Fly By

If you look upwards at night, would you happen to see the rooftoppers in flight amongst the skyscrapers?

Remaining Rails

The railway in this building is one of the few remaining vestiges that remind you of the work that took place here.

Not So Silent

As much as urban exploration is a visual endeavour, I find the sounds associated with a place really set the tone for the experience. As you walk through this abandoned body plant you hear the echo of your footsteps, wind blowing through shattered windows, and the occasional drop of water falling to the ground. You then realize that your footsteps aside, what your hear is the sound of this place being reclaimed by nature.

Reflecting On The Past

Walking through this site you can't help but think back to what this place must have been like when workers were scurrying about doing body work on cars that were produced here. Today, the only sounds you hear are your own footsteps and the occasional acetylene torch of a scrapper working on freeing up some metal.

The Spirit of Exploration

I took this snapshot on a recent road trip with B Synowiec and CrimsonDesigns. I think it captures the human element of urban exploration. We are not content to simply view history through the pages of books (or Wikipedia); we wander to not only see but to feel the history that still remains.

The White Collective

One generally assumes that urban exploration isn't necessarily the cleanest hobby around.  Yet, sometimes while exploring you can find yourself in a place that's definitively clean.  This was certainly the case with portions of the abandoned soap/detergent factory featured below.

If Cleanliness is Next to Godliness...

... would that make this place Valhalla? Over the course of ~3 years after this soap/detergent factory closed, equipment has slowly been removed. There are only a few areas where there is significant equipment to be seen reminding us of the plant's glory days.  Exploring a place like this is very surreal.  On the one hand, the buildings and architecture are circa 1890s-1900s.  Meanwhile, some of the industrial vestiges are quite modern.

Decaying Support

Another photo taken from "Stan's place" which was mentioned in a previous post.

Downtown Core

Stan's Throne

Stan, a homeless man, has taken up residence in this former industrial building and has tens of thousands of square footage at his disposal to live and ... collect things. What does he collect? Anything and everything. This particular room ("room" is used loosely here, the room is the size of a warehouse) contained literally thousands of bicycles and bicycle parts. In that sea of bikes sits this chair. I like to think of it as Stan's throne. Does Stan ever sit in it and look over his kingdom?