Staten Island Smash And Grab: The pilfered apartment building.
By: Bad Guy Joe , Posted on July 9, 2008
2002. Slim Jim comes to town for a week of exploring.
One of them days we happened across a very odd apartment building in the ghetto. Huge in size and containing some people behind locked doors, and with virtually no vandalism or signs of wear and tear, we weren't even sure this place was 100% abandoned. We go back at night and see as much as we can while being as quiet as we can...
2004: A lot more wear and tear, but it's still in good looking shape. The lights are still on.
2005: Attempted filming of footage for ridiculous TV show gets nixed due to too much attention from the natives and the crazy white guy that wanted all 20 of us to go back to his place for some V8s.
2008: Associates tell me of this building now having no windows. We all head back out there 2 weeks later and I get a look myself...
...and in that look, i must say, wow. In a short span of time, this place has gone straight to hell.
So far as I can tell a recent fire in the building made it clear to all that it is abandoned. With access holes everywhere, the entire building has been destroyed by locals and scrappers. Halls are tagged to hell, as are apartments. The power is shut off, and whoever was squatting here before has long gone - their apartments completely destroyed.
The penthouse, fully furnished in 2002, is now destroyed. Huge windows have all been blown out. The couches lay in the weeds below.
More has come out about this buildings past. Once a hospital, the property changed hands a few times until someone sold apartments here as condos. Not too long thereafter, the building was in the courts, and all the residents thrown out. It seems whoever sold the apartments was not the actual rightful owner. Hard working people were scammed of their cash.
Today it sits like this, nearly too far gone to be saved. What the next chapter will be, who knows...
The Aquaslide
By: Bad Guy Joe , Posted on June 11, 2008
It's always nice to be able to revisit an old favorite. Thanks to all those that made this trip and the drinking afterwards... oh and your mom, because I totally touched her MilfBags later on that night...
Azbesty: Brooklyn Navy Yard Power Plant Night Raid
By: Bad Guy Joe , Posted on May 27, 2008
Update - 4.27.2013
This post originally ran under the simple title of 'Azbesty' - which is the polish translation of Asbestos. Warning signs labeled 'Azbesty' were all over the interior of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Power Plant. When we originally published this writeup in 2008, we refrained from naming the exact building for a whole host of reasons that are better answered in our FAQ.
Original Writeup
Me and S head out again looking for trouble. The target of our trip this evening is a large industrial site to maybe be disclosed later. For now I'll keep it quiet though, in keeping with the grand tradition. Those that know, will, those that don't, can wait - just like your mom on the corner in her finest short stained dress.
Oh but I digress. Let's cut to the chase, into the fence, and through the doors - straight into the belly of this asbestos laden beast. The air is thick with the stuff. Far thicker than I've smelt it in years. Kings Park steam tunnels smell like a spring day compared to this place. That doesn't much stop us from doing what needs to be done, and what needs to be done immediately - as this building is going to be wiped from the face of this planet within weeks.
The asbestos abatement work is in full swing, and the trash bags full of the stuff are everywhere in the first section of the building we enter. The complex is really split into 3 practically interconnected buildings. To get to the other two from here, you have to go through the rat-maze area where workers change from their asbestos outfits into normal clothes. This decon area is set up so workers have to shower on the way out. There are no other doors. Everything is sealed up. I've seen abatement sites before but nothing this elaborate.
The rest of the building area is all very huge, as expected. It takes a few hours to see everything. But the third building section is already coming down. Huge holes in the walls and ceiling testify this fact. Bobcats on the 6th floor balcony do as well.
Having seen and smelt more than enough, we take our now fireproof selves back out the way we came in, satisfied to have seen what will, in a matter of weeks, most likely be entirely gone.
Another NYC industrial relic bites the big one, following in the footsteps of all the greats. Phelps Dodge, Sucrose, Todd, Harlem Heroin, Typhin Steel, GTW... And so it goes...
Hopeless Warehouse
By: Bad Guy Joe , Posted on April 29, 2008
With one ear to the ground and a finger on the shutter button I heard about this MFer and proceeded to the scene of the crime. Arriving just in time, this building was found to be a triplet like this rhyme. Developers are taking it down just like they do all around town. It's the dawn of a new age, these condos are all the rage setting the stage for a yuppified city without you in it. I could go on but you get the idea, if you ain't got the cash you got to leave here. They don't want you no more because you're not new...
Vancouver Cesspool Hotel
By: Bad Guy Joe , Posted on April 21, 2008
Traveling to other cities is usually an eye opener. Here in NYC, there's little left abandoned for too long, and almost one of it is actually inside of Manhattan (downtown). Vancouver, however, presented this odd animal: An abandoned hotel surrounded by high rises.
This place doesn't have long for this world, of course, but I found it to be most charming. An abandoned building with all it's doors wide open for anyone to wander into. Given the relative 'red light district' feel for one of the nearby streets, i thought I might encounter some shady people in here. That was not the case though...
You have to love an abandonment where you can park your car right in the parking lot and go to town...
Double I military base
By: Bad Guy Joe , Posted on
This one was a walk in the park... an old military building left exposed to the elements. The windows have all been blown out, the paint peeling and the wood floors beginning to rot. Typical favor of abandoned building in the middle of nowhere.
S&S Factory Day Raid
By: Bad Guy Joe , Posted on April 13, 2008
History
This building was originally constructed as the Lewis Steel Products factory in the late 1930s. After Lewis Steel moved out, it became the S & S Corrugated Box Machine factory.
S & S made "Machinery for making corrugated paper, paper boxes, and machinery for combining, treating, fabricating, cutting and slotting" of all varieties of such paper. S & S also had a sordid history with the neighborhood, and after they went out of business, this factory building became artist studios and a lampshade outlet.
In 2007 plans were made to convert it into high priced loft apartments. The building would be rebranded as the 'Steelworks Lofts".
From 2007 to 2011 ownership of this building changed hands several times, with each group of owners having slightly different plans for it. As of this writing (June, 2013) the building is actively being converted into apartments again.
Adventure
After raiding this building overnight, I was up early and itching to get back inside during daylight hours.
The streets of many parts of NYC are dead on Sunday mornings. I parked right outside of the door and walked in, just as we had a few hours before. Today I was flying solo though. It's hard to keep up with me when I get this obsessed with a building.
Inside a found a very deserted first floor. At the rear of the building was a very long hallway running east and west through the entire length of the building. I later found that this was a railroad siding connecting to the nearby
BEDT terminal. It is unclear if Lewis Steel or S & S ever received or shipped rail cars from here - though it seems likely that Lewis did at some point.
Upstairs was a lounge - perhaps an illegal bar? as well as various artist studio spaces. I had to stop and goof off a little at the one photographers studio that was left behind.
After an hour or three of shooting I simply walked out the front door again. The few people on the street at the time had no idea that I had no business being in there. if you look like you belong, no one thinks twice.
Buildings like these are just too rare in NYC anymore. it is a pathetic shame that our industrial history is not better saved and documented. Hopefully when it is redeveloped they'll at least put a plaque on the outside or in the lobby explaining it's significance. I kinda doubt it they will though. The building is being rebranded as the 'Steelworks lofts' - no mention of S & S and what they did to the neighborhood.
S&S Factory
By: Bad Guy Joe , Posted on
So me & S are bored to death and decide to go for a ride around town and see what's been changing on the street landscape. It seems like every time I drive around anywhere with her looking to break into something we get lucky. Tonight would be no different.
By chance we drive down an industrial street checking on an abandonment/development site we did last year. Directly across the street sits another large factory building that has no lights on. A closer look reveals a few windows broken out, and the roll down gates on the truck bays are not looking too healthy. Sure enough there's a way in, and in we go.
For the size and scale of this place, much of it was empty. The first floors were all factory, the top seemed to have artist lofts with eviction notices still on the doors. These were huge lofts. Whoever lived here surely lost out when they were kicked out.
Curiosity satisfied, we depart. Fixated though,
I decide to check this place again in the morning.
Bx Ferry Terminal
By: Bad Guy Joe , Posted on April 6, 2008
Here lays the remains of a ferry terminal that was once used to service some of NYC's abandoned islands. With the islands closed to official uses, the ferry terminal also has become an obsolete waste.
Cangros Transmission
By: Bad Guy Joe , Posted on March 10, 2008
Cangros was a transmission shop in the heart of an industrial neighborhood. It was in an old school building with large apartments located above the shop.
The neighborhood, of course, has changed, the business has gone under, and the building, it too will soon likely be gone. Interesting from the outside yet totally empty on the inside, building is a metaphor for what has become of this area: A soul-less shadow of its former self.
