MacKay Building
Built in the 1950s as the McKinley building, this structure suffered heavy damage in the 1964 quake and was renamed MacKay after the lawyer who bought it. In the 80s it was abandoned and condemmed. Various developers over the years have tried to bring it back to life, but the costs of structural repair, asbestos removal, and bringing the building up to code have driven a few of them bankrupt. Pigeons, Homeless people, explorers, and the occasional BASE jumper have used the building during the intervals it sat abandoned, but recently it's been cleaned out and much more work has been done. I scouted this structure a few times after coming to Anchorage, but the prospects for entry looked slim. Then one night I finally decided to go for it, figuring there must be a place where I could go over or under the fence without being seen by the rest of downtown. I arrived around midnight, with the late Alaskan sun still lighting the area more than I liked, but after walking around the construction site a few times I finally had a gap in passing traffic in which I could hop the fence unnoticed. From there, entering the structure was no problem as most of the doors and windows are gone.
The 14 gutted floors hold nothing but concrete shards and empty memories.
Inside the basement and stairwells red lights help preserve night vision
and keep one's prescence hidden.
The roof provides a beautiful panorama of Anchorage, but also gives
Anchorage a nice view of you...
(This is about the actual light level, lighter photos were longer time
exposures.)
The 3-storey building next door contains more empty halls and large
open spaces.
Links to more info:
An
article about the most recent development scheme
A BASE jumper suffers injury at the MacKay
Some
hokey movie ideas involving the MacKay building.
Back to Main