This is a special portfolio dedicated to the unfinished beauty in both the construction and destruction of built environments. Currently this gallery features images from Lime, Oregon’s old, abandoned, Ashgrove Cement Plant, just off from I-84 in southeast Oregon (…cont’d below)

I visited this site several times to explore its poetic demise. What remains of this factory is a very monochromatic minimalist skeleton of cement, rusting steel, corrugated metals, and other vestiges of giant mechanical apparatus.

From the highway, the plant looks fairly drab as witnessed in the last four images, but once you pass the “no trespassing” signs, it’s another world with complex patterns, brightly colored graffiti, rusted metals, and multiple hues of gray which contrast eastern Oregon’s blue sky. I love the beauty and irony in how lime mined from this plant created cement which eventually formed structures of our modern architecture; yet many of this modern architecture resemble the mines structure, just as a child resembles its parents.  Sadly this parent facility now falls apart in neglect.

Disclaimer: This place is dangerous with rusted walkways, collapsed ceilings which double as floors, and many places where one slip could mean serious or fatal injury. For the most part these photos were made well way from any inherent danger spots. This place is definitely for the spry, adventuresome, and those willing to risk facing the law for trespass violations.