The Book of
LostType A collection of the type we left behind
by Mohammad
Rezaiekhaligh
The Book of
Lost Type
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Introduction
Where does type go when we leave it behind? We come, we build and we cover it in type. But what happens to the type once we have left the building behind? What does the type remaining tell us about the history of the building the people who were there and the people that still come there? Maybe the type endures as the structure fails; maybe it propagates into new forms, or maybe it just degrades. I explore old places. Some you drive by on the way to work and others you drive over and never realize exist. Some of these places are dangerous and some places are illegal, but all have a unique collection of typography in them.
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Site
One
This place was where people studied religion. The building adjacent to it might still be in use; the grounds are trimmed but it doesn’t look like anyone comes here regularly. The outside of the building is eroding and crumbling. The old green paint is running onto the cream colored exterior like the place is bleeding grime. Some of the rooms feel like they were occupied until the day they shuttered the building. The stairwell is crumbling. The building has been stripped of all its copper.
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Western Baptist Seminary 22nd Paseo
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In the Kitchen The entry point is through the basement, home of the kitchen. The first clue this was a kitchen is a big one, a giant industrial Vulcan stove overturned on its side. The floors are littered with ceiling and wall slats, crumbling plaster, and rusty nails. In the beginning there is very little type to be seen, my flashlight seems weak in this pitch even with fresh batteries. This is a place set for a horror movie. If you aren’t used to being in abandoned buildings then much of the condition of the building would seem mysterious or suggest it has laid there a hundred years.
Left: Reminders of home when I find this “vintage“ milk jug from Lawrence, KS. Middle: The marker of a fire extinguisher. Right: The champion of box fans. Facing Page: The Vulcan would not go with the scrappers, instead they abandon it by the door.
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History
This site has two buildings,
Tradgedy struck the grounds in 2003, a fire burned
the original purposes were
through the top two floors of the orphanage and only
an orphanage and a home for the elderly. Both were
the first floor in this building was said to still be in
bought by the Western Baptist Bible College in the
use. But most of the dated documents left are dated
late 20’s - as far as I can tell from the limited records
2000 and the condition of the building suggests
on public file.
much more than a decade
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This page: A few items found on the desks of the now vacant office, the only common theme is mold and decay. Facing Page: Even this office seems to take on a life of its own when the flash goes off on the camera.
From the desk of ... Some of the rooms seem to have just been left in disarray, the office is one of these places. The desks are at angles and the shelves still hold books, but most are splayed open on the desk. Some light comes in through the gaps between the plywood sealed windows. It isn’t hard to wonder why there are so many papers and books left in this office, the truth is many places like this exist and most are full of documents and records of the previous tenants. Some offices seem to have everything laid out on the desks like the occupant thought they would be back the next day.
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Types of Type
Print One of the most prominent and prolifick forms of typography. It occupies a range from trash to textbooks. The printed word is also the most susceptible to decay making it some of the hardest to find samples of. Some of the documents you might find include paperwork, books and newspaper. The surviving documents can tell the story of a buildings occupation.
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Site
Two
The site is large and has multiple barriers to get past, it once produced steel now it only produces rust. This place goes on for acres and the buildings are massive in scale with gantry cranes hanging form the rafters. This is a place of warnings and instructions. The type is either part of the object or warns about the object.
Some of the signs look like they could have been put up days ago and others still look like they’ve been exposed to the elements for decades
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Winchester Independence Ave
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Hardhat zone The first building you enter is a five-story hulk of a building, the walls on one side are gone and the wind rushing through causes the sheet metal walls to creak and wail. From the ceiling beams are gantry cranes designed to roll the length of the building; hauling heavy loads from one end to the other and from side to side. I’ve been here before - signs of people looking for scrap metal are all around. Many of the old catwalks , ladders and stairwells have been stripped from this building. This building is full of warnings to the previous workers and visitors, I can’t help but think some of the signs might be warning me.This is a place of such size it really doesn’t translate though photos, this is a place of presence and scale.
Top Right: Even the champion of box fans is tossed like trash down here. Top Left: The marker of the previous location of a fire extinguisher Above: An overturned stove Left: Reminders of home
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A noiseless patient spider, I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch’d fourth filament, filament, out of itself,
– Walt Whitman A Noiseless Patient Spider (1-5)
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Top: Some images speak for themselves. Right: The most important button in the operator cab of the crane. Below: The housing on one of the crane motors Facing Page: Knobs and levers in the control cab of the gantry crane.
Just Hangin’ Out Getting up here used to be as simple as going up a flight of stairs. Now it requires more daring and a good grip. The cranes are two to three stories above the ground with a suspended cab granting the operator clear view of the environment. These beasts used to move metric tones with every hoist. Now they lie dormant, greasy and silent. The vantage point is like the reverse of the entrance. All I can think about is, “How am I going to get down from here?”. Some of the things on the crane look a century old, maybe it’s the weathering, or maybe it’s the truth, all that is certain is that there is very little room between me and a 30 foot drop.
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Types of Type
Embedded The type we see but rarely notice. This group are leargely labels, signs and specifications fused to the structure and the idems within. These examples aren’t designed and in that is there attraction, they are raw and un finished but endure.
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Site
Three
Formerly a workhouse (municipal prison), this building is a castle. Now it is, for all intents and purposes, the closest you can get to a castle in the area. It looks imposing and tightly sealed, but if you work your way around and look in the brush you’ll find a way in. Once inside there is a site more impressive than the outside. The floors and roof were removed decades ago; they are now covered in brush and dirt and the arbours of the trees replace the roof.
The typography here was left behind by visitors the walls of this surreal environment are covered in layers of graffiti. Some are displays of skill and others just the desire to leave a mark. The highest concentration is in the dungeon.
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Vine Street Workhouse 21st Vine
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Doing Time The building has gone though three stages to get to this point. In the beginning, it was a multipurpose jailing facility for men, women and boys. Then in the 30’s it became a facility housing female offenders. Within 15 years it became a building for the Offices of Waste Management (sewage). In the 70’s the city closed the building, it was suggested it could be re purposed as a Black History Museum. Instead the city opted to fill the windows with concrete blocks and tore out all of the floors leaving it to return to nature.
Top Right: Cushions get the same treatment as the walls. Top Left: Found, the secret to Happy, Healthy Relationships in a heap of sorted garbage.Left: Tags upon tags.
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Types of Type
Graffiti Places abandoned or hidden are where to find this kind of type. Examples can take up the side of a building or the edge of a door jam. People have been creating graffiti as long as we have been creating wall todays variation is best known for their bright colors. Today these works are critisized as being either genuis or eyesore the argument is that graffiti artists are defacing even if the buidling is abandoned.
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Dungeon The wall of the dungeon are layered with the work of graffiti, in the layering there is complex beauty. The letter forms are varied and organic. It’s almost hard to imagine this brightly colored walled-in garden was formerly a place where people were locked away. There is so much paint in some areas that it could be the sole reason the walls have not crumbled.
Top Right: Graf can be hard to read but when the walls begin to crumble leters become texture Top Left: Some just give dietary advice Left: Everyone wants to be famous Facing Page: Collage of color and forms
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who scribbled all night rocking and rolling over lofty incantations which in the yellow morning were stanzas
– Allen Ginsberg Howl (I,51)
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Closing Often we discusses typography as part of design, layout and art. These forms are familiar but there is type all around us that escapes our conventional vision even when we are staring right at it. These common forms of type are the evidence of our presence in buildings rotting and decaying in our neighborhoods. Look around you today and maybe you will see some of the type you will leave behind.
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Credits Images, content and design by Mohammad D. Rezaiekhaligh 2011 Bembo and Scala Sans were the typefaces used
A Noiseless Patient Spider Walt Whitman 1865 Howl Allen Ginsberg 1955
A special thanks to: Shahr Rezaiekahligh Molly Beuke Bryan and Andrea Ring for their help and advice in the production of this book.