Urban desertion Magazine

IN THIS

FIRST ISSUE:

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N YC SPECIAL ABA N D O N E D

YONKERS POWER STATION AND

FREEDOM TUNNEL

ISSUED MAR 2015

ISSUE 01

NYC SPECIAL

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TABLE CONTENTS OF

E D ito r ial team

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Interviewing Urban Desertion’s Founder and Photographer, Will Ellis

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Abandoned NYC Report: Freedom Railway Tunnel

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Abandoned NYC Report: The Yonkers Power Station

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List and Map of Abandoned Buildings in New York City

Publisher Will Ellis | Editor-in-chief Nancy Gabriel | Senior Editor Asae Kudo | NYC Special Editor Martin Felix | Managing Editor Sherry Footman | Editorial Assistant Randall Ambrosino

p h o t o g r a p h y Head of Photography Will Ellis | Photography Editors Stefan Nagel, Mauro Trentini | Photography Production Mary Hall

d e s i g n

t e a m

Head of Design Weixi Zeng | Creative Director Robert Logue | Design Jon Wedge | Production Manager Chyou Lo | Project Manager Algiso Rosario Pizarro

TELL US AN INTERESTING PLACE! info@urbandesertion.com

Urban Desertion Magazine is published by Zw Books, printed in New York City. All rights reserved. Production in whole or part without prior written permission is strcitely prohibited.

2015 Copyright Zw Designs.

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interview with photographer

WILL ELLIS

Will Ellis has made a name for himself capturing images of derelict spaces around NYC. The Brooklynbased photographer and founder of Urban Desertion is also one of the featured artists in the Offset collection, where you’ll find a stunning selection of his inimitable interiors and still lifes. We caught up with the artist to ask about his locations, his inspiration, and his run-in with a phantom.

Discover the abandoned

Tell us about these buildings. What makes them special to you?

WILL ELLIS: More than anything, it’s the mystery that they hold for me. Most people’s first impulse when they see an abandoned building is to wonder what’s inside, and that’s how it started for me. I think of abandoned buildings as a kind of wilderness, where boundaries between the past and present, the built environment and the natural world, the familiar and the surreal, all start to break down, and that’s when things get interesting. There’s an authenticity to them that I don’t find on the manicured lawns of Central Park or the commercialized streets of Manhattan.

What do you try to capture with your photographs?

WILL: When light is slipping through cracks in a boarded-up window or reflected off overgrown exteriors, all sorts of interesting phenomenons play out, and it’s a pleasure to photograph. So, in addition to an interesting subject, I’m always looking for a particular quality of light that gives my pictures a kind of “gleam.”

Architectural photography in general appeals to me because of its precision, but I also love the simplicity of using natural light and photographing the world as it actually is. There’s something very beautiful and pure about interacting with a space in that way.

How did you decide on abandoned buildings as a subject?

WILL: When I started this project, I was reading a lot of classic horror in the gothic tradition — Edgar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood. What makes those stories so appealing is the atmosphere they create, and more often than not, they’re set in some decrepit, abandoned building, especially the old English ghost stories. So this was a way for me to find that eerie atmosphere in

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my own backyard. I walked into my first abandoned building on a whim, and from then on, I was hooked. It’s interesting to see that, just in the past few years, the internet has become saturated with images of abandoned buildings, leading to the term “ruin porn.” But the pleasure of ruins goes back thousands of years.

It plays into this morbid curiosity that is within all of us — a fascination with death and decay that’s just a part of what makes us human.

Why is it important to remember places that have been largely forgotten?

WILL: Researching the history behind these places has kept me going after the initial sense of adventure waned a bit. Abandoned buildings have a knack for highlighting major changes that have taken place over history, and many of them fit into overarching trends that can tell you a lot about how a city like New York has transformed over the past century or so.

Many of them played a significant role in New York’s industrial era, military history, or the age of institutionalization.

So the project is almost archeological — a way of uncovering the city’s past.

Is there any particular image that has a story behind it you could share?

WILL: This image of the Hoosac Tunnel (right) has a pretty good story behind it. The tunnel is supposedly one of the most haunted places in Massachusetts, so of course I had to stop by during a camping trip up to the Berkshires. I’ve been to several supposedly haunted places without incident, and I definitely consider myself a skeptic, but as soon as I crossed the threshold into the tunnel, my camera started taking pictures by itself.

The entire time I was inside, I was unable to gain control of the shutter, so I just positioned my tripod, set focus, stepped aside and waited for the camera to fire. In other words, a ghost took this picture.

TOP: Nature retaking an auditorium of an abandoned school.

BOTTOM: The ghostly

Hoosac Tunnel located in Berkshires, New York.

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THE PLEASURE OF

R U I N S plays into this

MORBID CURIOSITY THAT IS WITHIN ALL OF US

A FAS C I N AT I O N WITH

DEATH

AND

DECAY

that’s just a part of what makes us

HUMAN

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The Freedom Tunnel was named after the artist Chris Pape, aka Freedom, who spent decades creating graffiti pieces here, including this version of the Venus de Milo.

Besides attracting Urban Explorers, the tunnel remains an active canvas for graffiti artists.

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NYC SPECIAL REPORT

FREEDOM TUNNEL LAYI NG U ND ER U PPER WE ST S ID E

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LOCATION: UPPER WEST SIDE TYPE OF

ARCHITECTURE

INFRASTRUCTURE

1930 BUILT 1980 ABANDONED 1991 R E O P E N E D

brutal fact The giant, man-made caverns was a haven for homeless people. They take this place as shelter and their home.

At its height in 1994, nearly a hundred people lived in the tunnel.

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MOSES GATES

is standing inside the Freedom Tunnel, a covered train line underneath Riverside Park. He is here to show a group of visiting Urban Explorers around, and to drop off a copy of his book with a friend named Brooklyn, who has lived in the tunnel for decades. “When friends from out of the country are in town, I shove them through here,” said Gates, who has lived in New York for over a decade. His deep attachment to the tunnel stretches back for almost as long. The final chapter of Hidden Cities details an overnight trip to Brooklyn’s home in the Freedom Tunnel, and takes place a few weeks past Gate’s 35th birthday, at a time when he was considering retiring from the Urban Exploration life. “I thought it would be a good place to end.”

The Freedom Tunnel, a three-milelong active train tunnel under Riverside Park, was once abandoned, and is now one of the most popular destinations in New York for fledgling Urban Explorers. “When I come down here on a weekend, I always run into one or two people,” said Gates.

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GATE FOLD LEFT

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GATE FOLD RIGHT

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“The first time I came here was 2003 or 2004,” said Gates, several years after the tunnel was re-opened by Amtrak, and after most of the homeless people who were living in the tunnel were displaced. Gates has returned to the tunnel many times since.

CONTINUING

The Freedom Tunnel was named after the artist Chris Pape, aka Freedom, who spent decades creating graffiti pieces here, including this version of the Venus de Milo. Besides attracting Urban Explorers, the tunnel remains an active canvas for graffiti artists.

“Ed Koch dies on a Friday morning and Saturday afternoon, someone has done a piece,” said Gates, standing in front of an recent portrait memorializing the mayor. “I love Koch. He’s my favorite mayor. He did the most with the least to work with in the history of the city.”

Gates, who works as an urban planner, sees value in projects that reuse abandoned, off-limits parts of the city, like the High Line and the Lowline. He believes it could be possible to open the Freedom Tunnel to the general public.

“This should be more accessible to everybody,” said Gates.

He envisions viewing platforms built at the edge of the tunnel, or a protected walkway next to the tracks. But years of experience have taught him that gaining official access to vital infrastructure is difficult. In the Freedom Tunnel, opening the space to the public “is tough, because it’s an active train line.”

“It’s definitely a goal of mine to get more people more access to the city,” said Gates, who serves on the Volunteer Board of Open House New York. “Maybe someone will figure out how to make [the tunnel] accessible.”

At the southern end of the tunnel, authorities recently focused on a different project, spending countless hours and dollars painting over some of the largest graffiti pieces in the tunnel. “What’s the point?” asks Gates, whose book includes a story about running into Amtrak’s paint crews in the tunnel.

TOP: Most graphitti art works are centered right under the skylight

LEFT: Urban explorer and photograher Moses Gates stading next to Mayor Ed Koch’s graphitti portrait.

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RIGHT: Light beams penetrate into the tunnel through openings on top of the railway tracks.

“The reason New York will never get rid of graffiti is that everyone writes graffiti in New York,” Gates writes in his book. This wall once featured the most iconic piece in the Freedom Tunnel, which was painted over by Amtrak with a fresh canvas of grey paint. A newer piece - a portrait of Robert Moses, who built this tunnel - was painted on the wall in December 2011.

The Freedom Tunnel is still home to several long term residents, including Brooklyn, who wasn’t at home during this visit. Gates left her a signed copy of his book. “I always have a lot of love for people I meet in tunnels,” he said.

After the launch of this book, Gates plans to continue as an author. “I want to write a book about being a tour guide?being a double decker tour guide.

I did it for over two and a half years.”

In the meantime, he is not sure when he will next visit the Freedom Tunnel, where the “rabbit hole” entrances are often blocked off.

Gates does not expect any serious repercussions from the candid nature of his current memoir. “It’s not a secret,” said Gates of his exploits as an international Urban Explorer. “It’s ridiculous to try to use a pseudonym in 2013. If someone wants to try to find out who you are in 2013, it’s not going to be hard.”

“I want to retire, but I can’t,” Gates writes in his book, comparing Urban Exploration to an addiction. He adds, however, “I don’t want to turn 40 and find myself hanging out in a steam tunnel.”

ARTHUR: Moses Gates PHOTOGRAPER: Stuart McAlpine

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Once, the imposing brick edifice embodied New York City’s ever-increasing industrial prowess, but today, the riverside relic stands as a monument to obsolescence, caught in a destructive contest with the tides.

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NYC SPECIAL REPORT

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brutal fact At a time, the Yonkers Power Station once involved some 300 individuals with gang activities, where savage beatings and sexual deviancy took place on a shocking scale.

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LO C ATIO N: Y O NK E R S , NY .

TYPE OF

ARCHITECTURE

INDUSTRIAL

1906 BUILT 1968 ABANDONED TAKE

a northern train to Yonkers and watch New York City’s urban sprawl give way to the unspoiled undulations of the Hudson River Valley. You’ll be reminded once again that Manhattan is an island, bounded and formed by three rivers, and there is, in fact, a world outside of it.

One of the stranger stops along the Hudson line can’t be missed; it’s dominated by a sight nearly as impressive as the station you came from.

Abandoned since the late sixties, the old power plant at Glenwood may be decidedly more ghoulish than Grand Central Terminal, but it’s almost as grand—they were dreamed up by the same architects. Once, the imposing brick edifice embodied New York City’s ever-increasing industrial

prowess, but today, the riverside relic stands as a monument to obsolescence, caught in a destructive contest with the tides.

The Yonkers Power Station was completed in 1906 to enable the first electrification of the New York Central Railroad, built in conjunction with the redesign of Grand Central Terminal. The plant served the railroad for thirty years, but it soon became more cost-effective for the company to purchase its electricity rather than generate its own. ConEdison took over in 1936, using the station’s titanic generating capacity to power the surrounding county. By 1968, new technologies had replaced Glenwood’s outdated turbines, and the station was abandoned.

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The Hudson River once delivered raw materials to the powerhouse, but now its waters collect in stagnant pools on the lowest level. Rust has consumed the factory from the inside out; in places, the corrosion is almost audible. Joints creak, bricks topple, ceilings drip, commingling with the constant suck of viscous mud underfoot. Most of the machinery was carried out long ago, leaving only a hulking shell rimmed with staircases, walkways, and ladders—harrowing paths to nowhere.

CONTINUING

Some of the rusted-through steps threaten to crumble at the slightest touch, giving way to a thousand foot drop through decaying metal that could land you muddied and bloodied on the swampy first floor. I can’t say it’s worth the risk, but the Grand Canyon views from the plant’s highest reaches can

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sure ease your mind after a nail-biting ascent. Photographers, urban explorers, and filmmakers flock here; it’s the grandeur in this decay that draws so many, and makes this place worth saving.

forward that could verify the widelypublicized allegations, and the Yonkers Police Department denied having knowledge of any gang-related activities at the site.

In 2008, Jim Bostic of the Yonkers Gang Prevention Coalition and councilwoman Patricia McDow alleged that the abandoned building was the site of brutal gang initiations, involving some 300 individuals at a time, where savage beatings and sexual deviancy took place on a shocking scale. They called for the immediate demolition of the Glenwood Power Station, referring to it by its well-established nickname, the “Gates of Hell.”

The initiative gained the support of a number of locals, but many remained skeptical of McDow, who’s been criticized in the past for overlooking the rising tide of vviovlent crime in her district. Demolishing this historic structure would have little to no effect on neighborhood violence, but as a symbolic gesture, it could appeal to voters.

The stories were thrilling, hysterical, and ultimately hard to believe. No evidence was found and no witness stepped

The powerhouse was spared from the whims of city politics, but it’s technically still at risk; landmarking efforts have failed since a proposal was first put forth in 2005.

Discover the abandoned

It’s been four years since the Glenwood Power Station made headlines as the “Gates of Hell,” but not much had changed there until recently. A new owner spruced up the grounds, removing overgrowth on the lot and clearing ivy from the buildings’ exteriors. It’s a sign of good things to come, though no plans for renovation have been released at this time.

I came to Yonkers a few months prior to the cleanup, unaware that the space had already been booked for a post-apocalyptic webseries shoot. The crew was friendly and professional, but their presence proved a distraction. As a buxom actress screamed “There’s no way out!” for the fifth time, the Yonkers Power Station was stripped of its mystery, seeming to wear its decay with reluctant resignation. Today, it’s a creepy backdrop for

zombie films, the subject of gruesome rumors, but it was designed to inspire pride, not fear.

Sites like these are quickly becoming a contentious part of the post-industrial American landscape, scattered remnants of a period of enormous change— a revolution that’s led us, for better or worse, to where we are now. In Yonkers, one such building wades on the banks of the Hudson, its skeleton blushing to shades of orange. It’s an eyesore, a piece of history, and a community threat; also a nice spot to play hooky, take pictures, or build a shopping mall. No one can seem to agree on these “Gates.” So what the Hell should we do with them?

ARTHUR: Stanley Ward PHOTOGRAPER: Will Ellis

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1 2

4 3

LEFT PAGE: 1. Walls reduced to rubble on the southern half of the generator building.

2. Turning a corner into a darkened vault, a row of valves.

3. This basement room had the deepest water, anyone for a swim?

4. Photos can’t capture the jaw-dropping proportions of the place.

THIS PAGE: A view of the substation and the generating building’s iconic smokestacks.

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I am hoping to preserve the belief that there is still weirdness, wildness, and mystery in the world, even in an increasingly sanitized city like New York. —WI LL E LLI S

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LIST OF FEATURED ABAN DO N E D

PLACES IN NYC

1. ARTHUR KILL BOAT GRAVEYARD

13. KINGS PARK PSYCHIATRIC CENTER

2. BASEBALL GRAVEYARD

14. LETCHWORTH VILLAGE

3. BOYCE THOMPSON INSTITUTE

15. LOST DINER

4. CREEDMOOR STATE HOSPITAL

16. MACHPELAH CEMETERY

5. DOMINO SUGAR REFINERY

17. NEW YORK STATE PAVILION

6. DUBOS POINT WILDLIFE PRESERVE

18. NORTH BROTHER ISLAND

7. FORT TOTTEN

19. PUBLIC SCHOOL 186

8. FORT WADSWORTH

20. RED HOOK GRAIN TERMINAL

9. FREEDOM TUNNEL

21. ROCKAWAY BEACH BRANCH

10. GOWANUS BATCAVE

22. SECRET PARK

11. GROSSINGER’S CATSKILLS RESORT

23. YONKERS POWER STATION

Staten Island

Queens

Yonkers

Queens Village

Brooklyn

Rockaway Beach

Queens

Staten Island

Upper West Side

Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn

Liberty, NY

12. IMLAY ST. WAREHOUSE Redhook, Brooklyn

REFER TO MAP ON THE BACK

Long Island

Thiells, NY

Westside Manhattan

Queens

Flushing Meadows

By Rikers Island

Harlem

Red Hook, Brooklyn

Queens

Gravesend, Brooklyn

Yonkers, NY.

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Discover the abandoned

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FAQ ON 1. I need an abandoned space for my upcoming film/dance performance/music video/photo shoot. Can you help?

Probably not. Abandoned buildings are notoriously difficult to secure for film/photo shoots for multiple reasons, including some serious safety issues. There are only a handful of abandoned sites in the city that are available for shoots and events, and they rent for several thousand dollars a day. We’ve attempted to scout these locations in the past and haven’t had much luck at all.

2. I want to explore an abandoned building myself, where can I pick up a permit?

If only it was that simple… Property owners of abandoned buildings are hard to track down, and it’s extremely unlikely that they allow casual visitors due to liability issues, not to mention the fact that there’s nothing in it for them, no matter how good your intentions. For that reason, getting inside an abandoned building usually involves breaking the law. That’s not to say it’s impossible to get permission, but we probably can’t be much help to you.

3. Are these places open to the public?

NEXT ISSUE: PRIPYAT, A CITY OF ABSOLUTE NUCLEAR EXCLUSION Go inside the deadly ghost town with our new drone team, and see the remains of the Chernobyl Disaster

While many of the places on this site are located in public parks or natural areas, accessing the interior of abandoned buildings is always considered trespassing. Beachcombing at Dead Horse Bay is one legal option. Fort Tilden, Fort Totten, Fort Wadsworth, and Floyd Bennett Field are also fun to wander around and explore, and totally open to the public as long as you don’t go inside the buildings.

4. I really want to get into urban exploring.

Where’s a good place to start?

We are not too involved with the UrbanExploration community, but we recommend their forums as a good resource.

5. Can I come with the team on next adventure?

We get a fair amount of emails from people who want to join us, and we’re not able to meet with everyone. But if you’ve done this kind of thing before, know about a place we haven’t been, by all means get in touch!

STILL HAVE CONCERNS? questions@urbandesertion.com

www.urbandesertion.com