Why are some buildings left to ruin and others allowed to age gracefully? 

 

If you take a walk downtown most cities, you find glimpses into the past on several building facades. In the chipped paint, in the cracked bricks, the vintage signs still adorning the stoop, you're allowed to celebrate the age and history of a building. You get to see how far it has come and admire the strength of the foundation that holds it. In other buildings, the ones people look away from, or walk past without much admiration, you may notice vines creeping up the awning or sometimes entire doors or walls missing from the building as it sits empty and disused -- waiting patiently for the next big idea in development to bulldoze it into the next life. As you look through this series, I ask you to ponder why we allow some buildings to follow us into modernity, carefully updating the necessities while maintaining the character and charm we find in the age, and why we abandon other structures to be reclaimed by nature. What separates them, and what separates us from them?