Saturday, January 5, 2013

Doomstruck Places

Last Monday we hiked out to "The Point," a cluster of doomstruck old buildings deep in the forest along the Hudson River. 

The house was designed by noted architect Calvert Vaux, and abandoned in 1963. Today all the wood trim and the porches are gone, and the vines have climbed up the side. 

The greenhouse has almost collapsed, with catacombs beneath where the furnace once lived. The brick dairy barn yawns like the skull of Cyclops.

I've always been fascinated by the way time ravages abandoned places. Here are some photos of an abandoned theme park called Spreepark PlanterWald, near Treptower Park in Berlin. The dinosaurs are broken and headless, and the rides are forlorn and overgrown.

(photo credit: Morgen Nebel) 

"Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things."
----The Book of Tea by Kakuzo Okakura
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From Dark Roasted Blend, via BoingBoing
More about The Point
Book: Hudson Valley Ruins: Forgotten Landmarks of an American Landscape
Previously on GurneyJourney:
Bennett School for Girls
The Creative Habitats of John Burroughs
Abandoned icons
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7 comments:

  1. Katarina ÖbergJanuary 5, 2013 at 9:57 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. UnknownJanuary 5, 2013 at 10:17 AM

    Love the pictures! Looks like a fun place to explore.

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  3. David YanchickJanuary 5, 2013 at 10:33 AM

    If I ever saw Doom's truck I'd hightail it in the opposite direction.

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  4. James GurneyJanuary 5, 2013 at 10:43 AM

    David, exactly....but don't worry. Doom only drives the truck when he's making deliveries. When he's making pickups he takes the hearse.

    ReplyDelete
  5. RichJanuary 5, 2013 at 5:33 PM

    Ha ha ha, that's Patina.
    Always a geat motive to see ravages of time at work.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Glenn KeelanJanuary 5, 2013 at 7:10 PM

    I visited the Spreepark PlanterWald in Berlin many times when i lived there James. It's fascinating and haunting especially when you go there in winter when it snows :) Nice blog today!

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  7. Russell DickersonJanuary 7, 2013 at 12:43 AM

    There's a fascinating site at http://www.opacity.us/ that I visit every so often. They have a lot of abandoned buildings, theme parks, and all manner of forgotten buildings. There is a certain texture to those places that really interests me, and influences my art.

    ReplyDelete

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