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UER Mobile > US: Northeast > Chemical Coast (Viewed 2901 times)

post by developstopfix

Chemical Coast
< on 7/11/2021 4:37 AM >

Here's a series of photos taken over several visits (one in early 2016 and several more in late 2019 and into 2020) to a 650+ acre piece of property on the outskirts of NYC that once housed an oil storage facility and has more recently been partially redeveloped for business and retail use. The oil storage tanks were taken down long ago but there are still several abandoned structures, the most interesting ones being the former offices of the oil storage company and a waterfront warehouse/receiving building. The rest are mostly small empty storage buildings. The office building was wide open on my first visit 5 years ago, but since then developers have moved in and the building was almost completely boarded up. The entire area is extremely low-lying wetlands and suffered heavy flooding during Superstorm Sandy - check out the photo of the half-erased chalkboard. That's the waterline. The developers that now own the land at one point had plans to demolish the warehouse and pier that still remain but it doesn't look like any work has actually taken place for over a year now. Also lots of Meow Man tags here including one on a roof large enough to be seen from space (at least by Google's satellites).

It's easy to forget you're in NYC sometimes

This space was once taken up by dozens of oil storage tanks. The land had recently been filled and raised by at least 12 feet shortly before I took this over a year ago but not much has happened since and it's already pretty overgrown again.

The weigh station is a more recent addition outside the now-boarded up office building.

The interior of the office building as seen in 2016

Also 2016

And now, with little to no natural light inside

The entire building reeks but this room in particular was 100 times worse. I couldn't stand to go much farther than the doorway.

Dude, you're getting a Dell

2016 again

Whatever these things do they are all over the place and are still active

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post by Philodis

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 1 on 7/11/2021 5:23 AM >

I was reading about this place recently. It's a fascinating location and your photographs of it are beyond incredible. Thank you for sharing.

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post by randomesquephoto

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 2 on 7/11/2021 5:48 PM >

Great stuff!

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post by Vacant NJ

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 3 on 7/12/2021 12:42 PM >

Awesome adventure, I really dig the shots of the cable-stayed bridge. The photo of the chalkboard waterline is wild too.

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post by ordille

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 4 on 7/13/2021 2:00 AM >

absolutely love the way these photos were edited, gave me an eerie early walking dead vibe, great pics !!

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post by Aran

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 5 on 7/13/2021 1:13 PM >

Great shots, I especially like the pillar photo

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post by BoredFun27

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 6 on 7/14/2021 11:05 PM >

Nice set, also really appreciative of the history behind the location.

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post by MisUnderstood!

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 7 on 7/18/2021 5:04 AM >

Really intrigued by your first several pictures. Its amazing how much it looks like places near Chemical Row in PA, Tx.. I loved ALL of your shots. Such a similar feel to areas near me.

btw, enjoyed the B&W pics you shared on the B&W thread recently too.

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post by randomesquephoto

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 8 on 7/19/2021 2:01 AM >

Posted by ordille
absolutely love the way these photos were edited, gave me an eerie early walking dead vibe, great pics !!

If I was to guess, they look like they were all shot on film.

Where they?

What kind of cam and film then?

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post by developstopfix

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 9 on 7/19/2021 2:48 PM >

Thanks for the kind words everyone.

Posted by randomesquephoto

If I was to guess, they look like they were all shot on film.

Where they?

What kind of cam and film then?

Yep, almost all film with the exception of the 3 pics from 2016. A combination of a few different cameras and films - mostly Portra 160 and 400 but the more saturated-looking ones were on Kodak Ektar. The B&W shots are Ilford FP4+. The first bunch of pics is all 4x5 large format film, the square ones were shot on Hasselblads, and I think there's a 35mm shot or two mixed in there as well.

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post by NYC-EMT

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 10 on 8/9/2021 10:43 PM >

Another Staten Islander! I went there a few times, Always a lot of fun but just be careful since it's a staging area for the buckeye pipeline and there are some security measures in place.

Also have a little bit of family history there as my great uncle was a firefighter there when the facility was in use

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post by developstopfix

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 11 on 8/9/2021 11:07 PM >

Posted by NYC-EMT
Another Staten Islander! I went there a few times, Always a lot of fun but just be careful since it's a staging area for the buckeye pipeline and there are some security measures in place.

Also have a little bit of family history there as my great uncle was a firefighter there when the facility was in use

I spotted a few cameras on utility poles which I initially avoided but stopped caring at one point and just started waving at them as I walked by. Nobody every showed up to chase me away. I know that ConEd owns a big piece of the land over there, where the old LNG tank that exploded was (your great uncle was probably there for that), they seem to have their own cameras though I don't know if anyone is watching them either. There may be other security measures that I missed but if anyone is monitoring them they don't seem to mind a random lone guy with a camera wandering around.

Nice pic. I've considered going out there at night to get some shots along the waterfront like that.

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post by NYC-EMT

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 12 on 8/10/2021 2:27 AM >

I’ve been on the access road by Con Ed more times than I can count. I’ve even had a bbq out there and had no response from them so I’m pretty sure they either don’t care about that road or declared me not a threat years ago lol.

I’ve only ever been there at night or dusk. However I would love to do a day time exploration over there.

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post by developstopfix

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 13 on 8/10/2021 2:32 PM >

I'm pretty sure that ConEd access road is technically public so there's not much they can do about anyone being there unless you started trying to hop the fence into the substation or something. You obviously found your own way in but feel free to message me if you have any questions about other means of entry. If it makes you feel any better, I usually went on Sundays and spent hours in there without seeing a single person. The whole area seems pretty inactive these days. I may have even gone on a random weekday or Saturday but I can't remember now.

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post by Kurt

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 14 on 8/12/2021 1:31 AM >

these are fantastic shots

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post by YoelT

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 15 on 8/15/2021 4:56 AM >

Beyond incredible photography here. I don't come on UER enough recently and I forgot the actually good urbex images that are still out there rather than the stuff that gets pushed on ig.

Also this place must have been a goldmine.

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post by inkd

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 16 on 8/19/2021 2:23 PM >

What a post!

I didn't even know this existed my side of town. Appreciate the set and history!

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post by reygn

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 17 on 9/10/2021 2:54 AM >

I love these photos

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post by Sanitarium Sean

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 18 on 9/12/2021 3:49 PM >

Awesome set and writeup! Looks like a great place to spend a day or several.

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post by OnlyFootprints

Re: Chemical Coast
<Reply # 19 on 9/22/2021 12:13 AM >

Awesome exploration! like that you really thought about the shots, not just shooting random old stuff, but actual composition in the frames.

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