Deserted Places: industrial site

Showing posts with label industrial site. Show all posts

Monday, August 21, 2017

An abandoned brewery in Berlin

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It used to make one of the most loved beers in Germany but today it is abandoned. The Bärenquell Brewery, first called Borrusia Brewery, was founded in 1882 in the Berlin borough of Treptow-Köpenick. In 1898 it was bought by brewer Schultheiss-Brauerei AG, which expanded it adding more buildings and equipment. Only two of the original buildings remain today: the official residence and the administrative building, built in neo-Renaissance style.

After World War II, the brewery was nationalized and became part of Volkseigener Betrieb, the large publicly owned corporation of East Germany. The harder times came when Bärenquell Brewery was privatized, after the Fall of the Berlin Wall. East Germany turned its back to its local products, delighted by what the west had to offer. The eastern beers could not compete anymore to the trendy ones available from the west. That was the time that many breweries closed and Bärenquell was one of them, shutting its doors in 1994.

Even though several of its buildings have been listed as protected since decades ago, the brewery has fallen in disrepair and have been heavily looted and vandalized. Around 2013, several buildings were de-listed in order to be demolished and make way for redevelopment. However, no action has been taken yet.

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Monday, February 6, 2017

The abandoned Zarnowiec nuclear power plant in Poland

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Żarnowiec Nuclear Power Plant was supposed to become Poland's first nuclear power plant. Planning began in the early 1970's, with extensive research with the purpose to find the most suitable location. After several years, a site near the village of Żarnowiec, 50 km (31 miles) northwest of Gdańsk was chosen. The site was near the Baltic Sea and Lake Żarnowiec which was to be used for cooling.

Construction began in 1982 with completion of the first reactor planned for 1989 and the second for 1990. These dates were later extended by a year. The plant was planned to occupy 70 ha of land area, while the entire complex with dedicated construction facilities and supporting buildings would take 425 ha. In addition to 79 buildings of the reactor-housing compound, the complex included hundreds of supporting facilities, including housing for the staff, a meteorological station and a railway station.

Any public opposition for the project was initially silenced by the introduction of martial law in 1981. After the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 though, environmental organizations started an anti-nuclear campaign which quickly gained widespread support. The protest which was also supported by political parties, included roadblocks and hunger strikes. In 1987, the government finally caved in and announced a referendum. Although 86,1% voted against completing the power plant, government chose to ignore the not legally binding referendum and continue the construction works.

The project was finally abandoned in 1990 after all the supporting buildings and 40% of the first reactor had been built, with the government citing the unclear safety status of the nuclear plant, among other reasons. By that time, 84% of the construction budget had already been spent.

After the project's abandonment, some of the equipment that had already been installed was scrapped while other was stolen. Local government tried to attract investments in the area by establishing a Special Economic Zone, but there wasn't enough success. Currently there are only 20 companies operating in the area while most of the buildings remain abandoned. The total losses resulting from mismanagement of the abandoned property over the years have been calculated as high as $2 billion.

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Monday, September 12, 2016

The semi-abandoned Kelenföld power plant in Budapest

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The Kelenföld power plant of Budapest was built in 1914. Back then, it was the first boiler house and electricity-supply building in Hungary's capital, as well as Europe’s first electricity exchange.

The building is an incredible example of thoughtful industrial design from the prewar era with its Art Deco control room, with a massive glass ceiling, being one of the more recognizable features. It was designed by two architects around 1927, Kálmán Reichl and Virgil Borbíro, and was constructed within 2 years. Throughout the rest of the plant, corridors are decorated with tiles from Hungary's world-famous Zsolnay porcelain manufacturer.

The control room, as well as the largest part of the power plant shut down and was abandoned in 2005. A part of the the plant is privately owned and still in operation, providing power to Budapest. Today, the plant produces 4% of Hungary's energy and 60% of Budapest's heating and hot water. The main gas supply comes from Russia through Ukraine and in case it gets shut off, for whatever reason, the station has a liquid fuel-oil reserve on-site that can last for eight days.

Even though the largest part of the factory today is abandoned, it can't be demolished as it's protected as an 'industrial heritage' building. Sometimes, the building is used for music videos and movies while some rare tours for the public inside the facility have to be booked well in advance.

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Monday, August 22, 2016

An abandoned socialist textile factory in Hungary

This abandoned textile factory was co-founded in 1922 by Elberfelder Textilwerke and the Leipzig Kammgarnspinnerei Stöhr Co, in Budapest, capital of Hungary. The new industry, called Domestic Worsted Spinning and Weaving Factory Ltd., produced worsted wool of ultra-fine quality. The factory survived World War II with only a few direct bomb hits and later became the largest socialist wool plant in the country.

The factory though didn't survive the fall of the Soviet Union. The textile business was privatized in 1990 and liquidated a few years later. Since then, some factory buildings have been rented by smaller enterprises. However, the large factory building has remained abandoned for years.

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Monday, June 20, 2016

Inside an abandoned Belgian power plant

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Power Plant IM was built in 1921, in the Monceau-sur-Sambre neighborhood of the Belgian city of Charleroi. At that time, it was one of the largest coal burning power plants in Belgium and by 1977 it was the main source of energy in the Charleroi area, being able to cool down 480,000 gallons of water per minute.

After years of service, a report found that Power Plant IM was responsible for 10% of the total carbon dioxide emissions in Belgium. Greenpeace protested the plant in 2006 giving it a lot of negative attention till it finally closed in 2007.

After its closure, there were reports of looting by metal scrappers and as a result security guards were posted on site. Still, the huge power plant is being often visited by urban explorers.

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David Baker Photography

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Monday, December 14, 2015

Deserted places around crisis-hit Greece

Starting in 2009, the Greek debt crisis and the subsequent policies of austerity, have taken their toll all over Greece. Unemployment and homelessness have soared, while state-provided health, education and welfare services have deteriorated.

Even though the country's de-industrialization began back in the 1980s, the economic crisis was the last nail in the coffin for Greece's factories. Many of them went bankrupt while other were moved to neighboring countries with growing economies and lower wages.

The country is now dotted with the hulks of formerly flourishing factories that for decades churned out wealth for their owners and provided a sure if modest livelihood for multitudes of workers.

Some of the plants are guarded by former staff, others padlocked or open to anyone prepared to dirty a pair of trousers. Inside are the relics of their former activity: Piles of wine bottles, stacks of crockery, idle machinery. Scattered among them are the imprints of the people who worked there — rotting boots and gloves, personnel files, dust-infused jackets left hanging on nails and never reclaimed.

The crisis, combined with political incompetence, was also the main reason why other infrastructure, such as the former Athens airport or the former Olympic Games sites remained deserted and weren't put to use for years.

Associated Press photographer Petros Giannakouris travelled around Greece to capture those abandoned places.

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SEE ALSO: More abandoned industrial sites around the world // More abandoned airports // More abandoned sport facilities // More abandoned Olympic venues // More abandoned places in Greece // LIST OF ALL DESERTED PLACES
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A meat factory in Corinth, destroyed by fire in August 2014 while it had stopped working months before

Petros Giannakouris/AP

An abandoned Hellenic Ceramics (ELKE) factory in Halkida

Petros Giannakouris/AP

An abandoned factory of The Chemical Products and Fertilizers Company in Piraeus, shut down in 1999

Petros Giannakouris/AP

Abandoned strawberry hothouses near the village of Manolada

Petros Giannakouris/AP

A plane in the former Hellinikon International Airport

Petros Giannakouris/AP

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Monday, September 21, 2015

Inside Keranis cigarette factory in Athens

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Starting in 1933 and for more than 70 years, this building in Piraeus, near Athens, was the headquarters of Keranis, one of Greece's largest tobacco companies. In its prime, more than 2,500 people were working inside the 28,700 m² (309,000 ft²) factory, manufacturing more than 2.5 million cigarettes per shift and making Keranis the biggest Greek tobacco company.

Things started to change from the 70s and 80s when more and more Greeks would rather buy imported cigarette brands instead of the Greek ones. In 1998, the family controlling the business sold it to a brokerage firm which shut down a few years later, together with Keranis. Today, the building belongs to an asset management company and it is up for lease. There were plans for the Piraeus courthouse to move inside the abandoned factory but those plans fell through.

All photos by Vassilis K. Makris

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Vassilis K. Makris/lifo.gr

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Monday, January 12, 2015

Inside the abandoned Domino Sugar Refinery in New York

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The Domino Sugar Refinery in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn in New York City used to be the largest sugar refinery in the world when it was constructed in 1882. Ships would deliver sugar cane from all over the world and half of US more than half of the sugar consumed in the entire country was refined in this Brooklyn factory. The business was so successful that in May 1896 the factory's owner, American Sugar, became one of the original twelve companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The refinery's long history also includes one of the longest labor strikes in New York City's history when in 200o, 250 workers went on strike for twenty months protesting wages and working conditions.

After 148 years of operation, the refinery closed in 2004 and 225 workers were laid off. Since then, the 11-acre site has been purchased by private corporations twice in order to be redeveloped. The latest plan includes a mix of creative office space, market-rate and affordable housing, neighborhood retail, and community facilities. The demolition of the factory's structures began in fall of 2014.

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Monday, November 3, 2014

The ruins of Deception island

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The Deception Island is an island in the South Shetland Islands archipelago off the Antarctic Peninsula. The island is the caldera of an active volcano with its waters being warmer than those in the surrounding area while its horseshoe shape provides a great shelter for ships.

For these reasons, in 1912 the Hektor Whaling Company was issued with a license to establish a shore-based whaling station, one of the many that were popping up in Antarctica. Whale oil was on high demand as it was used in oil lamps and to make soap and margarine. Approximately 150 people worked at the station during the austral summer, jamming whale carcasses into huge iron boilers to extract over 140,000 barrels of whale oil.

With the discovery of substitutes for whale oil such as kerosene and vegetable oils, the use of whale oils declined. Whale oil prices dropped during the Great Depression of the 1920s, and the factory operations were abandoned by 1931. Everything was left untouched on the island for a decade until a British warship destroyed the oil tanks and some remaining supplies in order to ensure it could not be used as a German supply base. The British finally establish a scientific base in 1944 but they had to abandon it by 1969 due to volcanic activity.

Today, the island is a tourist destination and there are 2 summer only scientific stations, an Argentinian and a Spanish. A lot of ruins and abandoned facilities from the sealing and scientific stations of the past can still be found on the island.

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