Our second look at Lawrence. Sometimes I look at the folder and wonder why I snipped 40 pictures. Was it that interesting, or was I just in a mood to get everything? Let’s see.

Oh, now I get it.

Abandoned industrial structures! Always an interesting, if depressing tour.

This can’t be a healthy thing for a city’s psyche.

Every day, the sight of former glory, bygone power.

“Men want work, not luxuries like light and ventilation.”

This looks occupied.

I'm guessing the real estate brochure does not contain the words "Central" and "Air."

Even without the tower, we’d know what this is, right?

Big featureless buildings are always phone switching centers.

This part of town seems bent on extracting all joy and hope.

What message or purpose can be gleaned from the stone patio by the stairs?

We move back to the downtown core for another happy, vibrant tableau:

Interesting building. The columns seem to be holding up the top story like two spindly arms.

Obvious post-war rehab on the lower floors, now half-removed - for restoration, or just because it fell off?

The loss of a building reveals a marvelous array of ancient ads in palimpsest form.

But that didn’t last forever, I guess.

The structure on which the old ads were painted is another fine old citizen, ill-treated in its latter years:

But that’s better than its previous state: the time machine shows us a thoughtless act of modernist mauling.

Lovingly restored to its own true self.

A dark and gloomy pile, and thus it was always so. It's like a library devoted entirely to books about crabs.

Could be our OUMB of the week, if that’s what it was; dental center now. Could be a rehabbed building, could be new.

What it is not is attractive. I understand what they were doing; the columns slant in, giving it a note of dynamism, but it’s a bass note, and slightly sour.

I think it's recent. Scars on the neighbor suggest something caller on the site. If there wasn't, wouldn't there be bricked-up windows?

Ah: there’s our OUMB. What an exuberant mess! Every idea! Into the blender!

Let’s end back at the river, by the industrial zone. Another facility, this one from the late teens or early 20s, classic, with terracotta facade: prosperous and serene.

How it must have glowed on a winter’s twilight.