# What are the largest abandoned buildings? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 14, 2011, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-largest-abandoned-buildings/588991 "2011-07-14T08:11:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-largest-abandoned-buildings/588991/21 "2011-07-14T18:52:33Z")
> [@Susanann](#): > > Small potatoes! > > The abandoned Packard plant in Detroit is\*\* 3,500,000 sq ft,\*\* ( 3 1/2 million) [..] . [This article suggests that total is split between 47 buildings, though.](http://detnews.com/article/20110328/OPINION03/103280321/Crumbling-Detroit-Packard-plant-becomes-hallowed-ground-for-many) ---
**Author:** ![Kingspades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecae2f/32.png) [@Kingspades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kingspades)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-largest-abandoned-buildings/588991/22 "2011-07-14T19:04:30Z")
At two million square feet, Atlanta’s [City Hall East](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponce_City_Market) has got to be up there. In 1990 the city purchased the building from Sears, the original owner since 1926. While the space housed a retail store into the late 70s, it continued as just a regional office until 1987. I’m not sure if it was vacant for the three years from 1987 to 1990, but it’s definitely been empty for the past two years as the city tried to find a buyer for the property. Just last week a deal was settled for the building to be converted into a new mixed-use development, which will be named Ponce City Market. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Know\_Nothing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f04885/32.png) [@I\_Know\_Nothing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Know_Nothing)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-largest-abandoned-buildings/588991/23 "2011-07-14T22:09:57Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > How do you define “largest” and “abandoned”? By volume, perhaps the Great Pyramid qualifies, or did qualify for several thousand years if you consider it to be no longer abandoned. This was an impulsive thread and I didn’t put a while lot of thought into the OP, but now that I think about it the categories are infinite. By largest you could go with square footage, volume, or height. How do you compare the volume of abandoned blimp hangars with the square footage of the old post office building. Abandoned could mean just about anything. Is the old cook county hospital abandoned because its an official landmark? I would tend towards the definition being mostly empty and no longer used for its original purpose, but we could go in circles with this. And what is a building for that matter? Does a building imply people in it at one point. Are abandoned nuclear power plants or radio towers buildings? I guess my ambiguous OP just tuned this into a list of really big mostly empty buildings or structures. I just find them so eerily spooky, something so enormous just sitting there, that I wanted more to read about. Not sure if this turns the thread for GQ to MPSIMS. Interesting posts. The square footage of the old Chicago post office is 2.5 million sq feet. Can’t find any stats on the old Cook County Hospital Building though. ---
**Author:** ![Alka\_Seltzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Alka\_Seltzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alka_Seltzer)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-largest-abandoned-buildings/588991/24 "2011-07-14T22:10:32Z")
> [@kenetic](#): > > Is [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangar_One_%28Mountain_View,_California%29) what you’re referring to? Yes, I think that’s the one thanks. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2011, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-largest-abandoned-buildings/588991/25 "2011-07-14T22:44:17Z")
> [@I\_Know\_Nothing](#): > > The square footage of the old Chicago post office is 2.5 million sq feet. I’ve long had this dream that some developer is going to turn that building into condos. 800 two foot wide condos…so they all have a view. ---
**Author:** ![Lil\_Ol\_Lady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bcef8e/32.png) [@Lil\_Ol\_Lady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lil_Ol_Lady)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2011, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-largest-abandoned-buildings/588991/26 "2011-07-15T01:52:33Z")
never mind, wrong thread [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-largest-abandoned-buildings/588991.md?page=1)