Category: Abandoned

Decay of Dreams

Posted by Alison – December 30, 2010

I have always wanted to live in an old, ramshackle house. I grew up continually moving from one newish house to another, constantly renovating, knocking down walls, putting up new; in fact, my family spent three years turning a 1950s ranch into a two-story behemoth, all by ourselves. (It’s pretty damn traumatizing to live in a construction zone for that long.) My wish has always been to live somewhere old — really, really old, like 200 years or more — and not change a thing. Nothin’. Maybe wipe down the windows, a fresh coat of paint, but I want that decay. I want that history. I want that story. I do not want wall-to-wall carpeting.

This ridiculously beautiful building, located in Selma, Alabama, was originally constructed as a Jewish men’s club in 1909. Boarded up for forty years, the current owner has created a livable space (minus all the pigeon crap) while maintaining the originality and character of the building. (Granted, it did take years. Can I just find a place that looks like this already?) The bathroom alone gives me chills — need an antique crucifix, stat. And can we talk about the pile of rusted industrial fans? Never has a pile looked so good.

See the full slideshow and read the article for more information.

The gorgeous photos are by Robert Rausch of GAS Design Center.

[Via]

Guess What These Are

Posted by Alison – October 7, 2010

Paint cans? Ice cream? Cylindrical planets?

Nope. They’re cremated human remains, and they’re cataloged in David Meisel’s book Library of Dust.

According to Geoff Manaugh’s introduction to the book,

“In 1913 an Oregon state psychiatric institution began to cremate the remains of its unclaimed patients. Their ashes were then stored inside individual copper canisters and moved into a small room, where they were stacked onto pine shelves.”

“After doing some research into the story, Maisel got in touch with the hospital administrators – the same hospital, it turns out, where they once filmed One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – and he was granted access to the room in which the canisters were stored.

“Over time, however, the canisters have begun to react chemically with the human ashes held inside them; this has thus created mold-like mineral outgrowths on the exterior surfaces of these otherwise gleaming cylinders.

“In order to deal with the fragility of the objects, and to respect their funerary origins, Maisel set up a temporary photography studio inside the hospital itself. There, he began photographing the canisters one by one.

“He soon realized that they looked almost earthlike, terrestrial: green and blue coastal forms and island landscapes outlined against a black background. But it was all mineralogy: terrains of rare elements self-reacting in the dark.”

So crazy! And beautiful to boot. Read more about the project at BLDGBLOG.

Abandoned Wallpaper

Posted by Alison – October 5, 2010

Every time I pass an abandoned farm house I want to go inside. I’ve only done so once, followed by less than ideal circumstances (foot went through porch floor, cut while climbing through a window, attacked by birds, meth lab remains, etc.). However, that doesn’t stop the urge to take in someone’s life after the fact. There are always so many clues to their taste, how they lived, rotting furniture and old calendars on the wall. What people leave often points to the speed at which they fled.

Tess of Demure Folk recently came across this abandoned farm house in the Berkshires. The delicate wallpaper, the ancient linoleum — so beautiful! It seems very 1930s to me. I’d live there in a second (who wouldn’t?). I’d peel back the layers, frame the wallpaper remnants and enjoy the process of turning it into something livable while maintaining its legacy. I always said I’d never live in a renovated house when I grew up (I grew up in a continual state of moving and construction), but this house might change my mind.

For more photos of Tess’s adventure, check out Demure Folk.

Blogs I Love: Dark Passage

Posted by Alison – June 22, 2010

Julia Solis has my dream job. She explores and photographs forgotten, paint-chipped mental hospitals, ancient tunnels beneath the city streets, and the detritus left behind after institutions fall into disrepair and become obsolete. Basically, abandonment city — cue my sincere and hand-wringingly strong lust to join her on these journeys. She gains access to the kinds of places I only stare at from a distance, wishing I had the cojones to actually climb over a barb wire fence and risk stigmata to my delicate paws.

She’s done more incredible work than I could ever show in one blog post, but these photos of abandoned theaters — the series is aptly titled “Stages of Decay” — made me lose my breath. To imagine all of the dramatic enterprise hat once took place in those gilded, velvet lined amphitheaters, now hanging in tatters. The ghosts of former performances hang around, I’m sure, reliving their glory days.

For more of Julia’s work check out her website, Dark Passage, for a full portfolio of her travels. Her daily blog, Dark Passage Travelogue, explores the artistic artifacts found beneath the crumbling walls she scales. If you’re in New York, she frequently holds talks and sometimes accompanies the public on tours beneath the streets — but I may just be making this up. She’s rad.

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