Fort Ord: There Go The TOADS

The decommissioned US Army base of Fort Ord has been a popular site for Northern California night photographers for the past few years. Fort Ord was also included in Troy Paiva's recent book Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration. The 3300 acres has been in a mixed state of neglect and redevelopment (with the developers usually winning) ever since I first ventured there two years ago.

(7th Division Light Fighters, by Andy Frazer)

Earlier this week the US Army completed the final transfer of jurisdiction of the land over to the Fort Ord Reuse Authority. This means that redevelopment of the remaining TOADS (Temporary, Obsolete, Abandoned or Derelect Structures) is going to move forward quickly.

(Photo by Basim Jaber)

KQED has a podcast interview with the Lia Mettee-McCutchon, Fearless Leader of the Fort Ord Reuse Authority, discussing the implications of this change of authority (sorry, there's no detailed list of which buildings will get demolished when).

Coincidentally, just last weekend some Bay Area night photographers (including Joe Reifer and Steve Anderson and Troy Paiva) descended upon Fort Ord during the August full moon.

(Recling, by Joe Reifer)

Here are few other notable NP's of Fort Ord:

(Observation Tower, by Steve Anderson)

(Cyclops, by Troy Paiva)