06 January 2010

Detroit!

Yesterday, I went to Detroit with Autumn and a fellow named IlDuce, who runs this site. He was extremely knowledgeable about urban exploration. It seemed like almost every block, he'd point out an abandoned building and know how to get in. It was sort of scary.

Speaking of scary: Detroit

We visited three places: an industrial building whose name I forget, Breitmeyer elementary school, and Michigan Central (<--- omg omg omg)

The first place:


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Breitmeyer was a foreign language immersion elementary school in operation from 1917 to 2005. The inside was pretty strange. Aside from what you'd normally expect -- debris and vandalism, there were stacks upon stacks of pristine, unopened textbooks. The principal had left behind a couple of plaques she'd been awarded. The library was still full of books (as a consequence, I now own Death of a Salesman). One room was littered with students' disciplinary records. Some of them were just indescribably hilarious, and I think IlDuce is planning on uploading some photos he took of them. I'll keep you in the loop. So here are some pictures.




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Michigan Central is a motherfucking huge train station, operational from 1913 to 1988. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Words will not do it justice; my pictures won't either. It's incredible -- this huge, once-ornate, once-beautiful hollow shell, sprinkled with graffiti, decaying, the air so thick with dust or asbestos or something it's hard to breathe. I felt dwarfed and awed to see nature reclaiming something that took so much to create.
The light was almost gone when we arrived, so I only got a few pictures. I need to go back and see it in the daylight as soon as possible.






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That's all for now. I can't wait to do this again.

I've still got a painting or two I need to post. And I want to talk to you guys about ambient gaming. So keep an eye out for that.

Seacrest, out.

9 comments:

  1. So pretty!
    I like the train station ones because they remind me of art class. You know that...
    And right now you are growling at my dog...

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  2. Blogger is formatting this post like a crackhead for some reason. Going to have to get to the bottom of that.

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  3. i have to say, i enjoy your dig on decaying urban society. it puts modern society into perspective.

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  4. ...I must not have seen the same Detroit you saw. Now I am considerably jealous.

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  5. I went to Breitmeyer from 1968 to 1974. Thanks for the memories.

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  6. I went to Breitmeyer from 1968 to 1974, thanks for the memories.

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  7. Your site is awesome. I wish you still updated -- I'd love to see more incredible photos and read about urban exploration!

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