When I moved to Columbus in 2009, I was mostly unfamiliar with my surroundings. As I drove around orienting myself, I became aware of buildings and used them as landmarks to get around, or took note of them because they were interesting, beautiful, or intricate. Something that I became aware of immediately was that the Near East Side was a changing landscape. Gentrification was changing the way the neighborhood looked. I considered the old buildings, I drove by every day, old friends.
Such was the case of this building. It used to be an old day care, with a sign out front that featured finger-painted hand prints in bold colors. One day, I drove by, and it was already half torn down. I’ll admit, it was not much to look at, but it surprised me, nevertheless. I began documenting its destruction over the next several days.