Christine Howard Sandoval

Abandoned Complexes is a series of photographs that explore the interior spaces of forgotten industrial complexes along the Hudson River from Queens to Poughkeepsie in New York. Many of these buildings no longer exist although they once played an important role in North America's industrial revolution. The word "complex" serves as a double entendre to signify both the scale of the architecture and the psychological effect these constructions signified for the labor force in the U.S. at the turn of the century. This selection of images represent a fraction of the collection within the series.

Boyce Thompson Institute was built in 1924 by William Boyce Thompson as a laboratory and greenhouse facility. Thompson's goal was to develop a method for growing mass amounts of food in greenhouses to combat hunger and quality food shortage in urban environments. In the 20's major cities throughout the globe  were experiencing a rapid influx of farm people who were looking for jobs in factories. Large farms were not equipped to provide the amount of food cities needed to support this rapid shift in population. Thompson believed that scientific development in germination, parasites, plant diseases, and plant potentialities would offer farmers and greenhouse growers the potential of a much higher harvest yield. The institute relocated to Cornell University in 1978. The building is currently the property of the city of Yonkers and is currently being redeveloped as an 85,000 sq.ft. space for mixed use businesses.

The Glenwood Power Station was built in 1907 and is also located in Yonkers, NY. The power station was built to provide power to newly electrified tracks of all railroads going in and out of New York City to facilitate the expansion of the city during the industrial revolution. The building is currently being redeveloped as an art complex called The Power House by a woman-owned real estate group called the Goren Group.