Virjune Manufacturing Co: Inside Waterbury's Vacant Factory

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J and I were already having a rough day. We'd just driven across town to check out an old industrial site he hadn't visited in a while, only to find it erased. Nothing left but a slab of concrete and chain-link fence. So we took a detour. Sometimes you salvage a disappointing afternoon with a backup plan, even if you're just ticking a box. The former Virjune plant hides in plain sight off Thomaston Avenue. If you drive past in summer, you'll miss it completely. Trees and shrubs swallow the building whole, nature reclaiming what industry left behind. Come winter, though, when the branches go bare and the world turns gray, the red brick skeleton reveals itself. Even then, you have to know where to look. I pulled up old Sanborn maps to trace the building's history. The earliest tenant was an auto body shop in 1922. By February 1950, something bigger had moved in. The map labels it simply "Stamping Wks." No company name. No flourish. Just function. That namele...
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Times Square New York City


A night-time upwards view of towering skyscrapers converging into a point in the sky, captured from a street-level perspective in Times Square. The buildings are ablaze with lights from windows and glowing billboards, casting a vivid display of urban nightlife against the dark sky.
Corner of Times Square


Times Square is locally known, as a tourist mecca for native New Yorkers. This eclectic and neon tourist zone is always crowded from sun up to sundown. Packed in with arriving and departing citizens of the world picking over the same spots as they cajole, and prostrate themselves for the perfect family snapshot. You will find many individuals taking abundant selfies and group shots everywhere. If they are not taking photos, they are being harassed by desnudas and touchy cartoon-sized characters hustling for tips. A place only visited by natives once and never again. One thing you can find in this tourist zone is various shades of characters hustling.






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