who knows how many rapes have taken place in these empty buildings
R.I.P. Louie: TehPandaShow gone but not forgotten
Awsome shots!
I used to have an office at the MCD. 8th floor.
We were turning the whole area into a franchise of the world trade center.
In 1986 I had every single window cleaned & functional! There were 12' diameter chandeliers that we had completely restored hanging from the main lobby. (you can see a cord from one hanging..)
We used to hit golf balls from ontop of the roof toward a run down half-way house, run by the catholic arch diocese, all the tenants were drug users! (They could never figure out where the balls were coming from!)
As you were getting up to the roof - I can't imagine how the hell you did that!, you passed the 13th floor, it was never finished, of course you wouldn't have been able to tell since it would now look like all the other floors.
We had one of the largest US flags flying from the flag pole, so that people coming over from canada could see it!
btw, any plans to get some pics of tiger stadium?
wow, thats way cool! ive seen the video on youtube about the 'final walk' an employee took there. it was kind of heart wrenching looking at the video, and the place as it sits now.
they are currently tearing down tiger stadium. i never got a chance to get in there... bummer.
as always, thanks for all the comments. there is still lots more to learn!
-Dane
how did you get into all these places? arent they fenced off or anything?
i am able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.
actually, the only one fenced off, is the train station. the rest, are wide open. you just walk in the front (or back) door. haha.
-Dane
sweeeeeet. be careful. one guy fell down an open elevator shaft here last year.
Great job man, I hope to see more soon. It is sad to see, that could be such a beautifully restored building - but utterly fascinating at the same time.
Wow. That is crazy how it just fell off. I wonder if other areas got hit that hard?
-Chris
Last edited by Bimmer14PA; 08-07-2008 at 02:14 PM.
Fantastic work. If I lived had lived there, I would have grown up in those places. Tell the parents I'm going to play and explored for hours. I can't imagine all the thoughts you had when in these places.
Keep up the good work and be careful.
Wow! I absolutely love exploring old and abandoned things/places. I think it's the fact that knowing how people lived but they are gone excites me. Do you have any cool/scary/interesting stories involving characters that you find inhabiting or just messing around in those buildings? Have you found anything really cool that you wanted to take home with you, or that filled you with wonder? Amazing photography, I just killed an hour looking through those pictures.
Not to steal the OP's thunder, but when I was at the train station, I found a punch out train ticket thing from 1971...
As for seeing people, the only person I saw in there was a guy with a university sweater on that was going to the roof.
But that same time...when I went to exit the building, I walked through one of the huge rooms I had to walk through on the way in and somebody had set up a ritual type of thing with a bunch of red items and stuff on the ground
I have pictures, but I don't want to thread-jack, so I'll only post if the OP gives me permission to post a picture of the ticket and ritual thing.
Very, very cool thread. Thanks OP, you took me (us) on a pretty sweet tour of your adventures.
BMWCCA #387539
Great video, I hadn't seen that one before. We approved a number of requests for videos. And, in '86 they made a preview short-movie, some sci-fi movie, it was never made..
In the video near the end, you'll see that there was cement poured to fill the long rectangular holes that used to have benches there. Similar to the other large room.
I've got pics taken from the 8th floor of the book depository, when it had a 3-alarm fire, again, from '86. Even got a pic of a fireman tripping over a hose & nearly knocking himself out!
Brief summary of why it went 'south'
a.rich financier bought the place in 84/85 plan was to turn the area into a world trade center - franchise of the world trade center in NY.
b. then detroit mayor coleman young wanted a number of 'his' people involved $$.
c. In '87 tax laws changed, the mayors administration wanted additional control of the development - there were hundreds of acres involved, from michigan avenue to almost the bridge.
d. NY based finacier said F Off to the city administration, went back to NYC.
e. Amtrak moved out to dearborn.
f. Building abandoned, security company took it over for back payments. I think around $80k. This was going on through the '90's
g. Today - Owner of the bridge & a whole bunch of other companies has control of the property
h. "kwaim" was going to put the detroit police HQ there, that fell through
hope thats not too wordy..
right on! kwame wanted to turn it into the DPD HQ, but money was an issue...
according to wiki, the building sold for less than 100k recently (in the past 10-12 years). amazing if you ask me. the current owner, also owns the ambassador bridge. michael maroon or something like that.
Xenobiotic, feel free man. you're turn for center stage.
as far as creepy shit ive seen.... anyone ever see this before?
loooooong story short. my buddy grant and i, were visiting the old packard plant for the very first time. and stumbled upon these guys wearing army boots and leather vests and shit. they were taking pictures. we assumed for an album cover or something for a band. we later saw them dressed up like superheroes... then it got uber weird....as you can see. it got weirder, so we took off. we HAD to document our find though. it spread over the intrawebs like wild fire. it was funny, veeeeery funny. then they somehow contacted my buddy and threatened to sue. lol, like they had a legit case... haha.
anyhow, thats about as weird as ive ever seen.
actually, ive been back there several times since. do you see the exhaust ducting painted over at the top of the photo??
i saw this at a later date, and it made me ROFL, so i had to snap a pic.
-Dane
Absolutely amazing work. at the last set, that's awesome.
Detroit is definitely the capital of urban decay. We've got some stuff like that out here in the SF Bay Area, but not nearly to the same scale as over there. The other thing is that all of the abandoned places here are closely guarded. There's an abandoned Public Health Service Hospital a few blocks from my house that closed during the Reagan administration, but unfortunately they have a full time security force keeping people out. Just a few years ago you could go inside and only run the risk of getting pricked by mystery needles.
I remember those pictures but didn't know that was you that took them or that they were right here in detroit
Heres the ritual that was setup during the time that I was going through the building:
It has 4 pieces of wood around a green blanket, white rock on each corner, barbed wire in the front, and a bunch of red objects right in the middle. The picture quality is shitty considering my ex that I was with started freaking out and rushed me out of the building as quick as she could.
closer shot:
there's plenty of weird stuff written, like this
I saw graffiti on the 4th floor that said "avoid the setting of the sun" which couldn't have felt more true..
Here's the train ticket, near the top left it says 91371, which seems like a date to me, 9/13/71. Someone here can feel free to correct me.
Sorry for the shitty pictures, some things I was more-so just trying to document and other things I was actually trying to be "artsy" with. It doesn't help that this was before my D80 days.
weird! ive seen weird things like that too. i think the vast majority is from some artsy kids messing around. does peak your curiousity though.
-Dane
I was really wanting to try to go up to Detroit to check stuff like this out. I was going to try to make a trip this summer. I read an article done a few months ago about abandoned properties all over the world and Detroit was near the top of the list. It sparked a big interest to try to get up there to check it out.
If I get up there would you show me around?
Thats some crazy shit. You guys worried about getting jumped with all your cam. gear?
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