back from the dead
A couple weeks ago I volunteered to help clean out an abandoned seven story building in downtown Syracuse, New York. I was pretty busy hauling things around but managed to get some photos, too.
This building was constructed in 1899 for well-known Syracuse lawyer Henri Duquesnet Dillaye and designed by Syracuse architect Charles E. Colton. It has been known as the Wilson Building since 1943 when it was purchased by Wilson Jewelry.
The building is shaped like a squared-off U, with the eastern arm of the U fronting on South Salina St., the main staircase running up the eastern side of the bottom part of the U, and the western arm facing into an alleyway off of Syracuse's Armory Square, the heart of the citys's urban revival. The empty space in the U is occupied by a courtyard, although the roof of the very ground floor of the building forms the floor of the courtyard. It's a design that lets in a lot of light. In the very first image above, I'm looking through a window on the courtyard side. You can see that the bricks are not uniformly colored. I'm not sure why.
The building was occupied until just a few years ago. It's now owned by the city. Until earlier this year, it was used as a squat. Renovation is slated to start in the spring of 2007, with the end result being space for residential, commercial, and retail use.
This was a squat. In this room I found a photocopied birth certificate, some college textbooks, and an awful lot of porn. You can see across the courtyard to the eastern arm of the U.
There were leftovers from various offices all over the place. The small pieces of paper in the picture below are business cards from the Syracuse Stars hockey club.
The elevator in the building was functional, but not trustworthy, so anything too large to hand-carry down the narrow staircase was left in place. In the left of the picture below is part of a gorgeous display case.
This building has a lot of beautiful details still intact, like a brass-and-glass mail chute running the entire height, a small-but-opulent lobby, and intricately tiled floors. Art deco light fixtures, exposed brick walls, and lots of just-need-to-be-cleaned up trim and moldings complete the picture. It will be great living space, some day. The picture below is a little blurry but you can make out some of the brickwork.
The sixth floor had previously been used by an arts group. They left some interesting stuff behind. Not pictured: a bong made out of a twig.
I think this one was done in crayon. Again, you can see across the courtyard to the far side of the U.
This round opening was not original to the building. I'm pretty sure it wasn't even done by a professional, but it's pretty nifty. I wonder if they'll keep it when they reno? (In this photo, the face from two pictures ago is on the righthand wall.)
Looking back through the other way. Cool wall-mount ashtray. The rooms on the other side were full of leftover paint cans.
And one more, kinda artsy. (This time with the camera right up against the crazy face painting.)
Somebody's to do list:
Some Joycean graffiti:
A band had also crashed on this floor. They wrote all over the walls, then punched some holes in the drywall and generally trashed the place. This was the practice room. You can sort of see their setlists, curses, and general graffiti. We found a poster of themselves that the band had signed and emblazoned with "F*ck the Wilson Building." I'm sure there's a story there.
They left behind a bunch of these:
View from a squat on the sixth floor, looking west. I believe the arts group rented space out to artists and musicians. I didn't get a picture of it, but in one of the rooms someone had drawn a schematic of the building, showing what spaces were to be used for studios, which would be rented for $200/month. I have no idea what the rents will go for once the place is cleaned up...but more than $200, I would say.
Finally, here is the view from the sixth floor looking east across South Salina St. The three closest buildings are all occupied on the ground level, but I believe the upper levels are probably empty, or used for storage or squats. The revival here is about as slow-moving as it is in other Rust Belt cities, but a lot of progress has been made, not that you'd really know it from this picture.
If you'd like to see more of the Wilson Building, you can find exterior photos (and some nice shots of the floor tiles) here
The building revival project has its own homepage, which is fairly empty at the moment--it's here
This building was constructed in 1899 for well-known Syracuse lawyer Henri Duquesnet Dillaye and designed by Syracuse architect Charles E. Colton. It has been known as the Wilson Building since 1943 when it was purchased by Wilson Jewelry.
The building is shaped like a squared-off U, with the eastern arm of the U fronting on South Salina St., the main staircase running up the eastern side of the bottom part of the U, and the western arm facing into an alleyway off of Syracuse's Armory Square, the heart of the citys's urban revival. The empty space in the U is occupied by a courtyard, although the roof of the very ground floor of the building forms the floor of the courtyard. It's a design that lets in a lot of light. In the very first image above, I'm looking through a window on the courtyard side. You can see that the bricks are not uniformly colored. I'm not sure why.
The building was occupied until just a few years ago. It's now owned by the city. Until earlier this year, it was used as a squat. Renovation is slated to start in the spring of 2007, with the end result being space for residential, commercial, and retail use.
This was a squat. In this room I found a photocopied birth certificate, some college textbooks, and an awful lot of porn. You can see across the courtyard to the eastern arm of the U.
There were leftovers from various offices all over the place. The small pieces of paper in the picture below are business cards from the Syracuse Stars hockey club.
The elevator in the building was functional, but not trustworthy, so anything too large to hand-carry down the narrow staircase was left in place. In the left of the picture below is part of a gorgeous display case.
This building has a lot of beautiful details still intact, like a brass-and-glass mail chute running the entire height, a small-but-opulent lobby, and intricately tiled floors. Art deco light fixtures, exposed brick walls, and lots of just-need-to-be-cleaned up trim and moldings complete the picture. It will be great living space, some day. The picture below is a little blurry but you can make out some of the brickwork.
The sixth floor had previously been used by an arts group. They left some interesting stuff behind. Not pictured: a bong made out of a twig.
I think this one was done in crayon. Again, you can see across the courtyard to the far side of the U.
This round opening was not original to the building. I'm pretty sure it wasn't even done by a professional, but it's pretty nifty. I wonder if they'll keep it when they reno? (In this photo, the face from two pictures ago is on the righthand wall.)
Looking back through the other way. Cool wall-mount ashtray. The rooms on the other side were full of leftover paint cans.
And one more, kinda artsy. (This time with the camera right up against the crazy face painting.)
Somebody's to do list:
Some Joycean graffiti:
A band had also crashed on this floor. They wrote all over the walls, then punched some holes in the drywall and generally trashed the place. This was the practice room. You can sort of see their setlists, curses, and general graffiti. We found a poster of themselves that the band had signed and emblazoned with "F*ck the Wilson Building." I'm sure there's a story there.
They left behind a bunch of these:
View from a squat on the sixth floor, looking west. I believe the arts group rented space out to artists and musicians. I didn't get a picture of it, but in one of the rooms someone had drawn a schematic of the building, showing what spaces were to be used for studios, which would be rented for $200/month. I have no idea what the rents will go for once the place is cleaned up...but more than $200, I would say.
Finally, here is the view from the sixth floor looking east across South Salina St. The three closest buildings are all occupied on the ground level, but I believe the upper levels are probably empty, or used for storage or squats. The revival here is about as slow-moving as it is in other Rust Belt cities, but a lot of progress has been made, not that you'd really know it from this picture.
If you'd like to see more of the Wilson Building, you can find exterior photos (and some nice shots of the floor tiles) here
The building revival project has its own homepage, which is fairly empty at the moment--it's here