From Excelsior Needle Co. to Timken: The Rise and Fall of Torrington's Standard Plant

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The Standard Plant and a Century of Making Things It was a hot May week in 2023, and J and I were already sweating through our shirts before we even made it to the entrance. We turned into the driveway off North Elm Street and passed a large Caterpillar backhoe holding up the red, white, and blue at the top of the arm. Patriotic machinery. Only in Connecticut. We moved toward the back of the complex with our eyes open, scanning for any sign of people or activity. We found cameras instead. A few of them, well-positioned across one of the buildings and up on an electrical pole, covering angles that made our original entry plan useless. We backed off, found a Plan B, and stepped into a dark room washed in tinted green light, then took the stairs down to ground level. The former Standard Plant sits along North Elm Street at a sunken grade, one story, with another building rising over the roadway to the far right when you're standing in front of it from North Street. It's the kind o...
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Corporación de Fabricación de Laca Unida





Sobre 2.72 acres, adyacente a las bulliciosas líneas de Amtrak y New Jersey Transit, el desolado esqueleto de United Lacquer Manufacturing Corporation estuvo una vez en pie. Ahora reducido a escombros, los ecos de su pasado se aferran obstinadamente al aire. Este trío de estructuras, abigarradas en altura de uno a tres pisos, alguna vez se dedicó a la producción de lacas, barnices y esmaltes. Sin embargo, durante 15 a 20 años fueron consignados al silencio, el abandono y la ruina. Esta propiedad abandonada estuvo sujeta regularmente a un sombrío ciclo de incendios y vertidos ilegales, lo que subraya su trágica trayectoria de declive.



La historia de la tierra, contada por la ciudad de Linden, se lee como una letanía de contaminación química de múltiples fabricantes y de un propietario anterior que desaparece en el éter, dejando atrás una pesada carga fiscal. Como era de esperar, la ciudad finalmente perdió la paciencia con este sombrío cuadro de incendios y negligencia iniciados por humanos. Como consecuencia, la propiedad se transfirió mediante expropiación a una empresa de desarrollo.



Pronto, este lugar una vez desolado latirá con el murmullo de la vida diaria, hogar de 402 habitantes. Meridia 1001 Linden LLC ha presentado planes para transformar el espacio en 1001 West Elizabeth Ave. Su plan prevé 402 unidades residenciales, junto con servicios, tiendas minoristas en la planta baja y una oficina de administración. La propuesta no se detiene en los ladrillos y el cemento, sino que se extiende para abarcar la estética más suave del paisajismo, la iluminación y las instalaciones de estacionamiento.



En los años de su abandono, recuerdo que el sitio era demasiado accesible, su puerta bostezando abierta sin una pizca de disuasión. Era un imán para las desventuras, y podría decirse que su abandono avivaba los fuegos que ardían de forma intermitente allí. El mugriento interior era un cóctel de desechos domésticos y de construcción, mientras que el edificio más grande mostraba las cicatrices viscerales de los daños causados ​​por el fuego. Vigas de madera ennegrecidas, convertidas en carbón, yacían esparcidas por el suelo de metal oxidado. El techo picado de viruelas, perforado con enormes agujeros, amenazaba con derrumbarse bajo el peso de los soportes derrumbados, reducido a grumos nudosos de madera y metal retorcido.



En cambio, el segundo edificio logró conservar algunos vestigios de respetabilidad. Parecía haber sido requisado por patinadores, sus pisos de concreto liso y rampas de madera improvisadas sugerían una nueva e ilícita oportunidad de vida. Otra parte de la propiedad fue menos afortunada. Se redujo a una fusión destrozada de tejas y cristales de ventanas, un testimonio sombrío de los furiosos incendios.



En una publicación anterior titulada "Químico X Almacén", he compartido más imágenes que capturan este evocador paisaje de decadencia urbana. Pronto, la narrativa de esta trama volverá a cambiar, esta vez para mejor. A medida que somos testigos de su transformación, recordamos las capas de la historia que se ven y el potencial que se avecina.


The English version of this essay can be found here: URL

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