Collapse !!

I had a previously planned Packard factory exploration. A friend of mine wanted to explore some tunnels she'd found underneath the factory. We'd also heard there might be a bomb shelter down there. Nothing like damp dark tunnels underneath a crumbling 100 year old factory to garner my interest.
Then I saw this aerial photo that a friend had taken one day ago What it showed was absolutely incredible. Horrifying, actually.

Sometimes in the last week, an entire section of a 7 story concrete building had collapsed. Nobody in the local urbex scene was aware of it apparently, and the response to this aerial photo was "Holy Shit", since almost everybody has walked around up here at some time. Lots of folks have spent hour after hour up here placing televisions. Lots of friends have spent hours up there taking extensive photos.
The collapse reminded me of the side of the Oklahoma City Federal building after it was bombed. Just a giant chunk scooped out.
My first thought was " cool, I'm already going tomorrow, can't wait to see the collapse". Then I was bummed out because looking at that, there was no way I was going back up in that building and there was supposed to be sunshine. I had lots of photos in my head that I wanted to try and reproduce up in the Garden of the Gods. This collapse spoiled my plans


or so I thought.......


Don't forget to double click, then click to enlarge the pics!!

The approach was typical.Through the fields of rubble, left behind by scrappers.
There was a nice change though. A guy was stealing stuff using a forklift so some of the rubble has been cleared from the front. It made for an easier trip once we got near the building
The area of the collapse is on the right side of the building in the photo I know only one way to the area of collapse, which is through the inside towards the only remaining functional staircase
What is visible here is the part of the top floor which collapsed over a year ago. For some reason this didn't cause the remaining floors to pancake beneath it ( YET) The entry point for us is the center bottom of the building.

But I did not want to enter this building until I could see the area of damage from the outside. We climbed over lots of rubble towards the railroad tracks and headed down to the collapse.

Holy shit!

It's all gone. All the way to the bottom. Wow. It totally pancaked. I hope nobody was in there. It's a pretty popular building for exploration. I've taken lots of photos in here before, and you would never expect all of it to come down. All of it.

What about the staircase, shown on the left. How is that sucker staying up? It seemed to be bowing about mid way up, towards the area of collapse. The staircase was kind of crumbly last time. I wondered if the stairs were still in working order.

I guess given 100 years, and almost 60 years since it was abandoned, add water, snow, rain, wind, scrappers stealing infrastructure, and good Old gravity and I'm surprised this hasn't already happened. But it was still shocking to see this degree of damage!

and zooming in shows the sagging of the concrete.
Those metal reinforcements in the concrete are incredibly strong. Exposed to forces they were never designed to take, and they are bending but not breaking. I found myself rooting for them, especially as I was standing underneath all the rubble and any more falling stuff could come in my direction.


The three of us were content to shoot the area from below.

Obi Won Kenobi said, Who's the bigger fool. The Fool or the fool who follows him.

The 4th member of the group, who'd announced her arrival by whistling down to us from the 2nd floor says " OK, time to head on up"

and then I said, OK. Surely it can't decide to collapse more now, right? I said a Hail Mary as I began to climb over the pathway of rubble to get into the building. We double around to get towards the entry to the stairs. I stayed as far to the inside as I could...ya know. Just in case
Entering the stairs, I looked up. Swallowed hard, and headed up. I think I was the first one in the line at first. I can't remember.



I gingerly exited the stairs on somewhere on the 4th floor. When I got to the door for 3, I opened it up to see if the murals I'd shot in the reflection the month before were there. They were. The water was mostly gone this time. I guess whatever was there , not had a giant hole to drain it.
Here's a nice thought. This lovely shot was taken by me just 1 month ago......in the area that would have been pancaked by 4 floors of factory

The murals are still there, but the area where I was standing taking that photo is gone......

Out on 4. OK, as long as I'm standing there, I'm gonna get my photo.

The destruction was incredible, but really I just wanted to shoot this floor and then head down. It occurs to me now that the extra weight of the water this past week ( we had 2 days of rain) probably pushed the structure to the limit. Last month when I was in the building, it was raining for two days before we explored the building. Those reflections were because there was a few inches of water. Those few inches over all that space certainly add lots of weight.I'm glad it didn't collapse that day.

"Onward and upward" I heard the voice....

Shit.


Back to the stairs we went and up we went. We noticed that there were 6 coffins just sitting alone, on the grass at the cemetery. Just sitting there. I remarked, let's hope they aren't for us.

The views got better and the uneasy feeling got stronger. I think we were all pretty scared but nobody admitted it. Peer pressure is such a strange thing. I'm pretty sure none of us would have gone up alone , but given the chance to opt out and look afraid, we opted to explore. So what takes more guts, to explore an unstable building, or to say No. Peer pressure is a pretty powerful thing, one way or the other, because all of us headed up the stairs!


Almost to the top. I call this shot "stadium effect" This is the effect hurricane hunters refer to when inside the eye of a hurricane. This image reminded me of that. I certainly felt like I was in the eye. Danger all around.

Shooting through bars. Kind of like a view from Jail. I thought of Disgraced mayor and thug Kwame Kilpatrick doing hard time, looking at the city from which he stole millions.



The final push. The last concrete staircase looked a bit under the weather, but that's exactly how I remembered it, so I proceeded quickly to the roof. The less time I spent in the stairs the more time I had for the wonderfully stable roof......
The View was both spectacular and chilling . I felt sad knowing that this would be the last time I would see this view, but at the same time I was glad that I overcame many fears and made it up here.


These are two photos taken 1 month apart. Both from the exact same vantage point. On the second photo it's pretty obvious the area that was destined to fail and collapse. It appears depressed from a half century of water damage. But let's be honest, who could look at that second photo and say the entire building would disappear underneath that area? I couldn't and at the time paid this area no attention



Then there was this view I took last month.
Pretty much everything seen under here is collapsed. The ceiling does look pretty eroded and weak

The views that day were really nice. It was sunshine. Very little wind ..
My friend took the opportunity to walk the very thin isthmus of pavement that remained between the new and old roof collapse to perch herself and look straight down. No way I was following her over there. I'll just wait for her photo ( which was awesome by the way) I decided to photograph her since I knew nobody would believe how nuts this looked. That giant enormous slab, probably weighing several tons just hanging by a few metal rods, right beneath her. Incredible!!!
<
The reason I pose this way, is because this expresses my emotions in living my dreams. Putting it all out there, and leaving nothing behind. When I take my last breath, I don't want to say, 'Wish I'd done that" It's my expression of freedom and being alive. I call this my kinesthetic pose as somebody called me a kinesthetic personality last year.I think this was said derisively, by somebody who thinks adventure is frivolous, but I took it as a huge compliment.I looked down at the people in the cemetery below us. Their days are done. I'll join them soon enough, but I'll not squander one day. Each day is a gift and I am grateful for it. So this explains this frequent pose I do.

My friend was still on her perch shooting her shot. I was pretty much ready to leave, but I figured I'd make the most of my time and take one of the shots I'd planned on doing.

Remembering where I was, I suddenly got religion. Alternative title for this photo is Tele-Evangelism

Body language is a cool thing. I noticed that although my one friend was still perched shooting, the rest of us had our tripods folded and our lens caps on our cameras or they were stored in the bags ready to go. She called out " can you guys move over out of my shot"...and we all , rather than head further away from the stairs, moved in unison towards the stairs!! Ha.
She quickly thereafter finished her shot and it was time to take one last look. Mine lasted about half a second. I didn't want to dash down the stairs and put undue strain on them, but I'm pretty sure I gracefully glided down that staircase about as fast as anybody ever has!

Part one of the exploration was done. I had a tremendous sense of satisfaction and relief. Mostly relief. No time for second-guessing the decision to head up there. It's done and I won't look back.

On the way heading towards the entry to the underground tunnels, we ran into this scrapper who was all too happy to relate the events of the collapse a few days earlier.
He said some punks were around there throwing rocks, and he thought they were chipping away at the concrete and that caused it. Of course that's impossible.

He said, out of the blue in the middle of the afternoon, there was just an incredible crash. Louder than anything he could have imagined. BANG. All at once it was down in a matter of a few seconds. That mu'fucka was down

He said he was pretty sure some people would come and want to go up there, and he shook his head and said that this would be a pretty damned crazy ass thing to do.

Yes, it was.

and on we went to explore the tunnels, some intersting stuff but that is a tale for another day

Near Misses

Sometimes, you encounter obstacles. Locked doors, fences. No trespassing signs. Security. Unstable structures, broken glass, rusty nails, even crackheads.

Such was the case this past week.



St Luke's Hospital is old. Very old. There is very limited information on this facility, but as best I can gather it dates back to around the turn of the century. At first, mostly a hospital for women. Then an inpatient mental facility, then a homeless shelter. Now like thousands of other places in Detroit, it's abandoned and rotting. And like so many other places, it's had it's share of fires.....

The stench of fire here has never been my favorite smell. OK, I hate it. I was thinking, Great I'm going to have this stink on me all day" The crunching underfoot was very loud. I wondered if there was a basement and if I'd soon be there, via a hole in burned rotten wood flooring.

Exit to the left is some kind of nurses center. A call system is on the wall. This place is very sad but then I spot a ray of sunshine.

This place for some reason really gave me the creeps.

I think it's because there were so many rooms and it was kind of a small confined space. I prefer larger more wide open spaces and this is in a VERY bad part of town. I just didn't like all of the perfect spots for people to hear us and jump us. That being said, we kept our ears open and kept going and shooting. This noose hanging in the hallway was pretty interesting given the history of this building. And as usual in so many buildings, computer equipment is left behind.

Peering down one hallway on the second floor with some fire damage and some really cool burned out mattress coils, I was setting up my tripod since the light was really poor. Then at the end of this distant hallway, this sheet sat up. Not a ghost, a resident. The typical slurring of speech and saying lots of shit to us that I couldn't hear told me that this chap was probably using non licensed pharmaceuticals and maybe some alcohol. I abandoned the shot....

So rather than head down and out , what did we do? Of course , we headed for the third floor

In the staircase this T-shirt caught my eye. Quite ironic, in a city where the dreams of so many children have gone the route of this building. I thought: Detroit, where dreams go to die.

Up exploring the third floor, and walking the length of the long hallway,we could hear that person had come all the way down to where we had entered the staircase, and had headed downstairs. But then we could hear other people and the sounds seemed to be getting closer, not further.

So time for one more shot!

I really didn't have time to frame this how I liked. I loved this fixture hanging low, above what must have been a meeting room. I pictured "one flew over the cuckoo's nest"


"Let's get out of here" said my usually fearless exploring partner, who has done tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We booked it down the stairs, and folks were really close. Tried to exit through a metal door. BANG BANG BANG. Nope. Wouldn't open all the way. Went down all the way towards where we'd entered, passing room after room, waiting to see someone, then out another door on the back side of the building and out into the sun. Before we got out we did have a face to face with another guy who hit us up for some spare change. He was messed up. We kept the change.

A fairly brief excursion. Glad to get out. Disappointed that time and rushing really precluded a full exploration and better photos.

The next two stops were complete busts. I had mapped out a few of Detroit's dozens of schools that are abandoned...and wouldn't you know it, BOTH places we visited had crews inside preparing for demolition. So now they decide to tear shit down, just when I want to get in! Thanks for nothing.

Feeling very thwarted by the events of the day, and being in the industrial area, and emboldened, we decided to try and visit the Fisher 21 body plant. This is another Albert Kahn Genius creation.

In 1904 and 1905, the two eldest brothers, Fred and Charles, came to Detroit where their uncle Albert Fisher had established Standard Wagon Works during the latter part of the 1880s. With financing from their uncle, on July 22, 1908 Fred and Charles Fisher established the Fisher Body Company.
In 1916, the company became the Fisher Body Corporation. Its capacity was now 370,000 bodies per year and its customers included Abbot, Buick, Cadillac, Chalmers, Chandler, Chevrolet, Churchfield, Elmore, EMF, Ford, Herreshoff, Hudson, Krit, Oldsmobile, Packard, Regal, and Studebaker.
The company constructed their signature factory, the Albert Kahn-designed Fisher Body 21, on Piquette Street, in Detroit, in 1919.
The plant is six stories tall, with a footprint of 200 feet by 581 feet and an interior area of 536,000 square feet.

During World War II, the factory produced P-80 Lockheed Shooting Star Planes, FG-4 (F4U-4) Corsair Shipboard Fighters, and some assemblies for B-25 Mitchell bombers. After 1956, the plant was used to build Cadillac limousine bodies; GM closed the plant in 1984. After GM left, several paint companies used the building; it closed for good in 1994. Now anybody who has been to Detroit and driven on I-75 or I-94 ( where they intersect ) has seen this giant graffiti covered rotting structure

We drove around the perimeter All of the places where access would be easy were completely fenced by a quite intact fence . So we drove around and found a piece of wall that was irregular.

And in we went.

The place is awesome!


I love the columns and wide open spaces in these Kahn-designed factories.
Next I noticed some stalactites.


then I noticed some security guards right out front, and heading in our direction! Damn!! We'd just located the staircase. For so long I'd wanted to get on that roof.
And out the hole we went. Freedom.

As General MacArthur said, I'll be back!

Michigan Central Station

Michigan Central Station was built in 1913 for the Michigan Central Railroad, and was Detroit, Michigan's passenger rail depot from its opening in 1913 until the last train pulled away in 1988.
The station is located in the Corktown area, not an insignificant distance from Downtown Detroit. The reason for the placement this far from downtown was a hope that the station would be an anchor for prosperity to follow. Initially, things were looking up as Henry Ford began to buy land near the station in the 1920s and plans were made, but the Great Depression and other circumstances squelched this and many other development efforts. Further compounding MCS's future problems was the fact that no large parking facility was included in the original design of the facility. So when the interurban service was discontinued less than two decades after MCS opened and streetcar service stopped in 1938, MCS was effectively isolated from a large majority of the population.
Despite this isolation, traffic to the station remained brisk.
During World War II, the station saw heavy military use, but once the war ended, passenger volume began to decline. Service was cut back and passenger traffic became so low that the owners of the station attempted to sell the facility in 1956 for US$5 million, one-third of its original building cost in 1913. Another attempt to sell the building occurred in 1963, but again there were no buyers. In 1967, maintenance costs were seen as too high relative to the decreasing passenger volume. The restaurant, arcade shops, and main entrance were closed, along with much of the main waiting room
Things began to look better for the building when Amtrak took over the nation's passenger rail service in 1971. The main waiting room and entrance were reopened in 1975 and a $1.25 million renovation project was begun in 1978. But only 6 years later, the building was sold for a transportation center project that never materialized. Then, on January 6, 1988, the last Amtrak train pulled away from the station after it was decided to close the facility

In the interim it has served as a filming location for several motion pictures, but otherwise stands empty. It stands isolated. It's a focal point for those for historians, and those with a soft spot for nostalgia. It's A focal point for scrappers, thieves, vandals, and is considered the mecca for Urban explorers. In Detroit urban exploration, you haven't been anywhere if you haven't been inside the station.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Restoration projects and plans have gone as far as the negotiation process, but none has come to fruition. The Detroit City Council Voted to Demolish this beautiful structure in 2009, but a private citizen quickly filed a lawsuit to block the demolition citing the Historic Register Law. And so it stands .....in limbo .






For years I have driven by wondering about this magnificent building.
Getting inside became a curiosity and then slowly an obsession. I drove by many times. Photographed the exterior Planned and plotted. Tried to determine the point of entry.

Getting in has been done by a small band of explores. But I soon found that the entry points are a bit of a secret. It took a while, exploring other buildings. Meeting and befriending the local urbex crowd, but I was finally invited to go on a trip to the station.

Quite by Chance.
God Bless the Rain.

I was heading out on a shoot with a few of Detroit's most prolific urbex veterans. Destination : outdoor shooting near the Highland park area, where some of the buildings have recently sold for incredible sums of money. The assumption being, a new arena for the Detroit Red Wings will go up here and these buildings will soon be coming down
Then the rain spoiled their plans to shoot outdoors and suddenly the plan was to visit the station and join with a group that was already there. It was hard to handle my excitement. Without time to think about it, I was going.

Fast forward.

Darkness.


I mean Real Darkness. As black as night. Walking with a tripod in one hand, and a flashlight in the other , eyes straining with maximum intensity at the irregular floor of someplace time forgot. Some place that seemed deeper than Hell ( and colder and darker ). I see water reflections. I hear dripping water in the distance. Mostly though I head the echos far off in the distance of the crunching of earth under my boots. I see Holes in the floor. Placed at random. Some have a visible bottom, some don't I am glad I have a flashlight! Turning the light in every direction, it fails to find the limits of this vast underground space. It's more than a bit frightening down there. What is there in the dark? Who is there?? I see a rat at one point running by in the edge of my lights beam. It was one big rat!

All the senses are heightened in darkness like this. The musty smell was absolutely overwhelming. I can't remember how far in I was when I was overcome with the belief that the air I was breathing was filled with nastiness, like opening a tomb, but all at once I was hit with the musty smell. My mind poured over the textbook of my college microbiology class wondering what the Hell was living down there. None of it was probably my friend.
But I had to concentrate. That floor was treacherous. The pace of the guys I was following was blistering and there was no way I was going to become separated. I needed to concentrate on the floor!





Light ahead!

After what seemed to me several minutes, and what was probably less than 2 minutes, I saw some light ahead. Then some more light. Then we hit some giant locked door that reminded me of the doors in a ship which close when the boat is flooding which had about 12 inches to spare. Off came the backpack. I sucked in and was grateful I skipped breakfast, and squeezed through the iron barred door. The light got stronger and stronger and then I was in.

The building I was in looked like an enormous shed, with lots of holes in the ceiling. A few more minutes through this shed area and in I was. Inside one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.
I've been to Rome. I've been to London. I've seen the great Cathedrals of the world, and this place is in that league. My traveling companion, sensing how I felt took the words from my mouth. " Incredible, isn't it? If this place was in any other world city, it would be protected, and filled with tourists and architectural students" I agreed.
As it happens, fate placed it here in Detroit and it's rotting....all alone ( except for those who can't be denied the view ) I'm happy to share the views I had this great day

I shoot almost exclusively with a Canon EF f/2.8 15 mm Fisheye lens. Yes, I am very unconventional in doing so, as my photog buddies frequently remind me. Yes it causes some distortion sometimes. But the fact remains that I LOVE the effects of this lens. It gives me a "through the looking glass" feeling. And lately I have been in a heavy processing mood on my photos. It's a phase. All Editing done in adobe lightroom

CLICK ON EACH PHOTO AND THEN ENLARGE IT. THERE ARE INCREDIBLE DETAILS HERE WHICH CANNOT BE SEEN ON THE SMALLER IMAGES!





Enjoy



A huge space. HUGE. Such incredible detail in the work. Such incredible silence. Every pebble crunched under foot, echos off the distant walls. I have a short time to get some shots because we are meeting the other people on the roof and they have a head start.


The Ceiling reminded me of Some of the ancient Egyptian temple at Karnak.


Gravity alert!


Suddenly I found myself lead into a doorway which was obviously a staircase.
"watch out, walk near the edge. the stairs are unstable" that was my only warning.
Stepping on the 3rd or 4th step, I was concentrating more on my camera display reviewing photos, and I heard a crunch, like stepping on plywood. I did not make that mistake again! Safety was the number one priority, and if you aren't careful in a building like this, you can get hurt or killed. .
The air was really dusty here. The floor was really rotten wood. So many boards. All of them disrupted, warped and rotted I stuck my head inside my inner shirt layer as I ascended the a few flights of stairs. This staircase is totally dark. There are no lights, and you see a layer of dust and particles in your light path. We exited at one floor and headed through the doorway into the light and then I realized I was on the top of the lobby, and the view was incredible.
"Watch out. Don't step there" Part of the floor appears to be cardboard box stretched out. We don't know if it's just covering some defect or not. Best to not take a chance. Just another reminder here that no matter how incredible the scenery, the only scenery that matters is that which is directly below your feet!!

But then there is this: Description unnecessary. Pure beauty


Back into the staircase. There were a few detours in which we exited to look at the floors ( not few enough to rest! ) Breathing through the shirt, up and up and up. The stuff I was carrying seemed suddenly heavy. At last we exited the stairs and had a look out. I was hoping we were at the top or at least near the top.


Wrong

Back into the staircase, I saw a warning which we ignored



Along the way we made a few more stops. Checked out a few more hallways, corridors. There was one constant, the staircase got shittier the higher up we got.

My memory is pretty vague regarding the ascent. I was winded.
Shots were taken of various corridors on the few stops we made.



Eventually, the light in the stairs got better. A lot better. as did the air quality. We were so high. The top two floors. They were never finished. In any other city these incredible floor spaces would fetch top dollar. can you imagine this space in New York City? One loft space would go for millions.
We roamed around and I got many shots of these incredible floors








IMPEACH OBAMA......I loved that somebody wrote this on the floor.



Looking at this shot,
I am reminded again of the danger. This open elevator shaft leads some 220 feet straight down. Certain death to anybody foolish enough to think this was a doorway. also a reminder, not to stick around after dark and to always carry flashlights and look at the floor in any darkened area before going forward






then the final staircase and I'm on top!!




I'm the king of the world!

The rooftop was a destination I had dreamed of for a long time. I never thought I would make it up here. It was such a great feeling to be standing in a place I had no business standing. Every time I drove by I looked at the roof, hoping to see somebody up there. I've never seen anybody. Today I was there. It was great.

The views are absolutely incredible. The visibility was pretty good despite the clouds. I could see for miles. The Ambassador bridge was spectacular.





The Downtown Detroit Skyline off in the distance

Very cool skylight, with a view 220 feet down to the pavement in the front of the building

The giant smokestack, covered in graffiti with the ambassador bridge in the distance and Canada to our South across the Detroit River.

Shot with my 200 mm zoom lens, you would think the Ambassador Bridge came right up to the base of the building. On the other side, there is Canada. To our South ( Detroit is North of Canada....fun trivia factoid)

I wandered into this large room, which I believe must have had something to do with the elevators or generators.

There was a pool of standing water. I always avoid pools of standing water in buildings because if this is where the water collects, then this is also probably where the floor is rotting.
But I do love a good reflection, and I loved the graffiti reflecting on the pool of water

I'm always amazed at the quality of art left behind with a spray can. Sure it's graffiti. Sure it's vandalism, but there is something raw and real about this noncommissioned art work that somebody who climed 18 flights of stairs carryig paint cans can leave behind. I found this room and the artwork within it to be some of my all time favorites. It doesn't hurt that so few people will ever get to see it. So I've captured it so others may enjoy it without the climb. I also thought there was a really cool contrast with all the circuits and machine stuff up here. A clash of right and left brain 220 feet above the ground!

Too quickly the time came to head down.

We used the staircase on the other side of the building. Unlike the first windowless staircase, this one had windows all the way down.

At first glance, looking at these weather beaten very flimsy stairs with open windows looking straight down , I longed for the dark staircase!

Watch your step!
I've never had an overt fear of heights, but I did find these views to be very scary. Still, I couldn't help looking all the day down


Some scrapper left part of his loot. I wondered how long it had been sitting on these stairs.

You can really see here how flimsy these stairs are. It was like a staircase made of potato chips. My first lesson was to walk single file where the steps meet the wall and not to step in the center of any step. A couple of times I missed or forgot and it really made a creaking cracking sound. Not a good sound!

Eventually it was out to the level overlooking the lobby. This time from a different angle. Still as beautiful as I remembered it, and from this side the light was much better



The final view before we disappear deep underground. The part I was least looking forward to!


Under and over, and through some pretty cramped areas. Then into the black. We're leaving through a different way than I came the first time. It's a longer stretch underground, but at least this time the blackness seems to be over sooner. Way off in the distance I can see light, and the whole space is at least barely illuminated. I can see glimpses of how huge this underground area is.
Then the hole in the earth. I'd seen this hole many times, always suspecting this might be a portal of entry. It looked black and intimidating from the outside world. Now that I was inside, this hole looked pretty welcome. Light, and freedom!


We were out. The fresh air was very much missed.
I heard a roar, and looked up to see fighter planes.

They were practicing for their flyover for the Detroit Tigers Home opener. I can safely say, that this is probably the only photo of F15's and Michigan Central Station in existence.


Finally, let's drink a toast to this grand old building.


Life goes on. As I am fond of showcasing, trees frequently grow from abandoned buildings. This is certainly no exception. The structures we build may survive us, but all of them will eventually be overtaken by mother nature.