Abandoned buildings thread - Cities are better without people in them

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Sexy Senior Citizen said:
The jungle always waits beyond the walls. Civilization can beat it back time and again, but it will always be there, ready to reclaim what civilization has taken.

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The picture in the upper right looks like the old MCS Train station nestled in between downtown Detroit and the ambassador Bridge. For Kiwis unaware, it sat abandoned for years while a slumlord strategically held on to the property while the building rotted. At its worst, you could see through the building's upper floors due to the lack of windows and it looked as if it needed to be used as a practice bombing target just to rid the area of its worst eye sore.

Thankfully, the building changed hands and it was recently showcased to the public after extensive renovations.

I've visited different urbex websites and it really sucks to see buildings left to collapse on themselves or get scrapped and burned down until nothing is left. :heart-empty:
 
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The News Crews said:
Completely different things.
These are "Liminal spaces"
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The whole point of them is to be dreamlike and strange. Meanwhile abandon buildings are just that. It's cool to see how nature retakes what is available
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I'd highly recommend anyone interested in Urban exploration to check out the Chinese ghost cities. Long story short, because of how the economy is in China, real estate is one of the safest and most profitable investments you can make. This has caused several companies to just pump out hollow buildings for people to buy and just sit on.
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I know, but I saw the picture of the pool and it reminded me of those retarded "horror" videos zoomers pretend are scary for whatever reason

I do think abandoned buildings are neat. I used to watch The Carpet Bagger to see houses left abandoned, magazines from the 80s or 90s left undisturbed for decades. It's like a time capsule.
 
There was a derelict high school that was being sold due to delinquent property taxes.

Basement/subgrade, and three above grade stories, 10k sq ft footprint per level. Basement had a cafeteria, gymnasium, locker/changing rooms, some other random rooms for storage or custodial staff, and the physical plant (boilers, pumps, etc). The middle two floors were laid out like a big central gallery with student lockers and ten large classrooms laid out in a 5x2 donut around it, with bathrooms and stairwells tucked between them here and there. The top floor was also mostly classrooms around the back and sides and then the where the front center three classroom would be were administrative offices. It was interesting finding 40-50 year old magazines and such in random drawers.

One of the top floor classrooms had the roof collapse long enough ago that, somehow, a tree had somehow taken root benrath the hole and grown tall enough to reach back through the ceiling to the sunlight. Water damage made it impossible to open the door into this classroom and pictures through the layer of algae and grime growing on the glass in the door failed to capture it.

Speaking of water damage, every level had thousands of square feet of hardwood flooring that I assume had built up an variety of stresses from changes in humidity and temperature. This was pretty exciting when I stepped off the stone of the front entrance the first time and set off a chain reaction as the stored up energy was released, various pops and bangs racing off into the unexplored darkness, sounding as if the building might collapse.

Possibly could've bought it and reclaimed about 20k sqft of the hardwood flooring and made a profit, but overall definitely looked like a money pit. All the lead paint and asbestos you could eat and constantly raining indoors in the areas below the tree.
 
Sexy Senior Citizen said:
No. All of these are from Detroit.
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this is the album cover. same house different conditions.
 
I found a channel the other day that covers the history of abandoned buildings.
The mall that was used for the Blues Brothers car chase:
 
Oh I had the joy of delving into old soviet structures.
This on was one of my favorites - an old combined heat and power plant that started functioning for 85 years now. Still does, but some renovations were in order
So they stripped everything from the main building and we were there to measure it and to see what we can and cannot demolish.
Everything was covered in ash to the point that every step was creating a cloud beneath your feet.
Needles to say i needed a shower after i came back home.
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I've been fortunate to visit the same resort in the Carribean a few times over the last few years. Every morning I would walk the length of the beach to enjoy the fresh air and water before becoming oppressively hot, and at the end of the beach are another resort's ruins. In the late 2010s, a hurricane ripped through the island and destroyed many resorts in the area; most had insurance, but this one didn't. Rather than rebuild, it was abandoned. Every time I visit, I try to get pictures of it because it fascinates me so.
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Despite the storm being at least seven years ago, the frames of most of the buildings are still standing. Most of the buildings on the island are made from concrete, and it makes sense why.
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Though this building lost its frame. Mud and sand are reclaiming this old floor. Who knows how many past buildings are buried beneath our feet?
Maybe the supports were wood, the foundation shifted, or something smashed into the concrete? Whatever the case, this was one of the few buildings that was actively removed due to safety concerns; people do hang out and squat in these buildings.
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I know this is an abandoned building thread, but I've never seen leafless palmtrees before, likely from the same hurricane. Imagine seeing these around a ruined city.
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Most of the buildings have been stripped of their contents, even sinks and toilets. Yet this one eliptical was left behind, doomed to rust and warp in the humid heat. Was it too heavy to plunder? Was its scrap not worth the effort of disassembling? What happened to the other gym machines?
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Rather than cleaning it up to then resell, the government decided to let nature reclaim this portion of the island. Overgrown paths, trees next to buildings, vegetation everywhere. Someone mentioned above that civilization can push back nature all it wants, but nature won't waste time reclaiming what was once its land.
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But despite the destruction, life carries on. New trees grow, plants emerge from the smallest of cracks to become impressive shrubbery, and small animals like hermit crabs find peace and shelter. The whitepill was unexpected, but a welcome one.
 
My country is full of abandoned houses only instead of a cool brutalist aesthetic there's needles and crackheads inside.
 
31 Black said:
This looks hauntingly beautiful. Are people plundering or squatting in it? I only ask because the lack of railings.
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No squatting, some plundering.

A little background: Quinta da Vinha was built in 1895 by a man who had returned from Brazil after making a fortune in the sugarcane and coffee trade. Coming from a modest farming family, he acquired (through purchase or inheritance) the surrounding land and established one of the largest Vinho Verde vineyards in the region—a wine that all my American neighbors absolutely love.

TL;DR: He fathered several illegitimate children in addition to his legitimate ones. Now the different family branches are locked in a legal battle over the valuable real estate (worth several million euros), and the dispute has been dragging through the courts forever.

None of the heirs has the cash to buy out the others or properly restructure/maintain the property, so I'm guessing that any day now some judge is just going to say, "Fuck it, let's put it up for public auction and split the money between you all".

Edit: another example, this one related to the Catholic church. This is "‘Seminário de Santa Teresinha", a seminary or theological college. The seminary was abandoned in 1967, but it was later used as a home for the elderly until 1984. In 1988, it was decommissioned. The building was eventually sold to a private investor. Plans to rebuilt it as a hotel didn’t make it. These photos were taken in 2015. The building burned down in 2020 in a huge fire,and was later bought and is undergoing renovations since then.

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TakeSoma said:
Coming from a modest farming family, he acquired (through purchase or inheritance) the surrounding land and established one of the largest Vinho Verde vineyards in the region—a wine that all my American neighbors absolutely love.
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My family loves wine, so I'll see if I can find some to get their opinion.

Given how big it is, I'm surprised none of them are willing to pool their resources and live there together as a compound; it certainly looks big enough to hold a few families (obviously not all of them.)
TakeSoma said:
another example, this one related to the Catholic church. This is "‘Seminário de Santa Teresinha", a seminary or theological college. The seminary was abandoned in 1967, but it was later used as a home for the elderly until 1984. In 1988, it was decommissioned. The building was eventually sold to a private investor. Plans to rebuilt it as a hotel didn’t make it. These photos were taken in 2015. The building burned down in 2020 in a huge fire,and was later bought and is undergoing renovations since then.
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An abondoned church sounds spooky. I'm glad it was able to receive renovations; these places are full of history and a testimant to human engineering.
DefinitelyNotMe said:
This on was one of my favorites - an old combined heat and power plant that started functioning for 85 years now. Still does, but some renovations were in order
So they stripped everything from the main building and we were there to measure it and to see what we can and cannot demolish.
Everything was covered in ash to the point that every step was creating a cloud beneath your feet.
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Meant to reply to this sooner. Was it nonfunctional when you were there, or was still humming along while it was stripped down?
 
31 Black said:
Meant to reply to this sooner. Was it nonfunctional when you were there, or was still humming along while it was stripped down?
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It was stripped down when I arrived. There were ment to be 3 giant vats with the turbines placed on the pillars where holes are.
1st floor is the coal storage i think. And the second floor is operational one.
Station was working from the second generator building that was nearby.
 
31 Black said:
iven how big it is, I'm surprised none of them are willing to pool their resources and live there together as a compound; it certainly looks big enough to hold a few families (obviously not all of them.)
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"I'm the one entitled to it!!! Fuck reasoning and everyone else!". Many such cases.

31 Black said:
An abondoned church sounds spooky. I'm glad it was able to receive renovations; these places are full of history and a testimant to human engineering.
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It's beautiful alright but, if anything, take this - the main thing many fail to understand - for what it's worth:
Cleave a (piece of) wood; I am there. Raise up a stone, and you will find me there.
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