ARCO LAB
Report by D-Low
Photography by Brad

This place has been on my mind for many years, ever since I was a kid going to school in Harvey right next door to the building. It is a former auto/chemical research lab, formerly Sinclair Research before becoming Atlantic -Richfield (now part of BP Amoco). It has been derelict since as far back as I can remember (early 90's). It was handed over to the city in the mid-80s and hasn't recovered since. It has been empty for about a decade.

I've explored the building many times on recon missions, but only once with a friend, so it was a big deal when I met up with Brad to explore. We unloaded our gear and walked right in the wide-open entrance. There you see a once grand marble staircase, now covered by dust and debris. Over the entrance-way is a memorable sight: A gigantic picture of various parts of the lab, going back to it's earlier, more prosperous days. It's worth going just to get a picture of that. From there we proceeded up to the second floor.

The building has three main floors and is divided into three distinct parts. The top-most floor has some storage rooms for samples, some offices, and some pretty bad asbestos in parts, but little else it seems.

But the second floor has much to see. Full of empty liquor bottles, dust, and debris, it proved most interesting. The best thing about it is in the middle part of the building: because there the front of the building has fallen away, leaving a wide-open view of the street and surrounding area. It's a great view from the second floor, looking down on cars and people passing by, oblivious. Graffiti is prevalent up here (my favorite: a scrawl that reads BOMB THE SUBURBS) and covers the walls of some rooms. It is up here that we found evidence that people had used the place for a home: a stained mattress and sleeping bag in one room, and in another, a strange collection of books and remnants of fires and a box of Instant Mash Potatoes. The books in question included the Holy Bible, a Muslim text, War and Peace, The Plays of Sophocles, The Joy Luck Club, a couple of books by noted fundamentalist Christian televangelist Hal Lindsey, and a pornographic picture of two lesbians. A strange cache of material and a strange place to call home, but beggars can't be choosers I guess, and we left the stuff alone. Elsewhere were rooms for lab equipment, and a office room in particular that was FULL of old documents and papers from the 80's up until the mid-90's. If anyone wants to see old science papers, documents, etc. it's all there.

The ground level is the most destroyed part of the building: fires have burned through, leaving lots of charred remains and crumbling wood (the passage through the ground floor almost impassable with the debris). More documents were found here, as well as a large conference room and a kitchen/cafeteria with a stove that had a bottle of soap that had congealed into a solid line running from the bottle.

But the most memorable thing here is the amount of debris and junk in the building. Myself and Brad observed tons of junk: chairs, couches, tables, Christmas trees (!), mirrors, a piano, telephone books, several enormous bundles of clothes and old rags, furniture in general, more chairs and couches, etc., etc. Really, it's stunning to think of all the work people had to do to get this stuff into the building just to gut it and dump it there. Unbelievable.

As for the rest of the building, building strippers and vandals have stripped almost everything of value form the building. You can see it everywhere. Debris and trash cover the floor. It looks like someone bombed it.

In back of the building are several buildings that seem to be occupied; dogs that will bark VERY loudly if they see or smell you protect these. There appears to be a lower level, but when we checked it out, looking out back at some doors that lead to the basement level, we would have needed a canoe to get anywhere, as it was flooded with several feet of water that used to be ice.

It was a Saturday in the area and there was a car auction right next door, with people all about, but no one noticed (or cared) when we entered or exited the building. The locals are apathetic about such things.

After an hour of showing Brad around, I left him on his way to continue on his exploring, while I headed home, content and looking forward to the next mission, as well as some well-needed sleep.
 
~D