The Post-Industrial Landscape[s] of Flint

Our first full day of urban exploration in Flint turned out to be quite eventful.  After a quick dip in the lake at our campground, we headed out to a decommissioned and long-vacant water treatment plant on the outskirts of the city.  What we found when we got there was an eerily quiet, lonely shell of what was once a quite dignified example of an industrial complex.  The old building’s brick facade, with its collection of broken window panes and welded-shut doors does little to convey the level of decay we found inside.

Rooms full of forgotten equipment, standing amidst puddles of stagnant water and piles of glass, rubble and junk greeted us inside the plant.  A long room with enormous empty water tanks on either side of the room was found filled with sunlight pouring in through the skylights that ran down the center of the ceiling.  The lower level, with its huge assortment of bulky machinery was flooded with several feet of water.  What looked to be an office/filing room at one time was now nothing more than a collection of bookshelves with heaps and heaps of rotting folders and binders on it.  Graffiti marked most of the walls – cryptic messages left years ago?  days ago?  The only sounds beside our footsteps crunching over the mix of debris on the floor were that of pigeons living in the rafters and the distant swooshing noise of traffic.  

What was this place like in its prime – when it was fully operational and filled with workers, when tons and tons of water cycled through it on its way from the Flint River to the city’s water supply?  What might this place have become if someone had thought to rescue it before time and nature swept in to reclaim it?  Might this place still have some kind of chance, no matter how unlikely, to become something altogether different than a water treatment plant?  Is there a new life for this building lurking deep within its flooded and silent interior?  Or has the building already found new life through its death – has it become, once again, an inseparable part of the landscape that surrounds it?

Wildflowers and grass have snuck right up to the buildings walls – the roof has sprouted a variety of wild plants – moss has begun to cover interior brick walls – birds nest in it – a hawk hunts for food in the wide open meadow on the backside of the plant – this is one of the landscapes that has replace what was once a vast, vibrant industrial landscape.  Rust and nature now reign supreme here.  

As we continue on our trip, documenting the new landscapes to be found throughout the Rustbelt of Michigan, we will continue to wonder to ourselves – What were these places once like?  What has become of them?  Have they found a new and different life?  We hope that, through our efforts to simply to find what’s out there and to document it, that others will begin to wonder these same thoughts and that a dialogue might then be started.         

We would love comments on all this – so if you have any thoughts, let us know.

-Jamie