7 ms·

A Soviet-era airport, once the height of luxury, faces demolition in Armenia

72 points by cryogenic_soul 8y ago

fergie 8y ago
In 10 years time these soviet-era monuments are going to be coveted and preserved.
- expathacker 8y ago
  Will we have a hipster fad of "Retro-brutalism"?
  - firasd 8y ago
    I think the Delhi metro is a good example of appropriate contemporary usage of brutalism: https://imgur.com/a/oJm9qHy https://imgur.com/a/oJm9qHy If the concrete was plastered and painted it would look bad after only a couple months in the sun and rain. (Medieval rulers had a similar idea but using red sandstone instead of concrete: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Fort#/media/File:Red_Fort_Front111.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Fort#/media/File:Red_Fort_... )
raverbashing 8y ago
Luxury and Soviet Era really don't go together. See Berlin Schönefeld for an example.
- toyg 8y ago
  I might agree on the sentiment but East Germany was not part of the USSR, technically. The USSR proper had some very interesting periods, in terms of architecture. Like all countries that could start basically from scratch, they were free to experiment and dream; some of those dreams turned into nightmares, but others did advance the state of the art.
  - raverbashing 8y ago
    Well while it was not annexed by the USSR like Armenia it was behind the Iron Curtain.
    - toyg 8y ago
      The Warsaw Pact was an alliance of nominally-independent states. They all relied on the USSR in one way or another, but they had their internal dynamics and cultural differences. Their architectural efforts were often manneristic towards Soviet styles, rather than original.
      - bitL 8y ago
        I think USSR relied on many of them actually. Eastern Germany and Czechoslovakia provided best tech and foreign currency source, and the whole area between Germany and USSR was planned to get nuked in case of an all-out war between NATO and USSR, in order to protect USSR's mainland. Fun times for Central European countries I guess, getting shafted from both sides continuously for centuries.
        toyg 8y ago
        It wasn’t “centuries”, it was barely 50 years. The USSR itself didn’t last 80 years, and before WWII most countries in the area (with the notable exception of Poland) were just fine - in fact, they were pretty happy after the fall of the Austrian Empire. Warsaw Pact countries were still relatively free to chart their own path in non-military matters until the Prague Spring of 1968. Russian influence on the region is a related but separate issue, but let’s not paint central Europe as some sort of perennial victim.
- TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
  Luxury and Soviet Era went together very well indeed for Party VIPs. This would have been a prime example when it was new.
- CaptainZapp 8y ago
  Never been to Schönefeld, but even Tegel is a bit of a disgrace for the main airport of the German capital. There's always Berlin Brandenburg, which should open any day now.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Brandenburg_Airport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Brandenburg_Airport
  - kevindong 8y ago
    It blows my mind how far behind schedule BER is. According to Wikipedia, construction started in 2006 and was scheduled to complete in October 2011 (aka about 5 years was allocated for construction). It's now almost October 2018. We're now 7 YEARS past the originally scheduled completion date. It's claimed that the airport won't open until Fall 2020. That means the airport won't open until at least 9 years past the original opening date. If that happens, construction will have taken 14 years when it was originally scheduled to take 5 years.
    - CaptainZapp 8y ago
      Based on its history I'm skeptical about the airport opening in 2020. It probably would have been cheaper to flatten that damn thing in 2011 and start from scratch. It's a fascinating story, though, of hubris, corruption and about what happens when you try to change an existing massive structure in the middle of construction. One of the funnier stories was the first attempt to open it. Fire management systems were non-existant (actually they were there. The components were piled high on pallets, alas with no working plan to implement them). So airport management suggested to hire 800 minimum wage folks. Supply them with cell phones (a total no!no! For emergency response), folding chairs and hi-viz vests to then distribute them strategically throughout the airport. If they noticed something suspicious, like smoke or fire, they would call it in. I leave it up to your imagination what the higher ups of the fire brigade thought of this brilliant plan. Especially with the memory of a catastrophic fire at Dusseldorf airport not too long ago.[1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BCsseldorf_Airport_fire https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BCsseldorf_Airport_fire
  - lb1lf 8y ago
    -In Tegel's defense, it was built when area was definitely at a premium, seeing as it was in former West Berlin which simply didn't have the luxury of expanding into the surrounding farmland. The other West Berlin Airport - Tempelhof - was marvellous, though. Built during Weimar Republic years when air travel was for the wealthy few, the terminal was (and is!) as monumental as a palace.
- cpursley 8y ago
  You've clearly never been on the Moscow or St. Petersburg Metro. They're astonishingly beautiful.
toyg 8y ago
It looks really nice, but this picture is revealing: https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1/2018/09/19/16/4396738-6185497-image-a-28_1537371197221.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1/2018/09/19/16/4396738-6185497-im... The bit on the left, I assume, is the modern terminal. Notice the scale. The old building is small, for modern use. If it gets preserved, they must find a way to generate some additional income, because it's probably too obsolete to do that as an actual airport.
- sparkling 8y ago
  Given that the new terminal is just a few minutes aways, its probably safe to say that security is very tight and urban explorers cant enter the old building? Maybe someone from Armenia has some details?
  - mamikonyana 8y ago
    It is technically still part of the airport, so it's private property and you can't enter there. Haven't tried how tight the security is myself.
    - sparkling 8y ago
      Most lost places are technically still private property... im just asking what the chances are of sitting in an Amrenian jail when sneaking in.
      - chr1 8y ago
        chances of sitting in jail are not very high, as it is completely abandoned and empty, see https://web.facebook.com/100010579710319/videos/702215633474421 https://web.facebook.com/100010579710319/videos/702215633474... https://web.facebook.com/100010579710319/videos/702222733473711 https://web.facebook.com/100010579710319/videos/702222733473...
- mamikonyana 8y ago
  The old Terminal is really small, but the new terminal is not that much bigger. Having flowed out of both I don't think the size is the problem. The problem is lack of desire to invest (probably justifird financially) in presercing the building.
julienreszka 8y ago
Good riddance
ataturk 8y ago
Bunch of typical UE pics of crumbling asbestos havens that were formerly cathedrals to mass murder.
mamikonyana 8y ago
I was always surprised how little people care in Armenia about the old airport. Imagine you land in an airport that is nothing like all the other "conventional" airports with high ceilings and huge open areas. Wouldn't you want to just fly to Armenia if your experience starts in a museum like airport? Probably Armenians would not care too much to frequent in the old terminal, but it could be a nice turist attraction, no?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- pytyper2 8y ago
  The people would agree with you, local business owners would agree with you, but the leaders are basically organized crime types, corruption is rampant, most money dedicated to this project would be stolen and end up in London and Toronto real estate. They also suffer from the influence of Russia, i.e. destabilize as many former soviet countries as possible in order to benefit from the chaos. That part of the world is in for a lot of trouble over the next 50 years.
argsv 8y ago
Off-topic, on a reasonably fast connection on a machine with Intel i7 and 16 GB of RAM, this page loads slowly and scrolling is painfully slow and not smooth. No ad blocker because this is a new machine and new setup. Of course, I will add an ad blocker extension.
- boomskats 8y ago
  Frankly I'm struggling with the fact that there are links to that fascist shitrag on the front page of HN. I should have looked more carefully. For anyone else interested in the subject but not wanting to give the DM traffic, the discussion here is around the proposed demolition of the Old Terminal at Zvartnots Airport.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    >Frankly I'm struggling with the fact that there are links to that fascist shitrag Maybe we should gather and burn its print copies /s It's an article. Enjoy it or not on its own merits.
    - boomskats 8y ago
      It's an ad-supported site which I'd have preferred not to support. I don't want to read their 'articles', much like I don't want to click through to a breitbart article. I guess it's all there though, I just missed it. I'll just have to be a bit more cautious as to what I'm clicking on when I'm on HN in future.
      - coldtea 8y ago
        >It's an ad-supported site which I'd have preferred not to support. I don't want to read their 'articles', much like I don't want to click through to a breitbart article. Others do, however. Are you in favor of shutting them down or forbidding links to them? And who would determine which are OK to link to? Some elite? Common consensus? Yeah, because either of these has worked great in the past... Also, how about toning down the hyperbola a little ("fascist"). It's DailyMail, a known popular low-quality gossip right-wing newspaper. Hardly fascist though (except in the all too common sense of "Everyone I disagree with is Hitler").
ausbah 8y ago
It kinda looks like MCI in Kansas City taken to the extreme.
- madengr 8y ago
  MCI is the best airport. Walk from plane to car in 3 minutes. Politicians want to destroy it for tax revenue.
e_d_g_a_r 8y ago
If foreigners want to pay to fix it up and maintain, great; otherwise Armenia should destroy it and move on.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
Nursie 8y ago
That is a hideously ugly building. It doesn't say "city of the future" to me, as the author seems to suggest, but city of the past. And not the glorious past or the beautiful past, but a period of architecture dominated by harsh lines, masses of exposed concrete, and the idea of architecture expressing domination over the land and over the people who used it. Brutalism, here in the UK, is largely seen as an ugly mistake. I would categorise this with it.
- bopbop 8y ago
  That's likely subjective, as I think it's extremely aesthetically pleasing - I've always seen Brutalism as having strong links with the Bauhaus style, something else I have high regard for. I won't argue with your city of the past argument as I'm not sure I'd term it as the dominant architecture of a city of the future, but I think it definitely has a place. I would argue against Brutalism expressing domination over people - I've always seen it more as expressing function in form, which would be the opposite. Given it's close ties to Soviet architecture I can see how a lot of the buildings built in the style would have literally been used for the oppression of individual will, however. Also, with regards to it's opinion in the UK and worldwide, Brutalism is experiencing something of a revival: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/t-magazine/design/brutalist-architecture-revival.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/t-magazine/design/brutali... https://www.europeanceo.com/lifestyle/brutalisms-message-may-be-lost-as-it-gets-a-revival/ https://www.europeanceo.com/lifestyle/brutalisms-message-may... https://houseandhome.com/decorating-design/brutalism-revival/ https://houseandhome.com/decorating-design/brutalism-revival...
  - pjc50 8y ago
    > Brutalism expressing domination over people - I've always seen it more as expressing function in form, which would be the opposite It expresses the architect's idea of function, which may or may not have anything to do with the actual users. However, whenever the actual users of a building complain about the poor UX (noise, leaks, discomfort difficulty finding things in the layout) or their feeling of unhappiness induced by the blankness, it's traditional for Modernists to tell the public and users that they're wrong. It's that elitism which more than anything else characterises the failures of Modernism, of which Brutalism is a part.
ocschwar 8y ago
If you can't readily tell at a glance whether a building was designed as a minimum security jail, you can't expect the people around it to want to preserve it.
mikepurvis 8y ago
Very similar vibes to the mothballed TWA terminal at JFK, and a lot of the same problems: beautifully architected indoor spaces which are way too small to accommodate the large numbers of people needing to pass through (or wait at) a modern airport, not enough internal separation to facilitate current security needs, and tons of open staircases everywhere— basically zero ability to comply with ADA or even fire regs. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_Center
- mikepurvis 8y ago
  Just to follow on here, there are some much more evocative pictures of the TWA building in this Wired article: https://www.wired.com/2015/08/max-touhey-twa-flight-center/ https://www.wired.com/2015/08/max-touhey-twa-flight-center/ And also on this blog, from a guy who snuck in during a layover: https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2018/01/25/twa-flight-center-tour/ https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2018/01/25/twa-fligh...
bemmu 8y ago
If you liked the photos, you might also enjoy this site about abandoned buildings in Japan: https://haikyo.org/ https://haikyo.org/
cpursley 8y ago
As a westerner living in Russia, I love seeing all the old soviet stuff (despite the dark history). Ok, maybe not the soviet apartment blocks. But many of the statues and brutalist structures are very unique and I truly hope they're preserved. None of the new construction here is nearly as interesting.
- pavel_lishin 8y ago
  I grew up literally behind the Moscow Academy of Sciences, and loved looking at that building every day. It was also fun when they started tearing down the statues; just these huge, metal bodies and heads laying in the courtyards for us kids to clamber over.
- geggam 8y ago
  The churches, as a non religious person, I can tell you the churches in Russia are gorgeous. The one in St Petersburg on the original island is simply stunning.
subpixel 8y ago
If you enjoy seeing old soviet architecture in disarray (and other curiosities) you may want to check out http://englishrussia.com/ http://englishrussia.com/
k-ian 8y ago
If Yerevan is going to spend a bunch of money on something architectural, it would be nice to see the Yerevan Cascade finished... it's beautiful, til you get to the top, and see a 200 foot pit...
RileyJames 8y ago
This is exactly the kind of thing I like to explore when travelling. Albania was amazing because these kind of relics are everywhere. There are no fences, guards, demolition or repair. It would be nice if they could just leave it there, and let people explore it at their own risk.
yborg 8y ago
I'm surprised at how much it's deteriorated in just 10 years if it was last open in 2008.

fergie 8y ago

In 10 years time these soviet-era monuments are going to be coveted and preserved.

expathacker 8y ago
Will we have a hipster fad of "Retro-brutalism"?
- firasd 8y ago
  I think the Delhi metro is a good example of appropriate contemporary usage of brutalism: https://imgur.com/a/oJm9qHy https://imgur.com/a/oJm9qHy If the concrete was plastered and painted it would look bad after only a couple months in the sun and rain. (Medieval rulers had a similar idea but using red sandstone instead of concrete: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Fort#/media/File:Red_Fort_Front111.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Fort#/media/File:Red_Fort_... )

raverbashing 8y ago

Luxury and Soviet Era really don't go together. See Berlin Schönefeld for an example.

toyg 8y ago
I might agree on the sentiment but East Germany was not part of the USSR, technically. The USSR proper had some very interesting periods, in terms of architecture. Like all countries that could start basically from scratch, they were free to experiment and dream; some of those dreams turned into nightmares, but others did advance the state of the art.
- raverbashing 8y ago
  Well while it was not annexed by the USSR like Armenia it was behind the Iron Curtain.
  - toyg 8y ago
    The Warsaw Pact was an alliance of nominally-independent states. They all relied on the USSR in one way or another, but they had their internal dynamics and cultural differences. Their architectural efforts were often manneristic towards Soviet styles, rather than original.
    - bitL 8y ago
      I think USSR relied on many of them actually. Eastern Germany and Czechoslovakia provided best tech and foreign currency source, and the whole area between Germany and USSR was planned to get nuked in case of an all-out war between NATO and USSR, in order to protect USSR's mainland. Fun times for Central European countries I guess, getting shafted from both sides continuously for centuries.
      - toyg 8y ago
        It wasn’t “centuries”, it was barely 50 years. The USSR itself didn’t last 80 years, and before WWII most countries in the area (with the notable exception of Poland) were just fine - in fact, they were pretty happy after the fall of the Austrian Empire. Warsaw Pact countries were still relatively free to chart their own path in non-military matters until the Prague Spring of 1968. Russian influence on the region is a related but separate issue, but let’s not paint central Europe as some sort of perennial victim.
TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
Luxury and Soviet Era went together very well indeed for Party VIPs. This would have been a prime example when it was new.
CaptainZapp 8y ago
Never been to Schönefeld, but even Tegel is a bit of a disgrace for the main airport of the German capital. There's always Berlin Brandenburg, which should open any day now.[1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Brandenburg_Airport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Brandenburg_Airport
- kevindong 8y ago
  It blows my mind how far behind schedule BER is. According to Wikipedia, construction started in 2006 and was scheduled to complete in October 2011 (aka about 5 years was allocated for construction). It's now almost October 2018. We're now 7 YEARS past the originally scheduled completion date. It's claimed that the airport won't open until Fall 2020. That means the airport won't open until at least 9 years past the original opening date. If that happens, construction will have taken 14 years when it was originally scheduled to take 5 years.
  - CaptainZapp 8y ago
    Based on its history I'm skeptical about the airport opening in 2020. It probably would have been cheaper to flatten that damn thing in 2011 and start from scratch. It's a fascinating story, though, of hubris, corruption and about what happens when you try to change an existing massive structure in the middle of construction. One of the funnier stories was the first attempt to open it. Fire management systems were non-existant (actually they were there. The components were piled high on pallets, alas with no working plan to implement them). So airport management suggested to hire 800 minimum wage folks. Supply them with cell phones (a total no!no! For emergency response), folding chairs and hi-viz vests to then distribute them strategically throughout the airport. If they noticed something suspicious, like smoke or fire, they would call it in. I leave it up to your imagination what the higher ups of the fire brigade thought of this brilliant plan. Especially with the memory of a catastrophic fire at Dusseldorf airport not too long ago.[1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BCsseldorf_Airport_fire https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%BCsseldorf_Airport_fire
- lb1lf 8y ago
  -In Tegel's defense, it was built when area was definitely at a premium, seeing as it was in former West Berlin which simply didn't have the luxury of expanding into the surrounding farmland. The other West Berlin Airport - Tempelhof - was marvellous, though. Built during Weimar Republic years when air travel was for the wealthy few, the terminal was (and is!) as monumental as a palace.
cpursley 8y ago
You've clearly never been on the Moscow or St. Petersburg Metro. They're astonishingly beautiful.

toyg 8y ago

It looks really nice, but this picture is revealing: https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1/2018/09/19/16/4396738-6185497-image-a-28_1537371197221.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1/2018/09/19/16/4396738-6185497-im... The bit on the left, I assume, is the modern terminal. Notice the scale. The old building is small, for modern use. If it gets preserved, they must find a way to generate some additional income, because it's probably too obsolete to do that as an actual airport.

sparkling 8y ago
Given that the new terminal is just a few minutes aways, its probably safe to say that security is very tight and urban explorers cant enter the old building? Maybe someone from Armenia has some details?
- mamikonyana 8y ago
  It is technically still part of the airport, so it's private property and you can't enter there. Haven't tried how tight the security is myself.
  - sparkling 8y ago
    Most lost places are technically still private property... im just asking what the chances are of sitting in an Amrenian jail when sneaking in.
    - chr1 8y ago
      chances of sitting in jail are not very high, as it is completely abandoned and empty, see https://web.facebook.com/100010579710319/videos/702215633474421 https://web.facebook.com/100010579710319/videos/702215633474... https://web.facebook.com/100010579710319/videos/702222733473711 https://web.facebook.com/100010579710319/videos/702222733473...
mamikonyana 8y ago
The old Terminal is really small, but the new terminal is not that much bigger. Having flowed out of both I don't think the size is the problem. The problem is lack of desire to invest (probably justifird financially) in presercing the building.

julienreszka 8y ago

Good riddance

ataturk 8y ago

Bunch of typical UE pics of crumbling asbestos havens that were formerly cathedrals to mass murder.

mamikonyana 8y ago

I was always surprised how little people care in Armenia about the old airport. Imagine you land in an airport that is nothing like all the other "conventional" airports with high ceilings and huge open areas. Wouldn't you want to just fly to Armenia if your experience starts in a museum like airport? Probably Armenians would not care too much to frequent in the old terminal, but it could be a nice turist attraction, no?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
pytyper2 8y ago
The people would agree with you, local business owners would agree with you, but the leaders are basically organized crime types, corruption is rampant, most money dedicated to this project would be stolen and end up in London and Toronto real estate. They also suffer from the influence of Russia, i.e. destabilize as many former soviet countries as possible in order to benefit from the chaos. That part of the world is in for a lot of trouble over the next 50 years.

argsv 8y ago

Off-topic, on a reasonably fast connection on a machine with Intel i7 and 16 GB of RAM, this page loads slowly and scrolling is painfully slow and not smooth. No ad blocker because this is a new machine and new setup. Of course, I will add an ad blocker extension.

boomskats 8y ago
Frankly I'm struggling with the fact that there are links to that fascist shitrag on the front page of HN. I should have looked more carefully. For anyone else interested in the subject but not wanting to give the DM traffic, the discussion here is around the proposed demolition of the Old Terminal at Zvartnots Airport.
- coldtea 8y ago
  >Frankly I'm struggling with the fact that there are links to that fascist shitrag Maybe we should gather and burn its print copies /s It's an article. Enjoy it or not on its own merits.
  - boomskats 8y ago
    It's an ad-supported site which I'd have preferred not to support. I don't want to read their 'articles', much like I don't want to click through to a breitbart article. I guess it's all there though, I just missed it. I'll just have to be a bit more cautious as to what I'm clicking on when I'm on HN in future.
    - coldtea 8y ago
      >It's an ad-supported site which I'd have preferred not to support. I don't want to read their 'articles', much like I don't want to click through to a breitbart article. Others do, however. Are you in favor of shutting them down or forbidding links to them? And who would determine which are OK to link to? Some elite? Common consensus? Yeah, because either of these has worked great in the past... Also, how about toning down the hyperbola a little ("fascist"). It's DailyMail, a known popular low-quality gossip right-wing newspaper. Hardly fascist though (except in the all too common sense of "Everyone I disagree with is Hitler").

ausbah 8y ago

It kinda looks like MCI in Kansas City taken to the extreme.

madengr 8y ago
MCI is the best airport. Walk from plane to car in 3 minutes. Politicians want to destroy it for tax revenue.

e_d_g_a_r 8y ago

If foreigners want to pay to fix it up and maintain, great; otherwise Armenia should destroy it and move on.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

Nursie 8y ago

That is a hideously ugly building. It doesn't say "city of the future" to me, as the author seems to suggest, but city of the past. And not the glorious past or the beautiful past, but a period of architecture dominated by harsh lines, masses of exposed concrete, and the idea of architecture expressing domination over the land and over the people who used it. Brutalism, here in the UK, is largely seen as an ugly mistake. I would categorise this with it.

bopbop 8y ago
That's likely subjective, as I think it's extremely aesthetically pleasing - I've always seen Brutalism as having strong links with the Bauhaus style, something else I have high regard for. I won't argue with your city of the past argument as I'm not sure I'd term it as the dominant architecture of a city of the future, but I think it definitely has a place. I would argue against Brutalism expressing domination over people - I've always seen it more as expressing function in form, which would be the opposite. Given it's close ties to Soviet architecture I can see how a lot of the buildings built in the style would have literally been used for the oppression of individual will, however. Also, with regards to it's opinion in the UK and worldwide, Brutalism is experiencing something of a revival: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/t-magazine/design/brutalist-architecture-revival.html https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/06/t-magazine/design/brutali... https://www.europeanceo.com/lifestyle/brutalisms-message-may-be-lost-as-it-gets-a-revival/ https://www.europeanceo.com/lifestyle/brutalisms-message-may... https://houseandhome.com/decorating-design/brutalism-revival/ https://houseandhome.com/decorating-design/brutalism-revival...
- pjc50 8y ago
  > Brutalism expressing domination over people - I've always seen it more as expressing function in form, which would be the opposite It expresses the architect's idea of function, which may or may not have anything to do with the actual users. However, whenever the actual users of a building complain about the poor UX (noise, leaks, discomfort difficulty finding things in the layout) or their feeling of unhappiness induced by the blankness, it's traditional for Modernists to tell the public and users that they're wrong. It's that elitism which more than anything else characterises the failures of Modernism, of which Brutalism is a part.

ocschwar 8y ago

If you can't readily tell at a glance whether a building was designed as a minimum security jail, you can't expect the people around it to want to preserve it.

mikepurvis 8y ago

Very similar vibes to the mothballed TWA terminal at JFK, and a lot of the same problems: beautifully architected indoor spaces which are way too small to accommodate the large numbers of people needing to pass through (or wait at) a modern airport, not enough internal separation to facilitate current security needs, and tons of open staircases everywhere— basically zero ability to comply with ADA or even fire regs. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TWA_Flight_Center

mikepurvis 8y ago
Just to follow on here, there are some much more evocative pictures of the TWA building in this Wired article: https://www.wired.com/2015/08/max-touhey-twa-flight-center/ https://www.wired.com/2015/08/max-touhey-twa-flight-center/ And also on this blog, from a guy who snuck in during a layover: https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2018/01/25/twa-flight-center-tour/ https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2018/01/25/twa-fligh...

bemmu 8y ago

If you liked the photos, you might also enjoy this site about abandoned buildings in Japan: https://haikyo.org/ https://haikyo.org/

cpursley 8y ago

As a westerner living in Russia, I love seeing all the old soviet stuff (despite the dark history). Ok, maybe not the soviet apartment blocks. But many of the statues and brutalist structures are very unique and I truly hope they're preserved. None of the new construction here is nearly as interesting.

pavel_lishin 8y ago
I grew up literally behind the Moscow Academy of Sciences, and loved looking at that building every day. It was also fun when they started tearing down the statues; just these huge, metal bodies and heads laying in the courtyards for us kids to clamber over.
geggam 8y ago
The churches, as a non religious person, I can tell you the churches in Russia are gorgeous. The one in St Petersburg on the original island is simply stunning.

subpixel 8y ago

If you enjoy seeing old soviet architecture in disarray (and other curiosities) you may want to check out http://englishrussia.com/ http://englishrussia.com/

k-ian 8y ago

If Yerevan is going to spend a bunch of money on something architectural, it would be nice to see the Yerevan Cascade finished... it's beautiful, til you get to the top, and see a 200 foot pit...

RileyJames 8y ago

This is exactly the kind of thing I like to explore when travelling. Albania was amazing because these kind of relics are everywhere. There are no fences, guards, demolition or repair. It would be nice if they could just leave it there, and let people explore it at their own risk.

yborg 8y ago

I'm surprised at how much it's deteriorated in just 10 years if it was last open in 2008.