Icicle Palace

      I remember coming home from North Dakota to find that yet another arson had claimed a vacant building. The picture in the Free Press told of a grim ordeal with flames shooting out of the roof and high into the sky. I was sure that the building had been demolished so I forgot about it and focused on other buildings.

     Then one Friday night as I scouted I saw something that greatly surprised me. The building that I had once thought was demolished was still standing over a month since the fire. In an era when abandoned buildings are being torn down at an amazing rate I was perplexed as to how this building was still standing.

     Nonetheless I packed up my gear and headed out to the building walking past numerous prostitutes whom pestered me by asking for a smoke. There was a fence around the building but it did little good as numerous gaps could be easily walked through.

     Hopping into a half covered doorway I entered into a beautiful and surreal scene. Icicles of many shapes and sizes were everywhere and the entire roof and third floor sat in a large heap in the middle of the second floor. The silence of the beast was only broken as the wind moved various pieces of broken sheet metal and falling debris. Though there wasn't anything of particular interest on the second floor the atmosphere of the building was simply amazing. It was so surreal in fact that I simply sat down, closed my eyes and took in everything.

     After cautiously making my way across the floor to the stairway I walked down what was left of them and entered into the first floor office. Oddly enough there was little or no damage here with the only evidence of a fire being frozen ash clumps. There was however, many signs of a break and enter with contents being strewn everywhere, including paint cans and paint thinner.

      Just outside the office is a rather large warehouse area that held evidence of numerous attempted arsons. I didn't bring my spotlight so light painting the room was difficult and proved to be futile in the end. Seeing how there was nothing left to explore I packed up my things and traveled back to my car to continue scouting.

Curious George sporting his new Asbestos mask.

Some large icicles.

Doorway to no-where.

Trying to get this picture took a lot of effort in trying to determine the if the floor was stable or not.

If this wasn't so over-exposed you would be able to see the stars.

This is all that remains of a door. Frozen ashes and a fire extinguisher. Ironically, I was singing "Double Vision" by Foreigner when I took this picture