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bodhipooh t1_iv98d5b wrote

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The place has mostly collapsed. It will be gone before they can decide on a plan. They will point fingers, then sell the land to be redeveloped.

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rbastid t1_ivactlt wrote

That's really disappointing. Was such an interesting building, always thought it could have been a really cool concert venue (there's one very similar in England)

The plan for so many of these historic places is probably to just let them crumble, so they can defend knocking them down and putting an Applebees there instead.

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bodhipooh t1_ivcelri wrote

You don’t have to look so far! We have a great example of what a repurposed powerhouse could be just a few hours away, in a similar locale. In Baltimore’s Inner Harbor they rehabbed a powerhouse and put it to use as a retail and dining building. It is/was remarkably similar to ours in many ways (same kind of brick exterior, massive outer shell, muktiple smokestacks, etc.) but the difference is that they actually moved on their project in a timely manner. It is now the crown jewel of their expanded, revamped Inner Harbor.

If city’s administration had had the conviction and will to get it done 10-15 years ago, we could be enjoying a really great addition to our lifeless waterfront. It’s hard to believe that such a stunning waterfront is basically dead. Before the pandemic it was mostly dead in the evenings and weekends, but now it is an everyday thing. Sad, really. So much missed potential.

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[deleted] t1_iv9kbli wrote

Huh?

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bodhipooh t1_iv9rrvj wrote

If you look at it from above, or go inside, you would see that it is in total disrepair and much of it has collapsed. The outer walls are being kept erect through great effort. The smokestacks that stood in place as recently as ten years ago finally collapsed and what remained had to be tore down. The roof of the structure is partially collapsed, leaving the interior exposed to the elements. The decay over the past 10 years has accelerated because of this. What you see right now is quite literally just a shell.
The powerhouse rehabilitation was a viable project 10 years ago. Now, it is going to be a demolition and rebuild.

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[deleted] t1_iva0ebd wrote

I'm sorry I don't understand.

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HappyArtichoke7729 t1_iva4mn6 wrote

They said "the building has fallen into disrepair"

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bodhipooh t1_ivcd81b wrote

Don’t bother… the guy is just salty because I called him out on another thread for being dense and lacking in reading comprehension skills. My guess is that he was trying to be clever in this thread not realizing that he is, once again, putting on display his dumbassery and lack of reading comprehension.

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HappyArtichoke7729 t1_ivcee1w wrote

LOL the downvotes speak for themselves. But interesting.

Thanks for your reply, it was insightful and helpful.

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[deleted] t1_iv9lm67 wrote

It was slated to be some sort of arts complex after the outcry at the eviction of artists from 111 First st and the subsequent illegal demolition of that building. The neighborhood was christened the Powerhouse Art's District. Of course this never happened and the place became an art desert. Recently shitlips Fulop tweeted that it wasn't feasible so very likely it'll become a 50 story tax abated monstrosity with empty ground floor retail and some sort of boondoggle arts space that the rest of the city subsidizes.

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superpuzzlekiller t1_iva8rti wrote

Huh?

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[deleted] t1_ivabjqj wrote

Eh?

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superpuzzlekiller t1_ivajzu8 wrote

I’m sorry I don’t understand.

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squee_bastard t1_ivcf9qk wrote

The bricks from 111 First still occupy that block, they’ve been stacked up on pallets for years. The Rem Koolhaas building that was slated to occupy that land never materialized because of the crash in ‘08 and the land being tainted with chemicals. Essentially those greedy landlords tore down that building for absolutely nothing.

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[deleted] t1_ivcjb5s wrote

Yeah, I remember it happening. If you ask me those bricks have dwindled over the years. Like the Powerhouse itself, nobody is going to force the city to keep a 15 year old promise and I guarantee they won't get used.

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squee_bastard t1_ivcz0pq wrote

Yeah they’ve definitely deceased over the years and the wooden pallets they’re sitting on are rotting/buckling underneath them. I’ve lived in my current apartment in waldo/padna (or whatever they’re calling it now) since 2016 and lots has changed since then. So far since I’ve been here 5 high rises have been built within a block of me with two more are underway.

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bodhipooh t1_ivdb5vj wrote

We must be almost neighbors. I have lived in the PAD at The ArtHouse since 2014 (PADNA is the neighborhood association, and WALDO was an acronym referring to the zoning/redevelopment plan - it stands for Work and Living Double Overlay) and the amount of buildings that have gone up in the 8 years since is positively insane. We are finally throwing in the towel and moving a few blocks east to escape the constant construction. At last count, it was 11 new buildings within three blocks of us: The Oakman, 175 2nd, the place next door, The Hendrix, 485 Marin, the two Provost Square buildings, with their third one almost topped out, The Lively, Modera Lofts, and The One. And, of course, just outside the three block radius is 90 Columbus.

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squee_bastard t1_ivdcxo1 wrote

We are definitely neighbors 👋🏻

I’ve been in Modera since it opened in 2016. Since then I’ve seen the Lively, 10 Provost, The Canopy by Hilton, Haus 25, and a bunch of others rise all around me. I’ve lost track of all the names of the new places here. I think this is my last year in JC so I’m sure in a few years time I won’t recognize this place at all.

It’s a damn shame what was done to the other Provost building, that poor thing was murdered. I’m very curious how the developer got away with tearing down so much of that building unless it wasn’t landmarked.

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bodhipooh t1_ivdeek3 wrote

Isn’t it the same developer as The One? Those assholes tore up the pocket park next to them before having approvals to do so. In a rare feat, the city actually fined them (125K, iirc) for doing so. Still, they dragged their feet on restoring the park and did a piss poor job in the engineering of the dog park. No different than Mocco adding floors to his latest buildings and then paying a smallish fine to make it all go away.

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flippenstance t1_iv996bq wrote

The powerhouse was built in 1908 to power the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad, now called PATH, and was shut down way back in 1929. Been sitting there rotting away since then. There used to be 4 smokestacks up on the roof but they disappeared a few years ago. Shame they haven't developed it but that's JC I guess.

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squee_bastard t1_ivcfq2p wrote

I remember hearing 15+ years ago that it was going to be turned into a Barnes & Noble, nothing ever happened. I don’t think anything will ever come of that space. Much like our Whole Foods that may end up opening 10 years from now.

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flippenstance t1_ivdbmv1 wrote

What a shame, especially since we really dont have a great bookstore in all of JC. That would have been an awesome B&N.

They did use the building for an external shot in the Sopranos.

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squee_bastard t1_ivdir24 wrote

Is this the scene where AJ was doing construction work when he met Blanca? I rewatched the Sopranos and the website below was an amazing companion to see all of the episodes filming locations then and now.

https://www.sopranos-locations.com/locations/construction-site-2x02/

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flippenstance t1_ivdskfx wrote

I'm not sure about AJ and Bianca. It was a brief scene with striking construction workers manning a picket line (I think). Wow, you can really see how bad the roof is in the map you linked.

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kevstev t1_ivew6jj wrote

No real information here- so I will add some:

The path has a substation behind the building, and until that is moved, they can't do anything with the property. About 10 years ago, maybe longer at this point, a project was done to "stabilize" the structure, and they put up the yellow guards in the windows and put some bands around some areas where you could see the walls seem to be buckling under themselves.

There is no real plan to move the substation, so this building is likely going to sit like this indefinitely.

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Laterdays82 t1_ivdncps wrote

That place always gave me the creeps for some reason. Not as bad now that the neighborhood has been built up around it.

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