A recent link was posted on another site of some urban explorer photos in Chicago's Uptown Theater.  The 4,381 seat theater is about 7 miles North of the Chicago Loop.  As of this day, the theater has been abandoned for 30 years.  It was recently purchased by a company with experience in renovating and restoring theaters into successful venues, and owners are in the process of securing financing for the $40 million it will take to restore it.  In the meantime, portions of the historic facade were put into storage to prevent damage and will be returned when restoration work begins.

 

http://www.undercity.org/Chicago_UptownTheater_GALLERY/index.html

Fantastic!  Thanks for the link!

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad it will be restored, but I like it just the way it is.

Yeah, it is in decent shape for being abandoned 30 years. Looks like someone maintained the roof to some extent.

The building has seen minimal repairs to at least keep it stabilized.  It also helped that most doors had steel plates welded over top to keep intruders out.

I had the privilege of seeing the Uptown in the early 1990s as part of a private tour (I worked with a guy who was well connected.)  The scale of the place was amazing: I remember separate "exit lobbies" to quickly empty the theater in preparation for the next show.  And there is a double wall construction--with a large space of air, between the outside wall (that you see from the street) and the inside wall of the theater.  Air being a good insulator of sound, you could hear a pin drop even though the very busy intersection of Broadway and Lawrence Ave was outside.

If I remember correctly, only Radio City Music Hall in NYC is larger.  When I saw it, most of the original fixtures were still there, created by a famous lighting designer named Victor Pearlman.  I learned in the late 1990s that by then most of the original fixtures were removed and sold.

 

That's very interesting about the double wall and it makes a ton of practical sense.  Exploring these places would be awesome