TIL burnt-down-then-scrapped-for-pennies-by-the-poor brick buildings are the stone-washed jeans of the architectural world.
Comment on Idibiks Oiho
Stovetop@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Related note: a lot of salvaged brick is stolen. Old rust belt cities like Detroit, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, etc. have so many abandoned brick buildings. People set fire to the building to collapse the wooden supports, and when the mortar holding the bricks together is heated by the fire, the pressure of the hose from responding firefighters helps flake it off and clean the brick. Then people show up a few days later, grab all of the undamaged bricks from the rubble, and sell it to unscrupulous distributors who flip it for a premium on new developments looking for that expensive aged brick look.
rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Glad someone’s getting a portion of that property’s value back to circulating in the economy if there are so many abandoned buildings. Like fungus eating fallen trees, returning nutrients to the soil.
Stovetop@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Sure, if you think it’s better to strip old buildings of value to make wealthy brick buyers happy instead of repurposing those old buildings for the public good of underserved communities.
humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Holy strawman. I don’t support this for buildings that are being repurposed for the public good, I support it for abandoned buildings. Most in my town have been abandoned for decades and the owners refuse to sell.
Stovetop@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Sorry, not looking to be accusatory, that’s on me for my own lack of additional context.
Most of these buildings are abandoned due to white flight. The resources needed to support and maintain urban communities are disproportionately allocated to white, suburban growth, and the shells left behind were intentionally kept out of the hands of minority communities and left to rot.
In my area, a lot of old mill towns have had their mills be repurposed as community centers, offices, business hubs, etc. after the mills were left abandoned for a number of years. The latest project near me is a beautiful looking conversion for subsidized housing for 60+ year old residents.
agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Frequently, if not usually, renovating sufficiently old buildings is more expensive and difficult than new construction. Building codes and safety standards change a lot over the years.
RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 4 days ago
They’re intentionally setting the buildings on fire to achieve that though. That’s seriously dangerous.
Pieisawesome@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 days ago
Dude, they are committing arson…
Firefighters and other people have died in fires from abandoned buildings.
Arson is never okay, it’s dangerous and can kill people