any Detroiter, who is of course also an American, with all the sense of self-confidence and native-born privilege that we’re taught to associate with the United States.

[Janet]

He makes a good point. As a native of the Detroit suburbs who has lived and worked in the city, I honestly think much of the ruins phenomena is psychological self-preservation. For years I drove every day through the destruction of the old Chrysler Jefferson plant and the neighborhoods that surrounded it on my way to work. The company I worked for was just the far side of the construction/destruction zone.

Over those months and years I found myself finding beauty in the destruction and a thrill in getting to see through the holes into parts of the building that had been hidden. After they had finished building the new plant and it became clear many of the houses had been razed just to leave a buffer zone around the plant, I enjoyed watching the return of animals and plants to those areas. Reeds, red-wing blackbirds and pheasants became regular sights of my walk once I got rid of my car and started taking the bus to work.

While the wildlife was objectively beautiful, I was more than aware that people had lost their homes for very little money and nothing had been done with the property. The rest of my enjoyment was definitely a need to put a positive spin on a daily eyesore. Sure it's good to see beauty in destruction when you can, but that doesn't mean we aren't aware that it would be better for these things to be maintained properly. And as Detroiters we are also aware of the corruption, racism and bad judgment that underlie much these ruins. Simply put, finding beauty in destruction is nice but I'd much rather see beauty and construction for a change.

[Ymir's blood]

I just like 'urban decay' because it's fun to imagine a world after humanity.

[Qingdai]

I find it interesting, Portland was for a time of my youth (mostly the 1980s when the economy collapsed) a spot of much urban decay. I sort of prefer that to the razing of structures and the building of whole new neighborhoods. I had a history connected to the people and places they inhabited that now is completely transformed, often abruptly.
Had I been able to watch it decay more slowly, I might have not resented the new so much. Fucking "Pearl district."

Also the dislocation, mostly forcible of people in single residency occupancies (old pay by the week hotels mostly) has led to an amazing amount of homelessness here, which was orchestrated by the ruling families of Portland. Now they are all bought and consumed (the families' businesses) by even larger corporations.

[Kashmir]

I like urban decay because it's often far more interesting than the new, like a Mondrian painting stained with mildew and sprouting mushrooms.

[JoeP]

I just like 'urban decay' because it's fun to imagine a world after humanity.

Are you a fan of Ballard?

[JoeP]

I like urban decay because it's often far more interesting than the new, like a Mondrian painting stained with mildew and sprouting mushrooms.

Want.

[Ymir's blood]

I just like 'urban decay' because it's fun to imagine a world after humanity.

Are you a fan of Ballard?
I've only read The Atrocity Exhibition.

[Sophia]

I like Urban Decay makeup....

Edit: I see Liv sorta beat me to it. Grr!

[JoeP]

I just like 'urban decay' because it's fun to imagine a world after humanity.

Are you a fan of Ballard?
I've only read The Atrocity Exhibition.

Notwithstanding the Joy Division connection, I think you might enjoy Ballard.

Many of his works are set among, if not actual urban decay, urban dysfunction and definitely social decay.

Concrete Island, High Rise, Crash, Super-Cannes among the novels; Disaster Area, Vermilion Sands and others among the shorts collections.

[Ymir's blood]

Notwithstanding the Joy Division connection, I think you might enjoy Ballard.

You guessed it. That's what led me to read the book.

Many of his works are set among, if not actual urban decay, urban dysfunction and definitely social decay.

Concrete Island, High Rise, Crash, Super-Cannes among the novels; Disaster Area, Vermilion Sands and others among the shorts collections.
Atrocity Exhibition was a bit more experimental that I care for. It was interesting but hard to follow. I don't know if his other works are like that however. The other problem is that my own background makes it rather difficult to follow any of his sexual themes. The whole car crash=sex thing completely goes over my head.

I may revisit his works though. A lot of his themes are relevant to me, it just might take some mental work on my part.

[JoeP]

The Atrocity Exhibition (which I rate highly) is more experimental in structure than any of his other works. Some are distinctly experimental in themes, but still more accessible than AE. The Empire of the Sun is mainstream and well worth reading in its own right ... although not "real" Ballard, some of us would say.

[Sophia]

I just like 'urban decay' because it's fun to imagine a world after humanity.

Are you a fan of Ballard?Imagining a world without jews or blacks = evil nazi hate speech
imagining a world without any humans at all = cool n edgy!!!!!!!!!!

Voluntary Human Extinction Movement (http://www.vhemt.org/)
“May we live long and die out”

Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth’s biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense.http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Sd2LMsAiwnY/0.jpg

[Ymir's blood]

Fuck off.

[heptagon]

"Change and decay in all around I see". There can be more beauty in decay than in the brashness of the new.

[Sophia]

Fuck off.Why? Is someone who wants the entire human race to be annihilated telling me to fuck off because I'm immoral?

http://lamemoriaviva.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/millan.jpg

Seriously, I realize you probably don't literally want that, but an alarming number of people do and the inconsistency I've mentioned does bother me. To me the Holocaust isn't wrong because of who did it (eeeevil skull and bones natzees) or who was victimized (god's chosen? i don't even believe in god) but rather because it was fucking genocide. Mass murder of human beings of certain ethnic groups. I don't see how mass murder of all human beings would be morally any better. Yet I've known (or know of) quite a few "goth" types with a serious fetish for the idea of a world in which every humanoid would be a rotting corpse, or long since a skeleton.

FWIW, this creepy misanthropist shit is mostly a white thang in my experience. I've never known any blacks or natives or non-white hispanics who talked this way. OK, a few gothy north asians. That's a credit, not a discredit, to people of those nonwhite groups. We can be way more environmentally responsible without having to become insanely misanthropic.

[Ymir's blood]

Fuck off.Why? Is someone who wants the entire human race to be annihilated telling me to fuck off because I'm immoral?
No, because you're an annoying narcissist.

[JoeP]

It's not narcissism if the world really does revolve around you.

[Ymir's blood]

It's not narcissism if the world really does devolve around you.
:fixed:

[lisarea]

75 Abandoned Theaters From Around The USA: Pics, Videos, Links, News (http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/75-abandoned-theaters-from-around-the-usa)

[livius drusus]

Lyric Theater (http://www.flickr.com/photos/14686634@N08/sets/72157626448255124/with/3985415323/) in Birmingham, AL, is my favorite. It's one of the few on that list that looks appropriately theater-palacy both inside and out.

[Ymir's blood]

#13 and #57 are my favorite exteriors.

It's strange how looking at abandoned buildings has such a way of making me feel for the bygone eras of those places - much more so than looking at period photos of the places in their glory.

[curses]

Ooh, if I remember about it, next time I'm visiting my family in south Georgia I'll swing by that theater in Claxton.

[Qingdai]

I've been to the restaurant (carneceria) next to the one in Woodburn Oregon.

Cinema Treasures | Pix Theatre (http://cinematreasures.org/theater/15177/)

[lisarea]

The Mayan Theater in Denver is pretty fabulous inside and out, but it's still operating.

Google images, because I couldn't find one site that shows the exterior and the interior to its full effect:

mayan theater denver - Google Search (http://www.google.com/search?q=mayan+theater+denver&hl=en&prmd=ivnsm&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=GXmiTeGqD4r4sAPKnZn6DA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1207&bih=639)

There are only a couple or so of the older Denver theaters that are still movie theaters, but it looks like most of them are still functioning in some capacity or another.

They're cool when they're abandoned, but I miss going to see movies in them. Those stupid multiplexes just feel like the biggest ripoff in the world compared to that.

[Demimonde]

Oooh! The Mayan is beautiful!

Here is a link (http://fortworthology.com/2010/07/06/fort-worths-remaining-single-screen-theaters/) to our local single screen theaters. Some are sadly abandoned, others converted to other uses- for good or ill.

The Rose Marine, prolly one of the best still in use. Dig those crazy Venus details.
http://fortworthology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/4766724584_6dffabbf8e_b-475x316.jpg

This is the Ridglea (http://fortworthology.com/2010/07/30/photos-from-the-ridglea-tour/), a beautiful theater that has been in use as a music venue, was threatened with demolition but is now saved. (http://fortworthology.com/2011/01/05/new-ridglea-theater-owners-apply-for-strongest-historic-preservation-designation/) :cheer:

http://fortworthology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Ridglea-Theater-Tour-110-316x475.jpg

Despite the number of vacant theaters, there is a new double screen art house theater being built in our neighborhood. The Citizen Theater (http://fortworthology.com/2011/01/05/the-citizen-theater-revealed/). It is a location thing. Our historic hood never had it's own theater and the local business owners want one. If only we could move one of the actual historic buildings, but that isn't feasible. The Berry St theater from the first link is the closest, but it is in a dangerous area so not the best option. Some day though that place will sing.

http://fortworthology.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/4766085169_ced0641220_b-475x316.jpg

[LadyShea]

Gulliver's Kingdom (Japan) abandoned theme park (http://weburbanist.com/2011/06/05/big-in-japan-gullivers-kingdom-abandoned-theme-park/)

http://img.weburbanist.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/gulliver_2c.jpg

This was creepy in it's heyday, but downright nightmarish when left to vandals and decay

[livius drusus]

Aw, it's all gone now. I'm bummed. The graffitoed giant with his glazed, cracked, unseeing eyeball stepped on by vandals was just plain awesome.

[lisarea]

Creepy, Crusty, Crumbling: Illegal Tour of Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans [75 Pics] (http://www.lovethesepics.com/2011/05/creepy-crusty-crumbling-illegal-tour-of-abandoned-six-flags-new-orleans-75-pics/)

[LadyShea]

There really is something extra super eerie about abandoned amusement parks, isn't there? That broken enormous clown head makes me want to hide.

[lisarea]

We have an amusement park here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeside_Amusement_Park) that's still open but has a bunch of closed parts, and they have a train that runs around a lake and passes like graveyards of old ride cars and clown heads and things like that. As this blog puts it, they're not in any hurry to tear down unused features. ModMidMod » lakeside amusement park (http://www.modmidmod.com/2008/05/20/lakeside-amusement-park/)

It's really beautiful and also a little creepy. I'll try to get some pictures this summer.

Thing is, our other old amusement park was bought by Six Flags some time back, and they moved it right into the entrance to downtown, so it's all asphalt and misery, and it costs a million dollars a minute. The old one has grass and trees and free parking and it only costs $2.50 to get in and like $20 for an all day pass. I can understand some people feel like standing around in lines for two hours to take a thirty second ride on some new thing, but it surprises me that more people don't prefer being able to get off the old wooden coaster and sometimes make it back on to the very next run. (lol this is how I almost killed Matlock the first time he came out here, tho.)

ETA: According to the wiki, Lakeside is one of the settings in Silent Hill 3.

[LadyShea]

What did they do with the grounds of the original Elitch's? I loved to go there because of the history then they moved it.

[lisarea]

They redeveloped the original site as a new urban style development. (http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/06/not-so-new-urbanism_highlands.php) We have a lot of those around here, and most are just lame little crap things almost company store style housing in the suburbs, but I think this one is considered better than most.

Not-So-New-Urbanism: Highlands' Garden Village - Denver News - The Latest Word (http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/06/not-so-new-urbanism_highlands.php)

They kept the carousel and I think a couple of other structures, too.

[LadyShea]

The carousel is fabulous and they kept the theater too! Those were the two best things. Good for them for keeping them.

There is a list of defunct amusement parks at Wiki. I am looking through.

[Qingdai]

We had this weird amusement park on the Oregon coast, built on a wetland, called Pixie Land. I remember it rotting out on the coast for years.
They reclaimed the land and rebuilt the wetland fairly recently.
I mostly remember it like this, although I went as a little girl when it was open.
http://media.opb.org/system/images/clips/4397/poster.jpg?1294886568

PixieLand Oregon (http://www.pixielandoregon.com/)

[Kashmir]

Spreepark (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreepark) was one of the filming locations for Hanna.

[Corona688]

Spreepark (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreepark) was one of the filming locations for Hanna. Wow, class act. On 18 January 2002, Norbert Witte, together with his family and closest coworkers moved to Lima in Peru. They shipped six attractions (Fliegender Teppich, Butterfly, Spider, Baby-Flug, Wild River and Jet Star) in 20 ship containers, having been allowed to do so by the authorities who believed they were being sent for repair.

...

Norbert Witte failed in his attempt to run a "Lunapark" in Lima. On 19 May 2004 he was sentenced to seven years in jail for attempting to smuggle 180 kg of cocaine with a value of £14 million from Peru to Germany in the masts of the "flying carpet" ride. In October 2006 a Peruvian court sentenced Wittes' son, Marcel Witte, to 20 years for drug smuggling.

[Qingdai]

Here is a kickstarter project filming endangered historical properties, either mid-decay before being refurbished. Some are pretty far gone.
Impermanence: Photographs of Endangered Historic Places by Shelley Zatsky &mdash; Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/908151951/impermanence-photographs-of-endangered-historic-pl)

[mulebear]

In a recent issue of the Atlanta Creative Loafing...
Urban exploration in abandoned buildings in Atlanta | News feature | News & Views | Creative Loafing Atlanta (http://clatl.com/atlanta/urban-exploration-in-atlanta-abandoned-buildings/Content?oid=3409411)

[Ymir's blood]

We went to Brook Run before it was destroyed, but didn't go inside. It was a bit too hinky for one member of our group.

[Qingdai]

A nice video showing some decayed houses in Belgium and Luxembourg.

See we don't have a market on the decay part!

YouTube - &#x202a;A Most Peculiar Trip: Searching for Miss Peregrine&#x202c;&rlm;

[curses]

We went to Brook Run before it was destroyed, but didn't go inside. It was a bit too hinky for one member of our group.

I gots inside one of the buildings recently. Looking for photos.

[curses]

Here are the best of the best.

[Ymir's blood]

Bloody Water Fountain! :wriggle:

[Ensign Steve]

Those windows! :prettycolors:

[Ymir's blood]

Bloody... water... fountain. :brooding:

[livius drusus]

10 Creepiest Abandoned Morgues on Earth (http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/news-morgues-attempt-2?image=0). That's an uncharitable title. Some of them aren't creepy at all, just a little dirty.

http://static.environmentalgraffiti.com/sites/default/files/images/m9jpg_0.img_assist_custom-600x460.jpg

http://static.environmentalgraffiti.com/sites/default/files/images/Abandoned-Morgue-slabjpg.img_assist_custom-600x456.jpg

[Ymir's blood]

The one that caught my attention the most, was the embalming syringe. The phone on the table was kind of surreal, in a way.

[curses]

I want more creepy morgues.

Edit:
http://www.opacity.us/image1939_childrens_morgue.htm

[Ymir's blood]

Somehow, I imagine that the state shone in those pictures is more inviting than when the facility was in service.

Mouth gags? :shudder:

[lisarea]

I'm just gonna link to the mefi post because there are several links, plus more stuff in the comments.

Divine Lorraine | MetaFilter (http://www.metafilter.com/119473/Divine-Lorraine)

[Ymir's blood]

Plz buy me Widener Mansion (http://nakedphilly.com/uncategorized/history-buff-willis-g-hale/attachment/5-19-history-buff-willis-g-hale2/), kthks

[Jerome]

A lot of great pictures of urban decay:

Urban Decay (http://www.oboylephoto.com/ruins/)

Fascinating stuff. A lot of those pictures could come right out of some horror movie:

Hospital X (http://www.oboylephoto.com/hospx/index.htm#top)
Girl's Orphanage (http://www.oboylephoto.com/girls_school/girls_school2.htm)

Bump

This is great stuff!

:cool::cool::cool:

[curses]

Daily Mail had a nice article today about abandoned asylums in the Northeast US.
Photographer captures haunting images of sights inside the abandoned asylums of America | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2199457/Photographer-captures-haunting-images-sights-inside-abandoned-asylums-America.html)

[Ymir's blood]

The doll shot brought a tad of cynicism in me.

Empathy Doll Shot - Television Tropes & Idioms (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EmpathyDollShot)

Dorothy A. Dix hospital won't be too far from where we're staying, but it's AFAIK still open and has been revamped considerably.

[curses]

The Daily Mail had some nice images of Detroit decay today. The disused factories are my favorites.

Detroit's amazing transformation captured on camera after it loses ONE MILLION residents in 60 years | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2211498/Detroits-amazing-transformation-captured-camera-loses-ONE-MILLION-residents-60-years.html)

[Janet]

Speaking of Detroit decay, they have started lighting the Central Terminal (http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20121001/METRO01/210010421). Apparently it's decrepitude has become famous enough that they are working on restoring it.

ETA: Wow, it took Tea and Kittens so long to block that site that I was beginning to think I missed this terminal when I installed it.

[erimir]

Tea and Kittens?

[MonCapitan2002]

I think what has happened to Detroit is a national tragedy. It has less than half of its peak population in the 1950's. The fact that a third of the city lies unoccupied is horrifying in its own way.

[Ymir's blood]

The Daily Mail had some nice images of Detroit decay today. The disused factories are my favorites.

Detroit's amazing transformation captured on camera after it loses ONE MILLION residents in 60 years | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2211498/Detroits-amazing-transformation-captured-camera-loses-ONE-MILLION-residents-60-years.html)

I love the shot of the melty clock.

[Janet]

Tea and Kittens (http://www.teaandkittens.co.uk/) is an add-on for Firefox that replaces links to the Daily Fail with pictures of tea and kittens. It's a lovely thing.

[curses]

I'm bumping this thread with a couple of links. One isn't urban decay, per se, but it's just awesome and you should look at it. Warning-two photos containing dead bodies. Ymir has already clicked the link.

Never-before-seen photos from 100 years ago tell vivid story of gritty New York City | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134408/Never-seen-photos-100-years-ago-tell-vivid-story-gritty-New-York-City.html)

And this one because the houses are very well preserved.

Photographer Niki Feijen's eerie images of the abandoned farm houses | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2316987/Photographer-Niki-Feijens-eerie-images-abandoned-farm-houses.html)


Edit: Oh dear god what's become of me? They're both from Daily Mail.

[erimir]

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/04/24/article-2134408-12BD176D000005DC-462_964x721.jpg

[curses]

Love the framing in this. Just a beautiful shot.

[livius drusus]

CURSES (http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/17031)! :shakecurses:

[curses]

Aww dammit. Scooped by the masked history blogger again!

[Ymir's blood]

Ymir has already clicked the link.
:nope:

I've already seen the photos twice. :P

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

Bennett School for Girls - Abandoned Photography at Opacity (http://www.opacity.us/site11_bennett_school_for_girls.htm)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/988644_461692330586632_1623405539_n.jpg

[MonCapitan2002]

I'm bumping this thread with a couple of links. One isn't urban decay, per se, but it's just awesome and you should look at it. Warning-two photos containing dead bodies. Ymir has already clicked the link.

Never-before-seen photos from 100 years ago tell vivid story of gritty New York City | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134408/Never-seen-photos-100-years-ago-tell-vivid-story-gritty-New-York-City.html)

And this one because the houses are very well preserved.

Photographer Niki Feijen's eerie images of the abandoned farm houses | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2316987/Photographer-Niki-Feijens-eerie-images-abandoned-farm-houses.html)


Edit: Oh dear god what's become of me? They're both from Daily Mail.
If I could thank you twice for that first link I would. Those photographs are awesome. The photograph Erimir posted is particularly impressive. There's a stark beauty to that shot that I really like.

[wei yau]

Thanks for the thrad bump, I was thinking about this thrad not too long ago.

These aren't urban, but are fascinating nonetheless.

The hulking grandeur of abandoned submarines (http://io9.com/the-hulking-grandeur-of-abandoned-submarines-510071935)

I love how they resemble the skeletons of some mythically large sea monster.

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18p2j29kfcp4fjpg/original.jpg

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18p2j0ochuvqmjpg/original.jpg

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18p2j2v9p3ku0jpg/original.jpg

[curses]

Those are cool, wei! Where are they?

[wei yau]

They are here: The remains of two XT-Craft midget submarines, Aberlady Bay, Scotland, UK

[curses]

Oops, totes missed that link in your post!

That Puget Sound pic reminds me of one of my favorite places to investigate on Google Earth-the boneyard in Arizona, where military aircraft go to die.

AMARC the biggest plane graveyard, Tucson, Arizona, USA (http://www.artificialowl.net/2008/05/amarc-biggest-plane-graveyard-tucson.html)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Q-PuSGjFHvY/SCUkW7L9ZWI/AAAAAAAAAX4/dQluZDqkTAE/s1600/plane4.jpg

[livius drusus]

It looks like a tribal print.

[ChristinaM]

I grew up in the South Bronx during the years when slumlords were burning it all down and this is what my old neighborhood looked like by the time it was over. I remember sitting with a bunch of relatively rich kids during my first year in college and they were watching a Yankee game while the Bronx was on fire all around it. They were pointing and OMGing about how people could live that way and all I could think of was "fuck, that was my old house". I never admitted though because I was young and embarrassed in front of the silver spoon set.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj71x7fuRl1qd8wzro1_500.jpg

[curses]

Photos from inside an abandoned tube tunnel (http://www.ianvisits.co.uk/blog/2013/09/09/photos-from-inside-an-abandoned-tube-tunnel/)

Love the unused subway lines, I'd love to go exploring here.

[JoeP]

I am so tempted to go exploring ...

[Dingfod]

Detroit's Michigan Central Station

http://i.imgur.com/PKtXTto.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Michigan_Central_Train_Station_Exterior_2010.jpg/640px-Michigan_Central_Train_Station_Exterior_2010.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/Jblakesleemichigancentral.jpg/487px-Jblakesleemichigancentral.jpg

[curses]

There's a nice bunch of Detroit photos in this Daily Fail article: Philip Jarmain: How the architectural jewels in motor city's crown have fallen into disrepair and are now being demolished | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2424919/Philip-Jarmain-How-architectural-jewels-motor-citys-crown-fallen-disrepair-demolished.html)

I love the Belle Isle Aquarium shot.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/09/19/article-2424919-1BE76289000005DC-561_964x627.jpg

[Dingfod]

Tulsa's Bruce Goff designed zig-zag art deco Tulsa Club Building was bought at auction in April 2013 for $460,000. Originally built in 1927 to house the Tulsa Chamber of Commerce in the bottom five floors and the upper six floors, dormitories, gymnasium, racquetball courts, ballrooms, and rooftop garden for the Tulsa Club's elite members. It's been shuttered since 1994 and was foreclosed on by the city due to neglect.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/Tulsa_Club_owner_Josh_Barrett_vows_to_remake_historic/20130918_11_a1_ulnsha925027?subj=1&r=6437

http://www.moderntulsa.net/images/tulsaclub/bruce-goff-tulsa-club.jpg

http://www.moderntulsa.net/images/tulsaclub/art-deco-tulsa.jpg

It needs a little work on the inside...

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_vCqTskpHKHs/SiPdd1pHkII/AAAAAAAABfk/UW2ypp8kAnc/IMG_4688.JPG?imgmax=800

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_vCqTskpHKHs/SiPdeMMX7nI/AAAAAAAABfo/uJWbyy3X000/IMG_4689.JPG?imgmax=800

[Dingfod]

Supposedly the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells, Texas:

http://i.imgur.com/ncFuutf.jpg?1

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/BakerHotelTX.jpg

http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasPanhandleTowns/MineralWellsTexas/BakerHotelLobbyTXDOT.jpg

[Demimonde]

Yep! That is the Baker (http://www.bakerhotel.us/). Even their website needs an overhaul, but the walk throughs are pretty creepy cool.

[Qingdai]

I found this flicker stream of Odin's Raven has not only regular type photography, but many excellent shots of urban decay.
Eminence | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/odins_raven/9685566772/in/photostream/)

[Qingdai]

This Gas and Coke building is about to be demolished. It's neat looking but also on top of one of the last great nasty superfund sites, also across the river from me!
:scared:
Portland Architecture: Century-old Portland Gas & Coke building set to be demolished (http://chatterbox.typepad.com/portlandarchitecture/2013/12/century-old-portland-gas-coke-building-set-to-be-demolished.html)

I believe it was the inspiration for Under Wildwood.

Rare inside photos.

Photos: Inside that Creepy St. John's Building | Blogtown, PDX | Portland Mercury (http://www.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2011/06/17/photos-inside-that-creepy-st-johns-building)

[Crumb]

I've often wondered what that place looked like on the inside. Sad to see it go.

[Qingdai]

Northwest Natural Gas owns it and has been mum when asked about it, numerous times over the last decade. It's not surprising. Plus toxic as hell and they've been dragging their feet to do anything about it.

[JoeP]

Not to be outdone, China is now producing urban decay from scratch:

Entire New 13-Story Building Tips Over in Shanghai (http://gizmodo.com/5304233/entire-new-13+story-building-tips-over-in-shanghai/)

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18mllsnbj33x7jpg/ku-xlarge.jpg

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18mllspae8l8tjpg/ku-xlarge.jpg

[livius drusus]

Good lord. Wall-E and China continue to get harder and harder to tell apart.

[Ensign Steve]

You take that back! Wall-E's trash structures remained upright after what? Decades? Centuries?

[LadyShea]

Imagineering Disney -Abandoned Disney (http://www.imagineeringdisney.com/blog/tag/abandoned-disney)

Creepy and rather sad. I mean, it's Disney.

http://www.imagineeringdisney.com/storage/thumbnails/4562298-14645544-thumbnail.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1318702143276
http://www.imagineeringdisney.com/storage/thumbnails/4562298-14645580-thumbnail.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1318702340805
River Country: The only permanently closed Disney park ever. Somewhere someone said FL law now bans water parks using natural water sources (must be filtered and chlorinated and such), which this park did back in the day. Still odd that all the property is just rotting on the WDW site. I am surprised they haven't re-purposed it.

[LadyShea]

Northwest Natural Gas owns it and has been mum when asked about it, numerous times over the last decade. It's not surprising. Plus toxic as hell and they've been dragging their feet to do anything about it.

From what I have heard down here, where the Black Mold grows, it costs more to demolish or do anything at all to a toxic building than it does to just let it rot.

[Qingdai]

It's not so much that the building itself is toxic, but the various companies that owned the building pumped chemicals into poorly designed holding pools under the ground around the building.

And those pools leach directly into the Columbia Slough, which goes into the Willamette and the Columbia river.

[lisarea]

http://narrative.ly/ghost-stories/up-in-the-old-asylum/

That's where I grew up, by the Greystone one. (In a normal house, four miles away.)

We had spooky urban legends about that place, the way kids do, about people being whisked away to the asylum in the night and patients escaping and stuff, but I'd never really seen it up close until just now.

[ceptimus]

Photos of Varosha - a seaside resort on the island of Cyprus.

When the Turks invaded the island in 1974, the resort was cordoned off - and has remained deserted ever since. It still has 1974-era 'new' cars in the abandoned car dealerships. The beach is totally deserted so it might seem like a good place to explore - except that the army patrols have been ordered to shoot on sight.

linky (http://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/2013/03/varosha-famagusta-rare-photos-inside-northern-cyprus-ghost-city-abandoned-resort/)

[Qingdai]

A place I've actually been to, both pre and post destruction.

http://www.messynessychic.com/2014/01/23/elvis-presleys-abandoned-tiki-paradise/

[JoeP]

Derelict mansions of the Saudi royal family and others, on the Bishops Avenue, north London, 1.5 miles from me.

The Bishops Avenue derelict mansions - in pictures | Business | theguardian.com (http://www.theguardian.com/business/gallery/2014/jan/31/bishops-avenue-derelict-mansions-in-pictures)

Inside the derelict mansions of London's 'Billionaires Row' – video | UK news | theguardian.com (http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/video/2014/jan/31/billionaires-row-inside-derelict-mansions-hampstead-london-video)

"an unopened consignment of bullet-proof glass"

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/1/31/1391182314503/fd41e240-f06d-458c-a71a-497aaccb10ad-620x372.jpeg

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/1/31/1391184374737/d9ca8639-c9b4-4cef-8b5f-cac633ec5e6f-620x413.jpeg

Note, both video and picture article end up with Real Estate Porn (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24953&highlight=real+estate).

[MonCapitan2002]

It's a shame how those London mansions have fallen to seed. I am almost certain some of them were originally architectural treasures.

[lisarea]

Eero Saarinen's Bell Labs, Now Devoid of Life - Point of View - January 2014 (http://www.metropolismag.com/Point-of-View/January-2014/In-Photos-Eero-Saarinens-Bell-Labs/)

A New Experiment for the Eero Saarinen-Designed Bell Labs Building - - PreservationNation Blog (http://blog.preservationnation.org/2014/01/30/new-experiment-eero-saarinen-bell-labs-building/)

My parents met at Bell Labs, on this project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1ESS_switch). I don't know if they were working on this site or one of the other ones, but my dad did work at this one when I was a kid, and used to take me to the office sometimes, so that was always the place I pictured myself going to work when I grew up.

[Demimonde]

From earlier upthread: Can the Baker Hotel Live Again? (http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20131013-developers-hope-to-revive-mineral-wells-baker-hotel.ece?nclick_check=1)

[JoeP]

Ruin Lust: the lure of urban decay - FT Arts - Life & Arts Video - FT.com (http://video.ft.com/3335471175001/Ruin-Lust-the-lure-of-urban-decay/Life-And-Arts)

At one point he likens our fascination with urban decay to the "memento mori". A decaying building is the equivalent of a skull on the desk.

Yes, it's an Arts talk.

I think I'll try to see this Ruin Lust (http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/ruin-lust) exhibition at the Tate.

From Ruin Lust, Tate Britain, review - Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-reviews/10674883/Ruin-Lust-Tate-Britain-review.html):
the phrase combines dereliction and vigour in a catchy paradox. Apparently it translates the German word “Ruinenlust”, which sounds like a Teutonic perversion, but is in fact a scholarly term describing the longstanding aesthetic obsession with decay.

[Hermit]

At one point he likens our fascination with urban decay to the "memento mori".Yes, I can relate to that. I am fascinated by the ruins of Kanyaka, about 90 minutes by road from me. Not so much urban decay, certainly not as extensive nor ancient as the remains of Pompeii or Troy, but still an intriguing remnant of a once briefly thriving community. The early settlers did not appreciate the changeability of the weather. One year a third of the sheep in the area died of thirst. In another one of the first two lease holders drowned while trying to save some cattle from the flood. At its height, 40,000 sheep went through its shearing shed and 70 families lived in stone cottages surrounding the owner's dominating abode. That proved to be exceptional. In the long run, the station proved to be economically untenable and was abandoned in 1888. The station had come and gone in about 35 years. Still, looking at the small cemetery, which, while somewhat dishevelled, is obviously tended to even now, draws the mind to what a hive of activity this place once was with its own post office, surgery and so on.

Shearing shed
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x59/Hermit_graphics/Happy%20Snaps/18aafa0f.jpg

Owner's residence
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x59/Hermit_graphics/Happy%20Snaps/20110102Kanyaka059_zpsd7bb2647.jpg

Looking through it
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x59/Hermit_graphics/Happy%20Snaps/764ab952.jpg

Someone remembers
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x59/Hermit_graphics/Happy%20Snaps/20110102Kanyaka041_zps9c661a02.jpg

And another
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x59/Hermit_graphics/Happy%20Snaps/20110102Kanyaka037_zpsdd44e459.jpg

Why the station was not viable in the long run
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x59/Hermit_graphics/Happy%20Snaps/885ba46b.jpg

[Dingfod]

I thought you lived in Germany, not Australia.

[Hermit]

I thought you lived in Germany, not Australia.Perhaps on account of the description of the town I was born in? The the second-last paragraph of my first post in this thread (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showpost.php?p=1183543&postcount=41) briefly outlines my emigration experience to Australia in 1969. I have lived in Sydney for almost twice as long as in my town of birth and in Australia for almost three times longer than in Germany.

[LadyShea]

Prepping for my NYC visit

20 Abandoned Places in NYC: Asylums, Hospitals, Power Plants, Islands, Forts | Untapped Cities (http://untappedcities.com/2014/01/28/20-abandoned-places-nyc-asylums-hospitals-power-plants-islands-forts/)