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UER Forum > US: Great Lakes > What's left in Chicago? (Viewed 6684 times)
neiloffthegrid 


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What's left in Chicago?
< on 5/12/2015 4:08 PM >
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Hi. I'm a nubie (started exploring Chicago this past December). No I am not phishing for site locations, I'm aware of the rules. Researching online it seems that most of the "classic" spots have been demolished. So, I'm curious what type of sites some of the Chicagoland members have been checking out? I'm only interested in the type, not location.

So far I have been to:
The Silos that everyone has been to
3 homes
1 small office building
A cold storage building
A ComEd substation

and found the location/explored what is know as the "Ashland Water Caves".

Thanks!



[last edit 5/12/2015 10:23 PM by neiloffthegrid - edited 1 times]

DJ Craig 

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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 1 on 5/12/2015 5:01 PM >
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Downtown Chicago is most known for rooftops, cranes, construction sites, and other active site infiltration. Not really beginner stuff necessarily (depending on how ballsy of a beginner you are). Then of course there are plenty of abandonments in the surrounding areas.




"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..." -Dr. Suess
relik 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 2 on 5/12/2015 7:34 PM >
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I've been to Chicago a few times. Craig is right, lots of rooftops.. Too many for my tastes. Heh.
I know Harris Furniture was set on fire a year or two ago, but there's probably still some left. That and Sante Fe Silos were part of the itinerary during my first trip.




"When it rains, just find bigger drains."
neiloffthegrid 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 3 on 5/12/2015 10:28 PM >
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Thanks for the replies. Rooftops are not my thing, I prefer stairs. The Harris location has been totally leveled.
The Silos are amazingly cool, especially because so many people have gone to them and they are still around.

It kills me that the really good spots that are still around have been sealed multiple time by the powers that be. I've found that getting the date when a photo was taken is key.



[last edit 5/12/2015 10:36 PM by neiloffthegrid - edited 1 times]

Cateater 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 4 on 5/12/2015 10:33 PM >
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Posted by Bilvavi
So far I have been to:
The Silos that everyone has been to


Well dont i feel lame... i have never been to any cool silos...
Theres plenty to explore outside of chicago. Depends on how far out you wanna go though. As im sure you know, the farther from chicago you get, the more rural the area becomes. The more rural areas (say 1.5 hours+ from the city) are abound with abandoned farm houses/properties. And even in some of the suburbs there are plenty of cool places to go. Just have to know where to look. Within chicago, i can't say. Never been on an explore there. But i would imagine its how the others have said, rooftops, rooftops and more rooftops.




neiloffthegrid 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 5 on 5/12/2015 10:38 PM >
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Thanks. I have thought about going out to the farm areas, but I spent 8 years living in Indianapolis and have seen bunches of old farms. Of course, it only took my 20 minutes from where I lived.




Cateater 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 6 on 5/12/2015 10:51 PM >
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google maps and a quick snooping around, are your best friend.




DJ Craig 

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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 7 on 5/13/2015 3:07 AM >
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Posted by Bilvavi
Thanks for the replies. Rooftops are not my thing, I prefer stairs.


99% of rooftops are 99% elevator, 1% stairs, and 0.01% ladder.




"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..." -Dr. Suess
Cosmic 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 8 on 5/13/2015 6:25 AM >
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Posted by DJ Craig


99% of rooftops are 99% elevator, 1% stairs, and 0.01% ladder.


A lot of roofs are 95% stairs.. :p




Quarantine 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 9 on 5/20/2015 6:09 AM >
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There's always the ACME Coking plant. That is like 100% stairs though. The "Good Old Days" of Chicago exploring about 5-10 years in the past for those of us not into active stuff.



[last edit 5/20/2015 6:10 AM by Quarantine - edited 1 times]

Clockwork 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 10 on 5/20/2015 2:24 PM >
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Posted by Quarantine
There's always the ACME Coking plant. That is like 100% stairs though. The "Good Old Days" of Chicago exploring about 5-10 years in the past for those of us not into active stuff.


Some people would argue that the true "good old days" of Chicago exploration are fifteen years ago, or anything prior to the increased security of the post-9/11 world.

My time as a Chicago explorer was not quite that long ago, but still a relative lifetime ago, happening during the 2003-2006 era. Most of the great, reliably-explorable abandoned places I knew back then are long since torn down now, like Aetna, Washburn, Ingersoll, Brachs, and CC Hospital.

If abandoned buildings are like old friends, it can be comforting to visit them from time to time. The only place I can go anymore that still contains so many old friends is Gary, Indiana. And even there things have changed to a radical degree in the past fifteen years. What were once vast stretches of vacant dirt have been redeveloped into townhouses and other housing solutions. A lot of the signature abandonments in Gary have been torn down, cleaned out, or are in the process of collapsing due to time and weathering.

I'm heading back to Gary on Sunday to revisit and reexamine the beautiful decay and say hi to some old friends.




neiloffthegrid 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 11 on 5/26/2015 5:02 PM >
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"Clockwork", I think the "golden age" of Chicago Urbexing was exactly what you wrote about. While initially pretty turned off by people not revealing secret locations of variouss sites, although I totally understand the logic behind it.

I'll learned to make finding them into a game. It's the same with sites that have been sealed. The odds are that it it's sealed it can be unsealed. I'm currently (ok once every 2 weeks) trying to find a ground level POE into a building in the Chicago Manufacturing District. It's been sealed up, but there HAS to be way in that that doesn't involved me balancing on a pipe and putting duct tape on my hands so I can climb 9 feet.

I guess things were different when the UER database was up for Chicago. Eventually I'll find a spot that accessable and untagged...and let people know.

Haven't been to Gary, yet.



[last edit 5/26/2015 7:34 PM by neiloffthegrid - edited 1 times]

relik 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 12 on 5/26/2015 7:30 PM >
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Posted by Bilvavi
Haven't been to Gary, yet.


I definitely recommend changing this. Especially if you're so near-by!





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Clockwork 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 13 on 5/27/2015 2:21 PM >
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Posted by Bilvavi

Haven't been to Gary, yet.


I arrived in Gary at around Noon on Sunday and met up with five other explorers. Parking at the main train station, soooooooo many abandoned buildings are in easy walking distance. We were poking around buildings until 10:30 at night. We went through so many places, but soooooo many more buildings were calling to us that we just didn't have time for. You can explore Gary for days and not see everything. It's a miniature Detroit. Despite the quantity of abandonments, a number of things have come down in recent years, and more are inevitably scheduled for destruction. Go now and enjoy it before more buildings get torn down.




neiloffthegrid 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 14 on 5/27/2015 2:57 PM >
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Thanks for the first hand report. Sound like it was a successful trip.




imprezawrxsti 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 15 on 5/27/2015 8:27 PM >
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Posted by Clockwork


I arrived in Gary at around Noon on Sunday and met up with five other explorers. Parking at the main train station, soooooooo many abandoned buildings are in easy walking distance. We were poking around buildings until 10:30 at night. We went through so many places, but soooooo many more buildings were calling to us that we just didn't have time for. You can explore Gary for days and not see everything. It's a miniature Detroit. Despite the quantity of abandonments, a number of things have come down in recent years, and more are inevitably scheduled for destruction. Go now and enjoy it before more buildings get torn down.


How's City Meth holding up? I heard about the roof collapse over the choir loft last year




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Clockwork 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 16 on 5/28/2015 2:13 PM >
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City Methodist is still City Methodist. Yeah, a section of roof collapsed in the main church area, but not as bad as I was expecting.

What has really surprisingly increased is the sheer amount of grafiti murals popping up all over the ruins of Gary. Some old tags, including one by the late great Devnull, have been painted over by modern taggers.

Also surprising, somebody has gone to the trouble of bolting up some new hand railings in the stairwell at Gary Methodist to make things safer. This is one of the few abandonments I've ever noticed such an improvement.




jonrev 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 17 on 5/28/2015 7:06 PM >
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The railings at CMC were added during some movie shoot a few years ago. Probably for insurance purposes.




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imprezawrxsti 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 18 on 5/29/2015 6:56 PM >
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Posted by Clockwork
Some old tags, including one by the late great Devnull, have been painted over by modern taggers.


That's disappointing. I still know a few of his tags that will be hard to find/cover up though. Is the memorial still there? I think I have a few pictures of it from when I was at the Meth last in '09.




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Clockwork 


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Re: What's left in Chicago?
< Reply # 19 on 6/1/2015 6:50 PM >
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Posted by imprezawrxsti


That's disappointing. I still know a few of his tags that will be hard to find/cover up though. Is the memorial still there? I think I have a few pictures of it from when I was at the Meth last in '09.


I'd love to see some of his tags before demolition occurs to whatever structures hold them. Going to the top of Ambassador last week was all about paying respect to the tag Devnull himself pointed out to me the very first day we met. I was heartbroken to find it painted over. The tag was still clearly visible three years ago.

As for the Devnull/Seth Thomas memorial in the church... I don't think that has existed in any form since probably 2009. I remember it kept getting torn apart by random visitors and then reconstructed by explorers who knew him. The cycle went on and on for years.

Somebody did an excellent job putting photos of Seth in plastic baggies to protect them from water damage. I took one photo home with me during my visit in April 2009, since I never took good photos of Seth when we used to explore together (I've never been much of a photographer).

I couldn't find any sign of the memorial existing when I was in the church in 2012. During my visit last week, I did see some of those baggies that once held photos, but I didn't see any actual photographs remaining. There's so much garbage piled up in that area though, it wouldn't surprise me that something might be found by digging/sifting through all the debris.

I'm still sad that Seth's old UER Database entries for Gary no longer exist. His witty/sarcastic writings were always such a joy to read.




UER Forum > US: Great Lakes > What's left in Chicago? (Viewed 6684 times)
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