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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Terrifying buildings
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
As pointed out above, a nice sturdy guard rail/ wall seems to make a big difference.
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Sioni Sais:
I felt bad on the London Eye, so I'm not going up the Burj Khalifa, amongst others.
Enoch is right: vertigo seems to get worse with age. I went up the (quite short) RSC Tower at Stratford on Avon shortly after it opened, emerged from the lift and realized this was going to be a lost cause. The wind howled like wolves through the glass slats and I swear the tower even rocked slightly in the wind (though that may well have been my imagination). All I wanted to do was go back down again.
It might well have been the sound effects. It wasn't even a windy day, but when you're up high the wind is more noticeable as there are no other buildings to diffuse it.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Eutychus
From the edge
# 3081
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Posted
It's better if it does move.
On which note, how about being at the other end of the building: next to the earthquake dampers at the bottom of Taipei 101 during an earthquake?
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Let's remember that we are to build the Kingdom of God, not drive people away - pastor Frank Pomeroy
Posts: 17944 | From: 528491 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
Again, totally cool with this video until the camera pointed up at those cables. At which point eeekeeekeeekeek.
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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LutheranChik
Shipmate
# 9826
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Posted
Traverse City, Michigan is home to The Grand Traverse Commons, an ambitious development project that has transformed and is continuing to transform the old, sprawling Michigan State Hospital campus into a trendy retail/professional/residential "village" within the city. In its day the hospital was considered one of the most progressive mental hospitals in the country, with a beautiful arboretum, a working farm on premises and other features designed to improve the "mental hygiene" of its patients. And today it's one of the more hipster neighborhoods in the city, with a winery, a five-star restaurant, yoga studios, an artisan bakery and much more. But the main building, Building 50 -- now home to the posh restaurant and a boutiquey little mall called The Mercado -- still gives off the creepy vibe of its former life. This isn't helped by the fact that the restaurant and stores are located on the ground floor, which used to be the utility tunnel, or by the fact that, here and there down the cavernous hallways, the developers have placed exhibits featuring photos and hospital equipment from the State Hospital days. My partner, who is normally not a superstitious person, was in the building for about 10 minutes when she suddenly announced, "I need to get out of bere NOW," and fled to the car. I also felt a kind of heaviness and negativity in the building, although it didn't have that dramatic an effect on me. (And I was sad to see my dreams of an outstanding farm-to-table Italian meal go out the window, or out the door, that day.) Since our experience, I've heard rumors that some of the restaurant staff have experienced eerie phenomena there. If you're in the area it's definitely a worthwhile stop, but just know that Building 50 might not be your favorite memory of your visit.
[ 14. January 2015, 19:25: Message edited by: LutheranChik ]
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Simul iustus et peccator
http://www.lutheranchiklworddiary.blogspot.com
Posts: 6462 | From: rural Michigan, USA | Registered: Jul 2005
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churchgeek
Have candles, will pray
# 5557
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Posted
If I get up to Traverse I will definitely check that out!
I don't seem to have too much of a fear of heights, but on my last day working at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, I went up into the catwalks to take pictures. I was feeling a little woozy/dizzy, and at one point felt a strong need to get the hell out of there. I mentioned it to my coworker and he said he occasionally gets that feeling up there, too.
In Detroit, we have this fabulous ruin, the Michigan Central Station. I don't find it terrifying per se. It was completed in 1914 and closed in 1986, and has been standing empty ever since, in various conditions. One owner in the early 90s seems to be responsible, in my opinion, for letting it get looted and vandalized. He was in over his head in buying it, and wound up hanging out in it with a shotgun trying to protect it from vandals and thieves. Anyway, it's been owned now for about 20 years by the guy who owns the international Ambassador Bridge, connecting Detroit with Windsor, Ontario (yes, a guy owns an international bridge - or, his company does; and it makes him quite wealthy). He's been letting the building just sit and rot, though he tightened security in the mid-2000s and has, in recent years, done a major clean-up inside and started, quite randomly, installing windows - 5 or 6, I believe. Look at those Google images in my first link, and you'll see how silly 5 or 6 windows is.
In 1998, 3 photographer friends and I went into the building (while security was still pretty lax), and climbed all the way up to the roof. It's only 18 stories, but what was scary was that in the stairwells, it was total blackness except for the flashlights we'd brought, and many of the steps were either unstable or just gone. Looking down elevator shafts, as the doors had been stripped by looters, was a bit scary, too. There was at least one homeless man living in the building at the time, and you could sometimes spot him or see remnants of where he'd been camped out. He would try to scare people away from the building if he felt they were damaging or looting it in any way. Overall, it was a fun day for us.
There are some pretty creepy photos taken of the building in its current state. But what I find "scary" in the sense of placemaking and architecture is the way it was built. It was located 2-1/2 miles outside of downtown, with the assumption it would be a magnet for basically growing downtown out in that direction. Beaux-Arts and the City Beautiful movement were huge at the time, and in keeping with both, a grand park was designed for the approach to the building. In order to construct the park (known as Roosevelt Park), the city condemned a whole neighborhood full of homes and, with some pestering and haggling, the railway company finally got everyone to sell their homes. They cleared out a viable neighborhood for that huge, vacant, rather ugly "park." The tower of the building, which, architecturally, doesn't match the station itself, was intended to house offices which would be rented to all the businesses the station was supposed to draw to the area. Not only was most of the tower never used, but the top 2 or so stories were never even finished inside. It was really bad city planning from the get-go. People love the building now, and want to see it re-used. I do too. There are a few little businesses - mostly restaurants - and other attractions coming back in to the neighboring area, so it could find some good re-use. But if that couldn't happen, I'd rather see it torn down than rot as an unusable ruin. Even if in its ruined state it has been used in movies, TV shows, advertisements, fashion shoots, and lots of art photography.
So from its design, you could argue it was terrifying in a way - prompting "slum clearing" (i.e., neighborhood-destroying), having an architecturally mismatched tower, and being an excellent example of poor city planning.
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I reserve the right to change my mind.
My article on the Virgin of Vladimir
Posts: 7773 | From: Detroit | Registered: Feb 2004
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Siegfried
Ship's ferret
# 29
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Macrina:
Personally I vote for the Sky Tower in Auckland. There is absolutely NOTHING reassuring about being up a very high large round thing perched atop a very tall thin concrete thing which has a small sign merrily declaring it's good up to a magnitude 8 earthquake.
From what I've read (and googled just now), Auckland is not in a high risk area for a quake that big. Tsunamis now...
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Siegfried
Life is just a bowl of cherries!
Posts: 5592 | From: Tallahassee, FL USA | Registered: May 2001
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Mamacita
Lakefront liberal
# 3659
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
However... I tried to take a picture of the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge the other day, and very nearly couldn't do it. I had to angle my iPad so I was mostly looking at the picture and not actually at the tower.
The effort makes the picture that much more special. I'm not sure I'd be able to do that either.
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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Posts: 20761 | From: where the purple line ends | Registered: Dec 2002
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Mamacita
Lakefront liberal
# 3659
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Posted
I am not the least bit unhappy that the developer of this proposed 116-story structure in Chicago had to abandon the project. He only got as far as digging a huge hole in the ground before running out of money.
Chicago is known for great architecture, but there are occasional misfires, such as the truly scary creatures crawling around on top of the Harold Washington Library.
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Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Posts: 20761 | From: where the purple line ends | Registered: Dec 2002
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Kelly Alves
Bunny with an axe
# 2522
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Mamacita:
quote:
Originally posted by Kelly Alves:
However... I tried to take a picture of the south tower of the Golden Gate Bridge the other day, and very nearly couldn't do it. I had to angle my iPad so I was mostly looking at the picture and not actually at the tower.
The effort makes the picture that much more special. I'm not sure I'd be able to do that either.
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
I was talking about my bridge walk to one of my little students the other day, and described the tower photo shoot. I told her it was "scary, but COOL scary!"
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I cannot expect people to believe “
Jesus loves me, this I know” of they don’t believe “Kelly loves me, this I know.”
Kelly Alves, somewhere around 2003.
Posts: 35076 | From: Pura Californiana | Registered: Mar 2002
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churchgeek
Have candles, will pray
# 5557
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Mamacita:
I am not the least bit unhappy that the developer of this proposed 116-story structure in Chicago had to abandon the project. He only got as far as digging a huge hole in the ground before running out of money.
I'm with you on that one! Whew!
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I reserve the right to change my mind.
My article on the Virgin of Vladimir
Posts: 7773 | From: Detroit | Registered: Feb 2004
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
I went up the (quite short) RSC Tower at Stratford on Avon shortly after it opened, emerged from the lift and realized this was going to be a lost cause. The wind howled like wolves through the glass slats and I swear the tower even rocked slightly in the wind (though that may well have been my imagination). All I wanted to do was go back down again.
Some years ago I was on holiday in Eger, Hungary with my family. I was the only one prepared to climb the minaret. It's not particularly high, but the stairs (not being designed for tourists) are very dark and narrow, while the open platform at the top is tiny and windy.
It was there that I lost a contact lens ... I did manage to catch it in my hand, but had to descend with no effective vision in one eye. Not nice.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Amorya
Ship's tame galoot
# 2652
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by St. Gwladys:
Eirenist, I would go along with Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. We went there some years ago, when I was still mobile. The tower was open, so we decided to go up. There was a lift part way, then steps within the walls. So far so good. Then you came out above the bells - not so good. As I remember, a bit higher within the walls, then you could see the next lot of staircases - jutted out from the walls of the tower. I turned to Darllenwr and apologised as there was no way I could do that. He was very kind, and refused to go on up without me, so we went back to the triforium to have a look at an excellent embroidery exhibition. It was only some time later that he admitted he wasn't very happy about going up those staircase either! ![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.gif)
I went ringing there once. Our group went up the lift, but hit floor 10 rather than floor 9. We came out, as you did, above the bells. (rather than in the room below where you ring them from). As the lift doors slid shut behind us, we realised three things. There were no stairs down. We were trapped on a small balcony above the heaviest and highest ring of bells in the world. And one of the bells was slowly beginning to move…
Posts: 2383 | From: Coventry | Registered: Apr 2002
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Jane R
Shipmate
# 331
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Posted
Lutheranchik: quote:
My partner, who is normally not a superstitious person, was in the building for about 10 minutes when she suddenly announced, "I need to get out of here NOW," and fled to the car.
I had a very similar experience at Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh (that's right, the one that features in the Da Vinci Code) - but I only lasted about five minutes.
churchgeek: quote:
If I get up to Traverse I will definitely check that out!
You're kidding... aren't you?
I'm more into the 'run away screaming' aspect of ghost-hunting myself.
Posts: 3958 | From: Jorvik | Registered: May 2001
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Adeodatus
Shipmate
# 4992
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Posted
LutheranChik's post reminded me that back in the early 90s, as part of my training, I visited Friern Hospital. It was already on the road to closure, and if I remember right some of the wards had closed and were already falling into disrepair. The place completely creeped me out - I can only describe it as having a feel about it that made it easy to believe it might have had a long history of horror. I actually remember those weird wall paintings in the photo I linked to. *Shudder*
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"What is broken, repair with gold."
Posts: 9779 | From: Manchester | Registered: Sep 2003
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Chorister
Completely Frocked
# 473
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jane R:
I had a very similar experience at Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh (that's right, the one that features in the Da Vinci Code) - but I only lasted about five minutes.
Now that I do find unusual, it being one of the most awe-inspiring buildings in the land. But I understand the feeling, as my 'need to get out fast' type of building is invariably an enclosed shopping mall.
We once had a boy at school who didn't stay very long - he was terrified of the large, four storey, imposing, dark red building - he would shake with terror as soon as he arrived outside and would refuse to go in. His parents moved him to a much smaller school all on one level, where he settled in quite happily. Whether it was simply the sheer size or whether he'd been told that the building had been hit by a bomb in the war, I don't know....
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Retired, sitting back and watching others for a change.
Posts: 34626 | From: Cream Tealand | Registered: Jun 2001
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
The place completely creeped me out - I can only describe it as having a feel about it that made it easy to believe it might have had a long history of horror. I actually remember those weird wall paintings in the photo I linked to. *Shudder*
That comes through in the photo. There's a nightmarish quality about those drawings - more like disturbed graffiti - and tunnels.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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Baptist Trainfan
Shipmate
# 15128
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Posted
Yes, I agree. I knew it in its final days as a hospital, although I never went inside. It was one of those buildings that was designed to "dominate" its users.
Having said that, although we decry those old mental hospitals and may be horrified by some of the treatments that went on within, I am sure that most of the folk who worked in them genuinely had a desire to help their patients.
Posts: 9750 | From: The other side of the Severn | Registered: Sep 2009
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Lord Jestocost
Shipmate
# 12909
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
quote:
Originally posted by Adeodatus:
The place completely creeped me out - I can only describe it as having a feel about it that made it easy to believe it might have had a long history of horror. I actually remember those weird wall paintings in the photo I linked to. *Shudder*
That comes through in the photo. There's a nightmarish quality about those drawings - more like disturbed graffiti - and tunnels.
In palatte and design they're very similar to the Voynich manuscript ... [cue creepy X-Files-type music].
Oxford's Malmaison hotel is built inside the old jail and it squeezes the air out of my lungs whenever I go inside. Which is why I no longer go inside. How anyone can bear to actually sleep there is beyond me.
Posts: 761 | From: The Instrumentality of Man | Registered: Aug 2007
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Ariel
Shipmate
# 58
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Posted
Oh dear yes - a very oppressive place. They've done it up nicely, but there's no getting away from that squat, grim jail look, and the bars on the outside of the windows. Pictures here.
Posts: 25445 | Registered: May 2001
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geroff
Shipmate
# 3882
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Posted
This building in Paris would terrify me now, but it didn't when I visited in 1990 or thereabouts. The journey up the lift into the underside of the arch reminded me of the underside of Thunderbird 3. Sadly the building is now closed due to falling masonry and offices where no one wants to work.
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"The first principle in science is to invent something nice to look at and then decide what it can do." Rowland Emett 1906-1990
Posts: 1172 | From: Montgomeryshire, Wales | Registered: Jan 2003
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churchgeek
Have candles, will pray
# 5557
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Jane R:
churchgeek: quote:
If I get up to Traverse I will definitely check that out!
You're kidding... aren't you?
I'm more into the 'run away screaming' aspect of ghost-hunting myself.
Nah, you've gotta see for yourself if it has that effect on you. Who knows, I might run away screaming too. But I'd love to find out, if I were in the area. I don't think I'd make a special trip. But Traverse City does have good wineries (that make delicious cherry wine and other berry wines).
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I reserve the right to change my mind.
My article on the Virgin of Vladimir
Posts: 7773 | From: Detroit | Registered: Feb 2004
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