Hayward

Thanks for the comments. It's definitely a building many want to visit, even people who are not interested in urban exploring are intrigued by this structure. Here's a bonus shot. This is the attic above the grand vaulted waiting room. You can see that the domes are actually not self supporting, but held up by large steel trusses. This scale of these trusses is quite large. Those gusset plates are nearly 5 feet high I didn't actually discover this space until hearing about it from someone. It's actually extremely difficult to get to. Two storage rooms located on the mezzanine flank the grand waiting room behind the thermal windows. The ladders have been removed, and people who have gotten up there before propped some shelving units against the walls to get up to the ceiling hatch. The unfortunate thing is that the hatch is mounted to the steel grid work that supports the plaster ceiling of the storeroom. The gridwork is magically held up by cables that have rusted to practically nothing. I have no clue why, but that suspended plaster ceiling was capable of supporting all of our weight, probably 600 lbs total. However, that's not the challenging part. As you can see, the domes appear to die off into the wall. Actually there, is a narrow plenum space of darkness around the perimeter. This means that if you fall, your sliding down the side of the dome and falling into the crevice of doom. To avoid this, some people arranged some boards that spans between the steel beams. At certain points, you actually have to walk and hold onto the trusses to get over this gap. It's kind of fun if you are not thinking about the consequences. At the time I did this, I had no clue of the dangers, because the higher exposure allowed me to see what dangers actually existed when I was back at home looking at the pictures on my camera. hmmm.

I have a ton of photos from Detroit's abandoned Central Station. I used to pay frequent visits to this place with a few others, but haven't been back since 2006 since I've been really busy. I figured post some photos I took back in summer of 2005. Excuse some of the piss-poor photography. I had a camera that was nearing the end of its lifespan. I guess I'll start with the basement Keep in mind, for the most part the basement receives no light. I didn't have a flashlight when I took these and relied on the camera flash to see where I was going This corridor seemed to go on forever. After walking for what seemed like 200-250 yards, I gave up and turned around. I know an extensive underground network of utility passages exists linking many of the surrounding buildings. I don't think so Again, not a clue how deep this room is: Finally a stairway This foyer-like area is near the restaurant and one of the waiting rooms. Small Waiting room Restaurant I can't believe they put a drop ceiling in during the 70's! This giant hole was caused by vandals throwing bricks from the tower. Concourse doorway Concourse More to come soon!

Hmm, the cops in Union Township must have been bored or something. I better not go there because Hayward yields for no one when pulling out of driveways!

The notice says btw, the house is going up for public sale on Dec 6th. I seriously hope we do not get removed from the house, especially with exams coming in the following weeks.

Hey everyone, I have a question. The rental house, me and 4 others live in has been foreclosed upon. My landlords owe nearly $300,000. The notice was placed on our door yesterday. What does this mean? Will we get kicked out or in some cases will the new owner, (the bank) re-sign us a new lease? Does my lease become invalidated with the current landlords, so in the event we get kicked out, we can stop making payments? This all came out of nowhere.

Amazing photos Chris, especially those countryside shots. This really takes me back. I hope to visit Switzerland again someday. You hit up Lugano on the Italian side of the country while you were out there?

Hey, I really hate to solicit, but I'm trying to get rid of my OSU-Michigan ticket and use it to help cover the cost of gas to and from NYC. PM me for details, and I'm willing to sell less than prices I'm seeing on ebay.

Thank God for Forman Mills Clothing in Highland Park! - just kidding -

Nerrrrdfest! Haha, j/k. Wish I could have been there.

Very nice! You are fortunate to have some nice views.

Randomness. I'm on the left with the Texas shot glass.

This is an amazing street:

These are pretty remarkable. I love the colors. Photos 5 & 9 are my favorites

For those who enjoy hip hop, Lupe Fiasco made a stop in Ann Arbor on Monday to spit some rhymes and give a lecture. Lecture? wahhhh? In front of a crowd of hundreds, he had a Q&A session and spoke about the ills as well as the future POSITIVE possibilities of hip hop. Lupe Fiasco is seen as a break from the typical mainstream content of rap. Instead of lyrics full of sex, money, violence, glitz, and glamor, he focuses more on current social issues that affect everybody, rich, poor, black, white. This fresh breath of music has allowed his work to cross classes, ages, races, and religions, which was evident by the diverse turnout of his fans. Find out more about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupe_Fiasco Detroit's "#1 station for hip hop and R&B" arrives on scene. The event took place on Michigan's "diag" Fans. This image kind of didn't turn out Lupe (holding the yellow mic) emerges from the U of M Grad Library, followed by Bishop G Dropping a verse He could not actually perform with music because the university couldn't get the event insured on time. However, he was permitted to freestyle or do parts of his songs. Some dude tries to freestyle About 100 cameras in this photo It helps to have good focus on the camera

If this has already been asked, delete it, or merge it. I never thought I'd post on a forum until back in 2004 when I joined the Okayplayer HipHop Community That was followed shortly by Urbanplanet.org Then SSP when I caught someone swiping my images. Finally UrbanOhio came last year. From then on, I'd face the difficult struggle of trying to get real work done instead of posting on the internet. Fortunately sites like this look reputable when working for an architecture firm and the time comes for reviewing employees' internet usage. And since I'm now in grad school, I can pay attention less during lectures and lose focus on my schoolwork.

I'm tryna finish these damn papers. I hate grad school.

I'm going to copy and paste these into my urban design paper. Damn, only 2 pages

El Spanisho

I figure I'd show some pictures of the neighborhood I grew up in. My old neighborhood of Andre is located on Saginaw, Michigan's West side and has quite the diversity of race, incomes, ages, and housing types. From some of the older Victorian homes to small working class houses, well kept to entirely un-kept... well abandoned, the neighborhood has had it's up's and down's. Recently, unemployment and large surges in crime have had a huge impact on many neighborhoods in the city, but mine has managed to hold very strong. However, I noticed a few houses on my street have gone abandoned, and one house burned down. I think the good has outweighed the bad, and I'll admit I've slanted this photo tour towards the good, and it helped that the weather was nice. These were taken Oct 12th, over the University of Michigan's fall break. The sideshow is two minutes long. Map of Saginaw, Michigan. Area photographed in red

Just look at that wonderful city. Can't wait to be back in the Chi tomorrow

So is it true that Venice is trying to restore a few of the canals that had been turned into storm drains years ago?

I still don't see anything wrong with the current logo.

Nice! Yeah, the raise in fares sucks. It doesn't help that so many of the CTA el lines need refurbishing or replacement. Did you take the purple line express from Howard to downtown at all? That thing can pick up some speed. I always loved the brief moments where the wheels would leave the tracks for a moment on a turn, and come crashing back down sending sparks all over the place.

Great photos! That one with the narrow street and fire escapes is wicked! I just helped one of my friends move out of this building: I have another friend who also lives in Rogers park, so I've spent a lot of time there. Chicagoans seem to talk a lot crap about this neighborhood, but I really like it. And it's very affordable. If anyone ever visits the Chi, I reccommend parking in the Howard Park N Ride visible in the middle of rob's tour. It's just $2/day. Then just take the El downtown.... 30 mins max.

Great photos and thanks for catching all the angles of the site. For anyone interested in the deconstruction of the DB building. There's been a thread up for awhile on SSP which shows the progress as well as some intense interior coverage photos. First page shows the gored center of the building after the WTC collapse. http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=115034