This weekend at Kodak Park

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Kodak Park Building Implosions

The following is a message to Kodak Rochester employees from Paul
Walrath, Chief Operating Officer, Film Products Group.

As part of our effort to complete our major restructuring in 2007, we
will be demolishing 16 buildings at Kodak Park in 2007. Many Kodak
people in the Rochester area are already aware that two of these
buildings will be demolished by controlled explosive demolition,
commonly known as implosion.

The two buildings to be imploded are Building 9, located along Lake
Avenue, and Building 23, the blue-paneled building located north of
Ridge Road and east of Dewey Avenue. Both implosions are scheduled
for this weekend:

* Building 9 on Saturday (June 30) at 8:00 a.m.
* Building 23 on Sunday (July 1) at 8:00 a.m.

The implosions have already attracted a great deal of interest from
the community as well as from local and national media. With this
high level of visibility, the company has a chance to present a
message that goes beyond the image of demolished buildings and speaks
to the promising future of Kodak as we build on our great heritage to
enter new markets with new technologies.

To that end, we want to use this opportunity to honor that rich
heritage. Both of these buildings played critical roles in fulfilling
George Eastman's vision of bringing low-cost photography to everyone.
At the same time, we want to celebrate our exciting future.

That's why we will wrap both buildings with huge banners promoting our
commitment to a "revolution" that demolishes an inkjet printer
business model that forces consumers to endure high-cost ink. The
throng of assembled media cameras will capture our huge banners
"declaring independence from the high cost of ink" before the
buildings fall.

We are, of course, planning this event with safety as our first
priority. Given this, please note the following important details:

Kodak parking lots near the buildings will be open to the public;
however, you should expect significant traffic congestion and limited
space at the viewing locations. Please see the following links to
maps that show parking areas and designated viewing areas outside of a
safety exclusion zone:
Dead Link Removed
Dead Link Removed

R-News (GRC Channel 9) has already confirmed that it plans to
broadcast both events live, and other local TV stations may also
broadcast the event, so watching at home will be the most convenient
way to view them. Access within this area of Kodak Park will not be
allowed on either day, except to those who are scheduled to work.

Noise and vibration from the implosions should be brief and moderate.
There will be a concrete dust cloud in the vicinity of the building
for a relatively brief period after the implosion. Depending on
anticipated wind speed and direction, some of the designated viewing
areas may be closed off to ensure safety. Persons with respiratory
illness, sensitivity to dust or very young children are strongly
advised not to attend the viewing. Please keep in mind that no
restrooms will be available, road closures will go into effect well
before the events, and that parking will be limited.

This will be a historic moment in our transformation. Rest assured
that we are approaching this event with the appropriate balance that
it deserves; at once respectful of the people who worked in these
buildings and their achievements, while celebrating another
technological revolution that only Kodak can claim.
 

jovo

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It'll be reassuring to know that additional parking will be available in Rochester should I choose to attend the annual year long Cloud Festival!
 

Alex Hawley

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You forgot to mention the condo complexes planned for those sites where all interior decorating will be full-wall sized Kodak inkjet prints!
 

Photo Engineer

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Kodak is demolishing B-23 and B-9 at Kodak park on 8am Sat. and 8am Sun. There will be barriers up but viewing is permitted.

Isn't this just ducky?

B-9 was the former site of paper distribution and also of the original RC paper prototype R&D machine. No longer.

B-23 was mainly engineering.

All things change. Goodbye to two vererable old Kodak buildings.

Now it will be a park. Grass only.

PE
 
OP
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well I posted that info a day or so ago and it was censored. Wonder why its not for you? :confused:
 

David A. Goldfarb

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I've merged it with this thread, circlesofconfusion. Sorry about that. It was moved to "Gloom and Doom" because it read like satire (it's really hard to tell what's coming out of Rochester these days!), didn't have a link to an authoritative source (like a press release on Kodak's website), and it was one of your first posts, and we didn't want it to become a nexus for Kodak bashing. PE has been around here for a while, so we know it's news and not a joke.
 

Earl Dunbar

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Ron: Thanks for posting this. I would seriously like to view these demolitions, but will be out of town, leaving Friday morning for some photography and general conviviality with friends on the shores of Lake Huron.

Will you be there and make some exposures? Perhaps we can meet up for a coffee or other beverage later on ... we've said "yeah, let's do that before", maybe it's a good time. I'll send you a PM or IM once I'm back.

Earl
 

Photo Engineer

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Earl;

Looking forward to meeting with you.

I will probably not go. Too many memories. I walked through B9 nearly every day when the weather was bad, for years on my way to B59 next to it. I did a lot of work with friends in both 9 and 23.

Sigh. There was a beautiful 30x40 B&W print in the 'lobby' of 9 by the elevators, taken by a past president of the model train club of Rochester of an old steam Atlantic on a turntable. I wonder what they are going to do with that photo. Oh, and the several others along the wall.

Sigh.

PE
 

JJC

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So its true?........ Even the bit about the inkjet banners?.........
I think I'm going to be sick.
 

Kino

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Does the irony of imploding buildings with "exciting" slogans about their new inkjet business not elicit even the slightest bit of pause in the PR flaks?

Maybe Perez can push the plunger down from on top of one of the buildings...
 

Monophoto

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Goodbye to two vererable old Kodak buildings.

Now it will be a park. Grass only.

PE

For 35 years I worked at the GE campus in Schenectady. When I started, there were about 200 buildings on the campus. Today, there are about 10.

The building I was in for the first 25 years was demolished in 1996, and the building where I spent my last 10 years (and which was erected around 1910 as the corporate headquarters) is scheduled for demolition later this year.

Taxes are much lower on grass than on empty buildings.

Sad? Yes. But I'm now retired, and I'm a shareholder, and the stock has been in the dink for too long. Anything that enhances shareholder value is a good thing.
 
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AgX

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I did not think about an tax issue.

Here I find it typical that unused industrial buildings etc. remain left to themselves for a decades. Being by that time damaged to their structure. Then when they are going to be demolished some people realize their former architectural value and in vain try to stop the demolition. Or someone gets the idea that they would be ideal for housing, office, retail etc. and restores or rather rebuilds them…


Back to photography. In Wolfen they kept one building out of the first building phase alive to remind of the history of that place incorporating a museum.
 
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Kodak Park Building Implosions

The following is a message to Kodak Rochester employees from Paul
Walrath, Chief Operating Officer, Film Products Group.

...

This will be a historic moment in our transformation...
I guess Kodak already laid off everyone who might have reviewed Mr. Walrath's message and corrected it to read "...an historic..."
 

Sirius Glass

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Thank you for posting this.

One thing that would really help Rochester would be to remove all the abandoned buildings in the area.

Steve
 

Daniel_OB

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...
"This will be a historic moment in our transformation ... while celebrating another technological revolution that only Kodak can claim"

really? You guys are becoming funny.

How about Kodak building some miles away in Lake avenue. Will fly and that one soon.

www.Leica-R.com
 
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Photo Engineer

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We just drove by.

The signs are up on B-9. The park looks like a mess with piles of rubble everywhere. There is a circus tent up in the #43 parking lot at Lake and Hanford for the expected masses tomorrow morning (I guess). They have put tarps on the south side of B-59 to protect it from debris. B-59 was my home for over 30 years. It is the second Research Lab building and the site of nearly all of the research coating machines and emulsion facilities. So, it was a natural home to me. B-2, the research annex and B-42 the newer annex, both to the west of 59 are now gone.

B-23, on Ridge Road, is in the last stages of gutting today getting ready for Sunday's show.

The north side of 83, the new research building still stands incomplete. The plan was to add a new tower to the north and move all film making R&D there, but it was never to be. The south side of the B-81 research annex is still incomplete. That is the digital fabrication lab.

This was my first trip by there in about a year. I usually take visiting APUG members by to see the place.

PE
 
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Kino

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Sorry PE, gotta be a rough thing to witness...
 

canuhead

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Kodak bldg implosion video

Just found this link posted elsewhere. Kinda sad but cool to watch. I'm conflicted :wink:

Dead Link Removed
 

tjaded

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How depressing. I felt terrible watching the demise of Tower Records (worked there for over 10 years, shopped there for many more.) At least I didn't have to watch any of the locations where I worked get imploded for a publicity stunt. Sort of a "perfect" ending to the particularly depressing analog photo week for me.
 
OP
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so how many people there were using film cameras to record the event?
Any large format photographers using kodak cameras and film?

looked like lots of sonys and kids with digicams to me. Ironic?
 
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