Abandoned Towers

Water tower where have you gone?

I could start a whole blog on water tower images (thanks to my old neighbor).

Philly has the intriguing collection of abandoned water towers. Some, like the one pictured, have lost the identifiable barrel and are left with only the metal tower.

Something so simple and once so vital can now be found abandoned throughout town. These towers are not just in the old warehouse districts, they are all over the place. The tower pictured is by my office, not far from Rittenhouse Sq..

Chicago hosted a design competition supporting the adaptive reuse of such towers. Needless to say, the entries were all quite interesting. I hope one day Philly has enough insight to turn something so regular, arguably so blighted, into icons for redevelopment and change.