RUBBISHGOESHERE / DUMP

Just posting a few semi-recent “before and after” photos of the demolition work at Michael Reese Hospital, only because nobody else seems to have done it lately…

The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago is currently demolishing the large, circa 1930′s Sludge Disposal Building (also known as “The Big House”) at their waste treatment plant in Stickney…

This is the base of what used to be the enclosed water tower at Washburne Trade School. Towers and stairwells are the most difficult parts of old brick factory buildings to demolish, so they are often left standing until the rest of the structure around them is torn down. That’s what happened here, and as the Washburne water tower became more isolated from the rest of the complex it began to resemble a monument of some sort. I had naively hoped that it would be left standing, but as you can see that didn’t happen. Now 31st and Kedzie can finally be classified as an 11 acre Empty Lot…

Near 51st and Hoyne stands the Fleischmann-Kurth Malting Company, which was once “one of the largest suppliers of malt for the American beer industry” according to some random factoid I found online. Actually, I should say “stood”, since demolition of the complex began late last year and is now nearly complete. All that’s left now are the impressive grain silos, and those were half gone last time I visited.

I keep on saying that I will continue to photograph this place until it is nothing but an empty lot. At the rate the demo crew is going, that’ll probably be in a month or so…

One of the more prominent features of Washburne Trade School was this mural in the cafeteria, presumably a project for the student sign painters who trained here…Now that summer upon us and much of the building is gone, I thought I’d present the last photos I took of this mural while the building around it was being demolished.

As part of my ongoing project to document the demolition of the former Washburne Trade School building…

The demolition of the Veterans Administration Hospital in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood, which began in the Summer of 2008, is nearly complete. You might not even guess that a large modernist hospital block used to stand here if it wasn’t for the huge hole in the ground…

Standing next to the west end of the 18th Street viaduct, is this odd little building that has been sitting vacant for years. I never knew what it was, but I always liked seeing it there. It added to the old industrial character of an area that includes the Schoenhofen Brewery, the Amtrack railyard, and an old (circa 1915) vertical lift bridge. Except now that odd little building is being demolished.

The demolition of the large main building at Washburne Trade School began about a week ago. There is still a lot of work to be done before there will be any noticeable changes to the building, but still…