Kodak dismatling an unused film coating building

laser · Apr 9, 2013

This marks a sad milepost for those that love film. Kodak is dismantling Building 29 that housed multiple photographic film coating machines that at one time made almost every type of Kodak color and black-and-white film. Motion picture print film was made in the building as recently as 2011. Sadly I am not aware of any photographs of the equipment in the building. Kodaks only film quality production coating machine will be near-by in Kodak Rochesters Building 38. I am glad that I was able to thoroughly document the Building 38 coating machine in my book, Making Kodak Film. There is a link on APUG.

You can see from the photographs that there are large holes in the side of Building 29 for installing equipment that are now used for tossing the scrap to the ground. Debris is sorted into piles near the building.

The bad news is that the volume has declined so that the machines are no longer needed. The good news is that Kodak still has a film coating machine. The films made today are the best ever.

hdeyong · Apr 9, 2013

Enough to make me sit down and cry like a baby. I will never forget opening those plastic boxes of Kodachromes if I live to be 100. Remember the smell that wafted out when you lifted the little lid?
Sad sad day.

Photo Engineer · Apr 9, 2013

Can we salvage anything for GEH?

PE

noacronym · Apr 9, 2013

This is sad. Kodak was a great company. It's people were second to none. This is a pity. I hate it.

Brian C. Miller · Apr 9, 2013

Outside of the office building where I'm working, a building was recently demolished. It was called the King Cat, and it was struggling to survive. One screen, showing an assortment of old and odd films. And then progress came.

Progress comes for many things, including Kodak. Unfortunately, Kodak never was on the ball when it comes to reacting to change.

Here's something that Kodak could do: long term data archival services. Using what material? Film, of course. Kodak, back in the 1960s, built a write-once digital data storage machine for the CIA. (Wired magazine might have the article, I don't remember.) There's all kinds of Government regulations that mandate that corporate data must be accessible for X decades. Kodak could run a long-term storage service, where that data would be written to film and be put in cold storage. That would be an absolute cash cow.

But instead Kodak always has this Alfred E. Neuman-esque "What, me worry?" attitude. Oh, well.

AgX · Apr 9, 2013

Robert,

I saw so many ruins out of the photochemical industry, I guess I won't be touched anymore.

kevs · Apr 9, 2013

Don't worry guys, they're making room for a production facility for a brand new product; Kodadigit. Kodak will become a world leader in digit production. All those ones and zeros have to come from somewhere... :-D

San fairy ann,
kevs

Richard S. (rich815) · Apr 9, 2013

hdeyong said:
Enough to make me sit down and cry like a baby. I will never forget opening those plastic boxes of Kodachromes if I live to be 100. Remember the smell that wafted out when you lifted the little lid?
Sad sad day.

+1. :-(

Richard S. (rich815) · Apr 9, 2013

Do you think, maybe 30-40 years from now, people who are teenagers today will be lamenting the demolition of one of the last Apple buildings? They'll be talking fondly about their first iPhone or iPod and lamenting how after Steve Jobs died the company was never the same and eventually could not change with the times....

Now I know the analogy is weak, Apple buildings are not where such things are made and iPhones and iPods are not film, but I was just thinking. Funny there was a time when Kodak was so strong, their products so profitable, sales so good, that something like this was never envisioned...

AndreasT · Apr 9, 2013

If Kodak was still succesful today, wouldn`t they possible dismantle the builiding anyway.
Remember it was used to make film.

wblynch · Apr 9, 2013

Perez' parachute just got a little more golden.

Jeff Kubach · Apr 9, 2013

I like Kodak, hate too see that happen.

Jeff

Dave Krueger · Apr 9, 2013

Maybe they sold the equipment to some former Eastern Block country, so that we'll still be able to get Tmax films once Kodak decided to quit film completely.

NB23 · Apr 9, 2013

What's left of Kodak today?

AgX · Apr 9, 2013

Dave Krueger said:
Maybe they sold the equipment to some former Eastern Block country, so that we'll still be able to get Tmax films once Kodak decided to quit film completely.

They got more modern factories already.

noacronym · Apr 9, 2013

The US IS an "eastern bloc" country now. That's half the problem.

eclarke · Apr 9, 2013

desertratt said:
Yeah and I'm still mighty sore about the fate of the Packard Motorcar factory in Detroit. How can we live without Packards? "Ask the man who owns one."

Geez, you sound digital..

noacronym · Apr 9, 2013

Let's see... Perez takes over with the stock at 25 clams a share, and now as of today's posted prices is 29¢. Tell me, what is the procedure for getting a failure out of his position? I'm at a loss here..

nickrapak · Apr 9, 2013

noacronym said:
Let's see... Perez takes over with the stock at 25 clams a share, and now as of today's posted prices is 29¢. Tell me, what is the procedure for getting a failure out of his position? I'm at a loss here..

You have to get the board of directors to get off the wacky tabacky.

OzJohn · Apr 9, 2013

If you want to see what's left of a once thriving Kodak plant punch these co-ords into Google Earth:

37deg 43' 45.85" S 144deg 58' 54.65" W

This used to be Kodak Australasia in Melbourne and the attached image is an aerial of it in it's heyday. No doubt Toronto and other cities have a similar story and it happened in these places some years ago. OzJohn

Shootar401 · Apr 10, 2013

Is this the building at the corner of Lake and Ridge? I drove by a few days ago and didn't even think to look.

noacronym · Apr 10, 2013

To me, Kodak and Kodak Park, Rochester, New York are nearly wondrous places in some way; some manner of regard. I've never been up there, never will be most likely, and wouldn't want to go in another way. I'm not from up there. Some people belong where they came from and live, so here is where I stay. All that said in the spirit of well-wishing for the company's future. I know it's a horribly cold place to live a life, but you folks sure know how to set a production standard. I hope you don't turn into some sort of software company, or some worthless digital sh-- like that. You do what you do. I highly suggest advertising on the benefits of Kodak Film for permanence. Permanence is the whole point of any photography. A Kodak B&W print properly washed can last a thousand years. Who knows which one of us might be somebody recorded in history for some deed? A Kodak B&W will still bear the testament of perfect recording in several thousand years. That's a great thing. Pretty wild, when you think about it. Somebody needs to get busy. That's about enough of my free job worrying about it. Nowhere herein has been my intent to pursue or force a political view. Somebody up there needs to do something.

Brian C. Miller · Apr 10, 2013

OzJohn said:
If you want to see what's left of a once thriving Kodak plant punch these co-ords into Google Earth:

37deg 43' 45.85" S 144deg 58' 54.65" W

I got the south Pacific ocean, between New Zealand and Chile. Did they go that far underwater?

BrianShaw · Apr 10, 2013

43.185278,-77.67231

BrianShaw · Apr 10, 2013

... or

+43° 11' 11.24", -77° 40' 19.57"

Kodak dismatling an unused film coating building

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Kodak dismatling an unused film coating building

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