More-so even than the abandoned shopping malls and crumbling movie theaters of the world, these formerly grand bank buildings, now left to decay or rehabbed as mundane storefronts, have a particularly potent creep factor, considering they were once bustling centers of commerce and crowds. New York-based photographer Michael Vahrenwald captured these forgotten banks as part of a series titled The People's Trust, which documents old money buildings around New York and, the mecca of eerie abandoned architecture, Detroit. "I couldn't help but register the headstrong optimism in these buildings, the grandiose way in which they were fortresses built to last," Vahrenwald writes. "These structures still project so much of their former authority." Indeed, each building is shot with a certain measure of respect and dignity, that—as Design Boom points out—almost personifies the subjects.
· Michael Vahrenwald captures the final fate of US bank buildings [Designboom]
· Michael Vahrenwald Statements [Official site]
· All Abandonment Issues posts [Curbed National]