Yonkers Power Station

pjb923 · September 3, 2007

I am just learning to love shooting in abandoned spaces and I have a feeling this one is going to be very hard to top. The Yonkers Power Station, sometimes referred to as the Glenwood Power Station was built in conjunction with Grand Central Station to provide power to the railway. It was shut down in the 1960's and has been abandoned ever since. Recently there have been proposals to turn the plant into apartment buildings so this may have been one of my last chances to shoot in this space.

Set right on the Hudson river this is a tremendous building and make for some amazing pictures. Getting in was fairly easy as there had obviously been many many people here before us. This time we were ready for the dark conditions and lugged our tripods with us.

This was an amazing day of shooting, my first "real" ruin. Just navigating the space was a challenge, but much of the work was done ahead of time. Missing sections of stairways covered with metal grates, makeshift ladders and ramps all over the place. With all the catwalks and stairways and ladders, I felt as if I was transported into a video game and was thinking to myself, this would make a great Halo 3 level.

D200, Sigma 10-20mm @10mm, F11.0 1.5s, ISO 100
The first of 3 buildings was full of large expansive rooms which were pretty much empty.

D200, Sigma 10-20mm @10mm, F22.0 2s, ISO 100
Wide view of the massive central building.

D200, Sigma 10-20mm @11mm, F5.0 1.1s, ISO 100
Looking up at what appears to have been the main control room.

D200, Sigma 10-20mm @10mm, F11.0 6s, ISO 100
Making are way up, we eventually reached the main control panel.

D200, Sigma 17-70mm @17mm, F5.0 1/30th, ISO 100
One of the many arched windows.

D200, Sigma 17-70mm @70mm, F5.6 .5s, ISO 100
There was plenty of rust to go around.

I could go on forever, but I'll leave it at that for now. For the rest of the pictures visit the gallery here.

Skippy · September 3, 2007

pjb923 wrote:

I am just learning to love shooting in abandoned spaces and I have a feeling this one is going to be very hard to top. The Yonkers Power Station, sometimes referred to as the Glenwood Power Station was built in conjunction with Grand Central Station to provide power to the railway. It was shut down in the 1960's and has been abandoned ever since. Recently there have been proposals to turn the plant into apartment buildings so this may have been one of my last chances to shoot in this space.

Set right on the Hudson river this is a tremendous building and make for some amazing pictures. Getting in was fairly easy as there had obviously been many many people here before us. This time we were ready for the dark conditions and lugged our tripods with us.

This was an amazing day of shooting, my first "real" ruin. Just navigating the space was a challenge, but much of the work was done ahead of time. Missing sections of stairways covered with metal grates, makeshift ladders and ramps all over the place. With all the catwalks and stairways and ladders, I felt as if I was transported into a video game and was thinking to myself, this would make a great Halo 3 level.

I could go on forever, but I'll leave it at that for now. For the rest of the pictures visit the gallery here.

When I opened this post I immediatley thought of another Dgrin Poster named Schmooo

Schmooo loves to photograph these type of buildings too.

Your series is excellent.... awwwwwww you gotta love those wide angle lenses hu

you can just fit so much in a shot.

Excellent Series pjb923

... Skippy

.

pjb923 · September 3, 2007

Thanks skippy. I am very familiar with schmoo's work. You might even say that her photography has inspired me to go on shoots like this.

schmoo · September 3, 2007

Aw Paul and Skippy I'm completely flattered and stunned here. Thanks for the kind words and you took some GREAT photos of this place!

I just got back from NY actually but haven't ventured in any old buildings in a while. This is a lovely building and it surprises me that it's still so accessible if it's (a) so close to a major urban area and (b) so close to renovation. But heck, who really cares? I really love the broken window shot. I love broken windows because they say so much.

I say you got a huge advantage having a 10mm lens in your arsenal.

ETA: Holy smokes you have a huge collection of shots from this building! Way to go and I'm really loving all the times you shot straight upwards. Nice to get a new perspective on things (and to make your audience dizzy)

pjb923 · September 4, 2007

Thanks schmoo.

My wife found this place from this website.
http://www.hudsonvalleyruins.org/yasinsac/glenwood/glenwood.html

My friend and I were there for about 3 1/2 hours and we didn't even make it all the way into the bottom of the 3rd section of the building.

I was a little nervous when we first got there. The parking lot closest to it was packed full of people because it's near a boat launch on the Hudson river. Then on top of that, there were actually construction workers on a Sunday over a holiday weekend. They were working on what looks like a large gazebo and we had to walk right passed them to get to the building.

Once we got close we found one small fence that had an obvious path around the side of it, and the main gate had a nice wide opening where the bars had previously been bent. I honestly expected to have to work a little harder to get in.

And... yes having the 10mm lens is great. Not only for the wide open spaces, but for those tight corners where you just can't back up any more.

I may need to get back there again to at least get some shots of the outside. Being my first ruin shoot of anywhere near this size I was like a kid in a candy store. I could probably go back 10 times and not get tired of this place.

Awais Yaqub · September 4, 2007

These are really wonderful and creative
great job thanks for sharing !

pjb923 · September 4, 2007

Thank you Awais.

schmoo · September 4, 2007

Huh, very interesting to hear it was so wide open. The story I love to tell is a good friend who went up there a few weeks ago. Not sure of the details of why he did it, but he got in a different way, spent all day shooting and found out that during this time the tide had risen and covered his exit. So he had to swim out - with his 5D in one hand held over his head.

I'm very very glad you had it much easier! The bug bites ya, I hate to admit. It's not a "sport" for everyone but it's definitely addictive. I hope you get a few more chances to cover more ground there so you can bring us more.

pjb923 · September 5, 2007

I can completely see how easily that could happen. We were walking through some very wet areas wondering how high the tide would actually reach. Swimming out while trying to hold my backpack with a bunch of lenses in it, my camera, and tripod would not have been easy.

If I go shooting there again I will make sure to check the tide schedule.

Does your friend have a gallery to show for his adventure?

schmoo · September 5, 2007

Unfortunately, he's stubborn and does it all through Myspace. He is a budding photographer though, and catches some great angles. I keep harping on him about Dgrin but as the saying goes you can lead a horse to water....

OffTopic · September 5, 2007

Very cool, and the rest of the gallery is equally wonderful! Definitely worth a few return trips.

Yonkers Power Station

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