One of the reasons I love living in DC is how alive the city feels. The urban landscape is constantly changing - sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse - but the organic development is always exciting to watch and be a part of.
A recent assignment brought me within the development process, as one of my clients asked me to photograph a vacant schoolhouse to document all the historic details they'll be preserving when they give the space a new life as residences. From the old gas line used to light gas lamps in the classrooms to the door of the old furnace, the quirky fun details of buildings from the 1880's and 1960's will live on as the space fills for the first time in decades. The owner showed me around the old buildings so I could make these quietly beautiful images of the space as it is now, a relic of its former life.
The things left behind range from old computers to beautiful mid-century furniture to barrels of toxic waste and lead paint leaping from the ceilings. The original 1880's blackboards peak out from behind drywall, and school books sit arranged on desks as though the students are outside for recess.
The late fall light in the space left me gazing in wonder - it was perfect.
I didn't place any of the objects in the photos, but slipped noiselessly around the vast, echoing halls taking photos of the random mix of paraphernalia left behind.
An old gas line into a classroom was used to light gas lamps when the older portion of the school was built in the 1880's.
One basement room was full of organs. The owner didn't know why, or where they came from.
Lead paint peeling off the ceiling in the basement boiler room.
Neighborhood resident play basketball on the courts built when the new school was built next door to the old one. Often, new buildings are constructed instead of preserving the old ones as a cost-cutting measure, leaving historic structures to rot in vacancy.