Assignment 10: Brandon

These pictures were taken at the intersection of 14th Street and State Street. The first two photographs are not indicative of any urban decay within the area, but that is because they are being taken from the parking lot of the abandoned building in question. The buildings in these photos show newly reclaimed spaces which contain a variety of restaurants and services that do quite a lot of business throughout the day. Now, the building in question appears to have been a service station, but the state of the signage makes it hard to tell. I have seen other buildings similar to this which are also abandoned, but appear to be used for other purposes. For this one in particular, its lot is regularly used by business people during lunch as an accessible parking lot for the surrounding restaurants. On some weekends, it appears to be a makeshift car wash. The wooden signs on the ground are "For Sale" and "For Lease" signs, but it seems as though no one is really working to advertise the property. As to why the building is a sign of urban decay, my hunch is that it once functioned as a service station for the vehicles of steel workers that lived and worked at the steel mill that is now Atlantic Station. Other indicators of this are the small, feral houses that dot the streets of the area. In many cases, these houses are directly across the street from newly built condominiums and luxury town homes, but are available mainly for renters rather than buyers. While some of the commercial buildings have been reclaimed in the area, this one appears to have been forgotten. I suspect this is partially due to the cost of rebuilding on land that once housed businesses which utilized many chemicals. Dry cleaners and service stations are some examples of these.