Building Ghosts, a new book from Temple University Press by co-authors Molly Lester and Michael Bixler, explores the history of long-demolished Philadelphia buildings, writes Kevin Riordan for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
The book highlights the stories of people who once lived in the now-empty spaces through several dozen vignettes.
Lester wrote the stories, while Bixler took photographs to accompany them. Subtitled “Past Lives and Lost Places in a Changing City,” the book offers new perspectives on the stubbornly durable remnants of the past throughout the city.
“They’re slices of life,” said Lester, associate director of the Urban Heritage Project at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design. “These places aren’t there any more, but they aren’t blank slates.”
Building ghosts attest to “centuries of human life in Philadelphia,” she added.
Bixler made sure to take most of the photographs for the book on sunny days to ensure the fossil-like traces on the party walls are better captured and to provide more context by showing their surroundings.
“I sought to dignify the buildings and dignify the people who lived in them,” he said. “I wanted to take a humanist, more compassionate approach when photographing these remains of people’s homes.”
Read more about the book and Philly’s many “ghost buildings” in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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