nofunk

Neat city. That walkway behind the buildings is interesting.

Thanks everyone! Exploring the warehouse is a pretty unsettling experience: walking on melted bottles of finger paints and watercolors; wading through seas of tennis balls, salt and pepper shakers, and film reels; climbing over piles of rotting books. The experience itself is post-apocalyptic (totally "I am Legend" jpop), but even on a practical level, the idea of millions of dollars of school supplies being abandoned by a school system that can't keep itself afloat is really upsetting. I realize that the smoke and water damage after the fire would have made most of the books unsalvageable, but a lot of the other supplies, particularly on the second floor, could have been saved. Many of them were untouched by fire, and they are junk now only because they've spent the past two decades weathering the seasons. Up until last year, the paints were still lined up in orderly rows on shelving units, until scrappers stole the shelves. Maybe Detroit Public Schools got more insurance money just writing the place off, but it still strikes me as a bit outrageous. I guess that in the end, the Roosevelt warehouse is just another symbol of a city falling apart.

Well, since it has been in the local (Michigan) news recently, I figured it was time for a photo thread. The 4-story Roosevelt warehouse was designed by Albert Kahn and originally functioned as Detroit's post office. When the post office relocated closer to downtown, the building became the depository for the Detroit Public School System. In the late 1980s, fire swept through the upper floors, destroying millions of dollars of school supplies. What wasn't destroyed by the fire was abandoned. Recently, the Detroit News featured a sort of expose on the paper's front page discussing the delayed police response to a dead body that was found in one of the building's elevator shafts. Hayward posted about it here: http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,18296.0.html. Anyway, on to the tour... 1. The first floor was pretty innocuous: 2. Workbooks and other school supplies piled 6 feet high: 3. Help to keep children safe in school: 4. Piles of textbooks: 5. Curled pages: 6. The fourth floor is carpeted with books: 7. A broken hallway: 8. 20-foot tall trees grow out of decomposing books on the fourth floor: 9. Books upon books: 10. A collapsed wall on the third floor: 11. 12. A puzzle on the second floor. The second floor was filled with kitchen supplies, paints and crayons and craft supplies, records and spools of video, puzzles and games, etc. 13. Pallets of science books that were never even unwrapped: 14. A lonely volume: 15. Graffiti panorama on the third floor:

Look at all of those people buying overpriced sandwiches!

Pennsylvania has some GREAT towns. *Nice* photos!

Yeah, Danville is a sad place. Most of those mid-sized, central Illinois towns are. Nice photos though!

Some great photos!

Kerrytown is nice. You might also consider the old west side (roughly the area within 1st and 7th, and Miller and Madison). It's about a 10-15 minute walk from campus, but it's a bit cheaper than other areas around downtown.

Wow. Erie has some great architecture. But it looks like it could use some serious TLC. Nice shots.

Great shots of a great city. I like the panoramas.

Nice shots, Hayward! I never got to see much of Bloor last time I was there. Looks like it's time I went back!

These are great photos! I love the one of the station at Adams & Wabash. Thanks for sharing!

Great photos, Zach. Can't wait to see the rest. Man, they really need to do something with the Banker's Building:

Ah, my hometown! It's such a great little city, that's always overshadowed (of course) by Chicago. Great photos! (Even with all the fog lol.)

Great photos!

Ralph.

I am suprised somalia didn't win, they haven't had a functioning gov't since 1991. Very true, but at least they are trending (however slowly) towards stability at this point.

I'm not sure about those squirrels. But the rest of the architecture is nice. Shame about the courthouse though. I hate to see historic architecture fall apart, even if the bell tower is awkward.

I'm a little surprised there is a state they consider more failed than Iraq...

That is amazing! I was always really good at drawing straight lines....

Gorgeous.

Ehhh.... And I usually like Calatrava, too.

I recycle, use energy efficient lighting, and turn lights/electronics off when I'm not using them. But I sure do drive everywhere... After watching An Inconvenient Truth last year I went and made a donation to offset my carbon footprint, but I'm a poor grad student now, so I won't be doing the same this year.

On the one hand, the person is from Arkansas; on the other, it's very well written. It's good for a chuckle, in any case.

Beautiful pictures!