DEFUNCTSITE

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is tearing down the large, circa 1930′s  Sludge Disposal Building (also known as “The Big House”) at their waste treatment plant in Stickney. Unfortunately, the site covers so much ground (“the largest wastewater treatment facility in the world“) and the building is so deep inside the complex that the only decent public view of the demolition work is from the Central Avenue viaduct a quarter of a mile away, which is where I shot the above (cropped, mediocre) photo. But if you want to get a closer look, you can just go online and watch the demolition live (more or less, the feed is slow) on the MWRD website. While I can only guess as to why the MWRD decided to make the webcam feed publicly viewable, or why they even set one up in the first place, I’m glad that they did it. The webcam page also has a short write-up on the history of the building. Worth reading, if only because whoever wrote the piece did so with a sense of humor.

edit 7/2/10: The building is gone and so is the video feed, but not the information page. I took a screenshot of the video back in March and posted it HERE, if you’re interested.

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Somewhat related: A Fantasy Itinerary for a CLUImidwest Tour of Peripheral Chicago, where the Chicago-based blog Pruned asks “…from where does Chicago get its water and electricity. What happens to our shit?” The Stickney plant is mentioned, of course.