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- awizeman, on 10/10/2007, -2/+216I lived right down the street from this, its the AT&T NorthEast Switching Station for Telecom / Internet. About 67% of all phone calls go through this building. Some say it should of been the target for 9/11, as it would of disrupted countless businesses and government installations. If you notice, the building is very secure. What you don't know is that the building walls are very very thick, when it was built they were considered bomb proof, up to a unspecified nuclear yield. The building also has its own power supply, water supply and includes from what I can only assume, its own air cleaning system (there are HUGE ducts that exit the building a very strange spots).
During the power outage in August 05 (or was it 04) we were on our fire escape looking at this building in total darkness, and it hummed. - BillyWells, on 10/10/2007, -1/+161It's the Ministry of Love.
- asdfvidkeasfdl, on 10/10/2007, -4/+122MIB headquarters?
- capiCrimm, on 10/10/2007, -0/+74well now we all know where Skynet is.
- signal15, on 10/10/2007, -0/+65You would be correct. I used to do a lot of work in this building. It was built during the cold war, and housed most of the long distance switches in the country. The outer walls are something like 12 feet thick, and the entire building in wrapped internally with a Faraday cage to prevent EMP from a nuclear weapon from damaging the equipment inside. The building still houses telco equipment, but much of it is rented as ultrasecure datacenter space. Call ATT if you need ultrasecure colo space.
The front doors of the building have glass in them, but they are about a foot thick and impregnated with lead. They are hydraulically actuated when you pull on them to open them. There are still enough bunks, food, and water stored there to house over 1000 people for a couple of months, and the generators are in working order and have enough fuel to keep things going for 3 months. Some of those shafts you see on the outside of the building have elevators in them, but most are empty elevator shafts used for ventilation. The are wide open, with a fence in front of each opening on each floor. There is an air filtration system connected to them which removes radioactive particles from the air.
Is is a very cool building. If you ever manage to get into it, they have an area detailing the history of the building and it tells you about all of the neat stuff in there. You must have business there to get in, and you must go through X-ray and a search. - andrew522, on 10/10/2007, -4/+66It looks evil. Since AT&T owns it, we KNOW it is evil.
- justsomedigger, on 10/10/2007, -2/+52if any 28 days later type ***** ever went down.. thats where i would go..
- Liembo, on 10/10/2007, -3/+43My guess is telco switching
- weeeezzll, on 10/10/2007, -1/+271984
- streetscream, on 10/10/2007, -2/+25We also have a windowless AT&T building in Sacramento. Here is a picture:
http://long-lines.net/places-routes/SacramentoCA/Picture243a.jpg - Grivako, on 10/10/2007, -3/+25Looks like the Citadel from Half Life 2
- eleven, on 10/10/2007, -2/+24Yeah and the title says ATT Long Lines building... so Telco it is.
- awizeman, on 10/10/2007, -4/+24Sorry - couldn't beat the Digg timer - here is the building at night (from the fire escape I mentioned)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/awizemann/7320514/in/set-183325/ - vegasbright, on 10/10/2007, -3/+22Ive seen this thing from the top of the Millenium Hilton. Its pretty cool looking, kinda ominous.
Its houses telephone switching equipment. - Fracture98, on 10/10/2007, -0/+18Most large phone companies will have something like this. The one I work for does. It's left over from the massive "switches" (since converted from mechanical relay driven monstrosities into familiar high-speed servers and thousands of kilometres of fibre). Because of the reduced size of modern equipment, half of ours is now less than desirable office space (no windows).
- CalipsoII, on 10/10/2007, -2/+19God that place would be dreadful to work in.
- HOOKSTER1231, on 10/10/2007, -5/+22Dugg up for 1984 ref. i agree that soon this country will be a mix of 1984 and minority report, just with less accuracy in prediction.
- backfire103, on 10/10/2007, -2/+17Its Dick Cheney's New York City high rise apartment.
- realchris, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15Looks like something from the movie Brazil.
- Vowieotw, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15or in Newspeak, MiniLuv
- trollick, on 10/10/2007, -2/+17It is McDonald's.Don't you see the logo?
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -4/+17Kind of a good metaphor for how I feel as an American citizen trying to have a dialogue with my government.
- Braxo, on 10/10/2007, -3/+15Buffalo's federal court house (in Buffalo, NY) is also a huge windowless building. It is only 10 stories however.
Here are pictures:
http://freenet.buffalo.edu/bah/a/del/50/source/3.html
http://freenet.buffalo.edu/bah/a/del/50/source/2.html
And the wikipedia articles argues that it could be the ugliest building in the country!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_City_Court_Building - selectodude, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13We have one of those too...but it's a prison.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Correctional_Center%2C_Chicago - inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+13Ive got a fetish for windowless buildings. I care.
- solemnraven, on 10/10/2007, -0/+12it wreaks of victory gin. =(
- tech42er, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12I bet the NSA has a secret room there, like they did in San Francisco.
- heaintheavy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+12The coolest telco building has to be the one in downtown Minneapolis...
http://www.thecentraloffice.com/Minn/Mplstandem/Mplstandem.htm - DrMonkeyLove, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10Actually, our world seems to be turning into a bizarre mix of 1984 and Brave New World. I would have thought the two were mutually exclusive, but no, I was wrong.
- peepington, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10they failed, it should have been in a pyramidal shape with a four sided base if they wanted everyone to know room 101 was in there
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+10I was actually looking into this, and very little of what you've described above is in print anywhere, as far as I can tell, astonishingly little has ever been revealed about this building. So thanks, I greatly enjoyed your post! You might have spilled a few trade secrets though. It was nice knowing you...
- dimebags, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9soylent green factory, duh.
- illycoffee, on 10/10/2007, -2/+10It is not exactly the middle of soho. More downtown than that..
- fugeelama, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Yes, every city has one though most are newer and built to blend in with the surrounding architecture. There's a great website with pictures of the buildings here: http://www.thecentraloffice.com/
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -1/+9How about I enhance your pain with the Kick Ass™ software.
- WorldLeader, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8I bet on field trips the kids just love Room 101! : D
- silent, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8Cheyenne mountain? Rumor is, that's where they hide the Stargate.
- IrwinFletcher, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Sorry about the bad link
http://images3.wikia.com/starwars/images/d/d5/Emperor%C2%B4s_Tower.jpg - HOOKSTER1231, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7I'm not sure how many people made it all the way through Steven Kings dark tower series of books but that is very ominous of what is in there with the ancient tech left over slowly running its self out. very creepy indeed...
- david76, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7Actually, it's in Tribeca, west of SoHo.
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7What about 28 weeks later? For that, there is nowhere to run.
- pintomp3, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7victory gin goes awesome with freedom fries.
- jimmiss, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6Likewise:-)
- jaydotcole, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7And Equilibrium. That's what that thing reminds me off, the equilibrium centers in Libria.
- ideapower, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6if it's in NYC, why are all the measurements METRIC?
- Cyber_Akuma, on 10/10/2007, -2/+8That thing almost looks like a prison...
- Error601, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Quick...what is 1/8th of 1 1/2 meters in centimeters.
- jimmiss, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5I'm sure all the spots that would be suitable in a situation like that are already reserved.
- johnpaul191, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5i assume every city has one of these? Philly has one too, but ours has an AT&T logo on it. there are a few windowed corridors around it, so you can tell it's a few stories tall. can't find many pix right now. Philly was not hit by the google van yet, so there is no street view (and the satellite is nothing special).
here is one: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pwbaker/424669711/ - walkable, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Ha! I was going to say the same thing. Ugliest building in Sacramento, hands down. Totally kills the streetscape.
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