A building is just a shell. It is merely a rigid skeleton of wood or steel, its body a geometric contour enfleshed in brick, concrete, and plaster. What, then, is it about an abandoned building, crumbling silently in some forgotten corner, that stirs our emotions so? To put it simply, it is the realization of the vast power and sheer scope of time. The image of the old high school, impressive and influential in its day, utterly dwarfed by the encircling glass-and-steel behemoths is a powerful one: time seems cruel and indiscriminate. These great monuments, once vibrant metropolises and social hotspots, have been cast away to wither in disrepair as the city grows around them. Unfrequented. Neglected. Forgotten. Time, with its merciless barrage of wars, movements, and inventions has replaced the lifeblood of these places—the people—with dust and nothingness. One wonders where these people have gone. How were their lives affected and dictated by these dilapidated wonders? I have attempted in the following pages to express the universal, tangible nature of time, through the somber facades and textures of various buildings in dereliction. Beautiful and colorful in life and death alike, these vestiges of times past make one feel very mortal indeed.