Greystone Park State Hospital

They're tearing it all down now. The Kirkbride building at Greystone Park State Hospital - among the last of a dying class of buildings - is currently being demolished. I never thought this would happen; while they tore down the Dormitory building well over a decade ago, and the Curry, Clinic, and Cafeteria buildings in 2007, there was always the sense that the original 1876 Samuel Sloane-designed Kirkbride Building would be preserved. And why shouldn't it be? There was a proposal that would have rehabilitated the building, the largest Second Empire building in America, and the largest continuous-foundation building in the country until the construction of the Pentagon. The proposal would have cost the state nothing. But New Jersey government is known for its corruption if nothing else, and this is no exception. So instead of a plan for free adaptive reuse, the building is being demolished (at a cost of $34M to taxpayers) by a company in bed with Governor Chris Christie; a company that just got cited (again) for OSHA violations and fined over $50K. It's a damn shame. So while demolition is going on, I'm going to keep uploading to this gallery - a memorial I built to an asylum I loved, and visited over 40 times. Since demolition is complete, prints will continue to hold a 20% discount - an incentive to remember, although it hurts sometimes, the lengths to which America will go to destroy its architectural legacy.