Hayward

Awesome vaulted ceilings down there!

Great shots. The only thing that sucks about getting a new camera is that you feel the need to go back and redo all the shots and places you went to before because your pictures are now far better. I wouldn't worry about these getting damaged to easily. They tend to hold up pretty well to getting knocked into concrete compared to point and shoots. For an expensive camera, they better hold up. There were some tests done that the Rebels and Nikons held up wonderfully when dropped from a second story window onto concrete. No damage except for maybe a nick or scratch, and no mechanical malfunctions. Still, avoid having this happen lol. Excellent pick MayDay.

I have a book that shows the construction and layouts of many of these apartments. Actually alot of these buildings were constructed to be speculative, and they were not roomy either. From what I can see, if they were indeed divided up within the past decades, they must be REALLY small now.

I think the next version of American Ruins will mostly likely cover that. It already shows parts of the Bronx and Harlem that went from okay to terrible to wonderful in a period of 15 years. Perhaps it's time I visit this school again. It looks like it might have some nice views. I've done a weekend trip out to NYC and it worked out quite well. Now that I have 4 days weekends for the rest of the semester, even better.

Yes I know. I was exaggerating a bit. But when you come from an area where burned out houses next to collapsing brick apartments is considered an okay area, this school looks more than habitable.

Actually this school is on 145th between Broadway and Amsterdam. To me, this area seemed glamorous, coming from Detroit. Then again, I doubt I'd be there at night. I know this is the building. I attempted to get in, but I had cut up my ankle really bad two days prior and could hardly walk. I was able to get over the gateway at the front, which had no barbed wire. Just iron fencing on either side. I also don't know NYC's laws for trespassing on abandoned property. In Detroit you cannot be prosecuted just because you walked or climbed in. I had a photo looking straight on, but twol of them got corrupted from my set, one was the school. But you can still see it in this angled shot. It's the tall red brick one with the arches and the blue scaffolding. EDIT: This is probably more useful: http://maps.google.com/maps?client=firefox-a&channel=s&hl=en&ie=UTF8&q=145th+New+York+NY&fb=1&split=1&ll=40.82574,-73.94847&spn=0.001567,0.006974&t=h&z=18&layer=c&cbll=40.825787,-73.948921&panoid=sMWfnTeCg-TPOdwsy4lDHQ&cbp=11,33.57637094713516,,0,-26.189649902512972

No doubt he makes the feds so nervous that they are building their own bridge to Canada downriver from his. Not to say there is anything wrong with his bridge crossing. It's quite effective and organized, and is being expanded. I could never pinpoint why the feds wanted another bridge with his project moving along except that they wanted more control over a border crossing. I never thought of Maroun as terrifying. I actually imagine him as charming, but stubborn with way too many priorities on his plate. He owns so much that plans are bound to be overlooked. I think he knows what he wants for MCS, but there are already casinos, and there's already a convention center, meaning his international trading center is his last workable idea.

Is Matty Maroun still the owner? Yessir

I used to be a moderator at UrbanPlanet. I hated the way things were run over there. The other moderators would instigate these ridiculous debates and suspend people who disagreed with them. The quality of content eventually dropped in many areas and I requested to be demoted back to a regular member since I rarely checked the site and was fed up with people pm-ing their crybaby stories. Many others also abandoned the site when the discussion became bland. One of the other Michigan moderators who is cool doesn't even post there much anymore either. I still make a few posts there maybe once every month if a thread comes up as interesting. Seriously, there is more Ann Arbor-Detroit discussion on UrbanOhio than there is Michigan section on U/P. And the discussion here has FAR more quality.

He knows. Of course. Because when ColDay is in town, it's either Slows or the foodcourt at the Casino. Sherman has experienced this wonderment. Ironically, he's not that far off, the current owner really wants it to be a casino... with a bombass food court. The funding is available for renovation of this building into anything. Plenty of funding available, much more than necessary. It's just that the owner really isn't interested in this structure at the time being. The issue is that he doesn't realize the conditions are getting worse inside. The building is FAR more damaged than it was a couple years ago. The interior now has graffiti and I recall some of the windows actually having glass not long ago. Numerous stairways have collapsed rendering some places inaccessible.

Never had problems with self checkout. Even purchasing age restricted items. I just raise my hand and they do something at their terminal that lets me advance. The Unlimited item self checkouts are kind of annoying though. They are really only intended for two people making one purchase. One bags items while the other scans. When there's just one person, everything gets all backed up.

I agree with the comments about MSG being kind of dumpy, both inside out, from the basement transit station to inside the arena, the toilet seat really needs to go. Some modernist buildings have aged nicely, but this one took a turn for the worst. I'd expect the replacement to be world class, and a much better anchor to the urban environment.

It really looks like it wants to be taller. BTW, again I see I really need to head out to G-Rap, alot of those renovations posted above are nearly completion. I think my schedule is open all day Friday so I'll go out for a nice 2.5 hour drive LOL. In a state where projects seem to remain in uncertainty, GR gets them done, and does them well. What's even cooler are the neighborhoods. Incredible housing stock in the Heritage Hill area. While demolition has ravaged so many cities in Michigan, it skipped Grand Rapids thankfully.

Hey, Ann Arbor will trade you two of our Whole Foods for a dumpy Kroger in the city anyday. I'm a minority in this town saving that, but I could really go for some affordable food on my budget. Otherwise we have our own version of the Findlay Market but it's expensive as well.

I honor him for his hard work, but I think I and any others would resort to laser cutting everything. It's fast, precise, and more intricate. You can scale the drawings to any size you want, yes. I don't have any idea what scale we used in architecture school to model cities, probably something around HO scale for larger projects, but you could put in quite the level of detail.

BTW, if anyone is curious where these photos were taken let me know. The skyline shot with SoNo tower in the way is the North Ave Collection @ North Ave. It took me forever to find this impressive view. The shot of Wrigley with the modern building behind it is from Carbon and Carbide tower. The BEST, and I mean the BEST view above Chicago you can get. It's better to be 40 stories up than 90 stories looking down at air conditioning units. Walk right in the lobby (hard rock hotel) and take the elevator to the top floor (37) on weekdays only. It's a dead mechanical floor and has 360 degree views....Millenium Park, Loop framing Sears Tower, Looking up Michigan Ave, and the river.

BTW if anyone of you knows AutoCAD, Adobe illustrator, or any program out there that allows you to draw lines (vector format) you could draw your buildings and take them to your local plastic dealer to have them laser cut and then assembled. When I was in architecture school we used to make miniature models of cities for our site models out of basswood and would even cut in window mullions and terra cotta details. They can get pretty powerful

This was finished up a few months ago: LL Lofts

I want to implement the above novelty as my city's new transit system!

Agreed. They've had an incredible amount of development in the last few years. Definitely 12 times what has been posted in this thread. I've been hoping to get over their soon to get some photos but it's about 2.5 hours away from AA. The Pill Hill/Medical Mile has really beefed up the entrance into the city. I think the old Towers building at 7 short floors (now demolished) was the tallest along the Ford Expwy. We need to get the JW Marriot and the new condo tower posted on here.

That MIGHT be getting renovated soon

I had one a long time ago. Last time I saw it was 1998 when we thought we were moving out to Oakland, CA. It was actually very advanced. I had about 60-75 buildings, some of them quite large. Now it's in storage. I checked on it a couple years ago and it looked like a lot of it got damaged from moisture. The superglue turned the plastic a weird color.

Is this on Jefferson?

Hospital helicopters are worse, especially when the landing area is 300 feet away, they fly very low over my building and my 90 year old windows don't do anything to stop the noise. I wish people would stop getting hurt so I can get some sleep. There I said something nice out of this. I do enjoy the sound of freight trains and Amtrak nearby.

It's excellent news. I went around the back and saw a bunch of work going on inside. I could've walked in, but everybody was so busy I didn't want to interrupt. Here's some info about it from wiki: "In 2006, the exterior was extensively secured and terra cotta pieces were cataloged and stored for future restoration efforts. A May 21, 2007 article in Crain's Chicago Business described the Uptown Theatre as "suddenly a hot property," as three national entertainment companies were in competition to purchase, restore and reopen the Uptown Theatre.[2] It was purchased through a judicial sale July 29, 2008 by JAM Productions for $3.2 million[3] and finalized in court on August 18, 2008.[4] It is estimated it will take about $40 million to get it ready for use again. JAM currently also owns the Riviera Theatre also on Broadway, approximately one block away."