Changes

This satellite image of Pac10 was taken in 2003. Click on it for full size, it's a big image. There are newer ones available but they happen to be very dark and with much less detail than this one, so I use this version for reference. The map is rotated: Grand River, which is the vertical street that bisects the plant in this map, actually runs at an angle. What we call the North section is on the left here.

Time goes by quickly here, and the damage is accumulating more rapidly every year, so the plant today looks very different than it did in 2003. When the city of Detroit lost the court battle that would have given it ownership of the plant, they promptly pulled out all the guards giving the scrappers the run of the place.

Huge sections of the roof are now gone in multiple places, making grand new courtyards and opening up areas that used to be indoors. Lots of other very heavy damage has occurred too, the kind of damage that will show up on the next sat image.

Several collapses have occurred in the steel outbuildings due to scavengers. And an enormous section of the roof of one of the concrete buildings has collapsed and fallen down two stories deep from an amateur demolition attempt. WTF is an amateur demolition attempt? I don't know either but they gave up after seeing how long it would take and how strong this structure is. Or perhaps they were crushed in the collapse and we'll never know.

An article I just read stated that the Packard plant is very likely the largest abandoned building in North America. Think about that. Not just the US, but Canada and Mexico too.

I have an annotated version of this map on Google, marked up with various landmarks and interesting sights. Someday maybe I'll post it here.

For now, I'll leave you with a concrete example of the big changes that have happened here at Pac10 lately. A large piece of a building that is clearly shown roofed over in 2003 is now completely barren. The entire section, bricks and steel along with the roof, is just gone. The entire area is open. Look carefully at this crop of the 2003 image. I was standing where the red dot is when I took the picture and the red lines show the approximate field of view. The position of the red dot is now outdoors.

Look for the distinctive raised section with clusters of four vents placed in a square pattern. Then look at the photo below and you'll get an idea of the changes that have happened here.