All of us are like excited children when turned loose for a fun-filled day at an amusement park. The commotion of the enthusiastic crowd combines with mouthwatering scents of delicious snacks waiting to be gobbled up, and then mingles with flashing lights and pounding music from rides and attractions. Yet when an amusement park becomes abandoned and an eerie silence descends to blanket the decay, the atmosphere seems to twist and takes on a nightmarish vibe. Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, leaving Six Flags as another of its victims. Here are 69 uber-creepy urban exploration photographs as we tour the abandoned amusement park Six Flags New Orleans.

Flooded From Hurricane Katrina

(image credits: themeparkreview,nola,forumgarden)

Everyone knows that Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans in utter devastation. That happened on August 29, 2005, and by August 31, New Orleans, Louisiana, was 80% flooded. Parts of it were under 15 feet of water, but the storm surged to over 20-feet high in some areas. This drowning of the city included Six Flags. At the time, an amusement park was the least of people’s worries. However, 4 1/2 years have passed, and the good people of New Orleans have suffered more than their share. Does that mean they will also never regain this former place to play? In theory, the fate of Six Flags is undecided.

You Are Here: Abandoned Six Flags in New Orleans

(image credits: Sophie Germer, malamutechaos, Brynne Photography, Google Maps)

You are here, Six Flags New Orleans, a defunct amusement park. It closed in 2005 for the oncoming storm and never reopened. Four and a half years after Hurricane Katrina, Six Flags New Orleans is still abandoned. Six Flags officials claim the park was 70-80% damaged or destroyed. The defunct park is too expensive to rebuild and too expensive to abandon, so it sits and waits for decay to claim it. The park opened as Jazzland in 2000, but Six Flags bought this amusement park in 2002. Before Jazzland, the area was swamps. If no one steps up and does something, will the swamps reclaim the abandoned amusement park?

Mardi Gras Character

(image credits: Brynne Photography)

The worn and weathered Mardi Gras character hanging over the roof of the haunted car ride seems menacing now. But New Orleans is the home and heart of the Mardi Gras. Before Six Flags was abandoned, it would have surely been a happy reminder to see this jester holding beads. Beads are a highly valued prize when one is lucky enough to catch those that are tossed into the parade crowd.

Tickets Please

(image credits: Annie Wentzell, EvenShift, Liquorhead, malamutechaos)

Tickets please…? Oh that’s right, the mannequin in the booth is as lifeless as the abandoned amusement park. On the city’s eastern edge, serving as a constant reminder to the people of New Orleans, the stark silhouette of Six Flags is like an unhealed wound. The big stuffed dog has dealt his last hand. The creepy clown has been beheaded and broken.

Hungry?

(image credits: riomcthorne,terrastories,Brynne Photography, A. Baker, A. Baker)

Hungry? There’s no scrumptious food to found in concession stands here. Instead, the walls, shelves, stoves, and glass food displays still show a scummy waterline where 4–7 feet of rainwater and sea water submerged the park for over a month when Katrina tried to swallow New Orleans whole. Six Flags tried to get out of the park, since it was going under even before the storm. Trying to get out of its contract and 75-year lease in 2006, they offered the city of New Orleans $10 million in cash and another 86 acres of land it owned in the area. The city refused on the basis of the amount being too small to repay a HUD loan or to clear the property.

Stormy Stark Silhouette

(image credits: static)

The amusement park suffered fatal damage. Six Flags collected only a portion before suing the insurance company for the remaining $175 million in coverage. At one point, Six Flags removed Batman: The Ride roller-coaster and other salvageable pieces. The city of New Orleans owned the land, yet Six Flags was pursuing legal action to keep the park closed. Six Flags filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June. The city fined Six Flags $3 million dollars and ordered them to vacate the lease. Nickelodeon was supposed to redevelop the park into a water and thrill ride theme park, but that fell through late last year. In December 2009, California-based Big League Dreams expressed interest in possibly turning the amusement park into a 50-acre sports complex. For this to occur, New Orleans would need to cough up about $25 million for the cost of construction, and then Big League Dreams would staff and maintain the complex for 30 years.

Wooden Roller Coaster Mega Zeph

(image credits: skyscraperpage, nola, EvenShift///3, Liquorhead)

Mega Zeph, a wooden hybrid roller coaster, first opened as Jazzland’s signature ride. It has been decaying, the wood rotting and the steel rusting. Riders would climb a 110-foot lift hill before plunging into the first drop. The delightful magic of riders’ excited screams has not echoed through the abandoned park for over 4 years now. According to wikipedia, this park once operated these roller coasters: Zydeco Scream, The Jester, Mega Zeph, Muskrat Scrambler and The Road Runner Express which has since been moved to Six Flags Magic Mountain in California.

Zydeco Scream

(image credits: *brynne,Brynne Photography)

Most amusement parks feature a “boomerang” steel coaster, taking riders forward and flinging them backwards for the thrill of upside-down loops and drops. The Zydeco Scream at Six Flags sits silent, but had a history before coming to New Orleans. It began its life in 1990 at Parc de Montjuic in Barcelona, Spain, and was called Boomerang. In 2000, this roller coaster was moved to New Orleans and renamed Zydeco Scream. This is probably its final resting place, where it will most likely die for good and be remembered only as a ghost of good times.

The Jester

(image credits: *brynne,thesouthernsniper,Brynne Photography,*brynne)

Flooding from Hurricane Katrina peeled away the green paint from The Jester as if revealing Jester’s former life as the Joker’s Revenge. From 1996 through 2001, Joker’s Revenge operated at Six Flags Fiesta Texas. This roller coaster which took riders through a corkscrew backwards left many people complaining about the rough ride. Mechanical problems added to the dilemma, so the roller coaster was unused in 2002. In 2003, the coaster was painted a bright green, renamed The Jester, and moved to Six Flags New Orleans where it’s now a ruined wreck.

Look Around at the Urban Decay

(image credits: Brynne Photography, Eric Paul)

From gifts shops to Gotham City, crumbled and decayed Six Flags New Orleans suffers from catastrophic damage. Dark, desolate, and dejected, this post-apocalyptic setting might be the perfect place to make a movie about zombies or some such horror/disaster film. Revamped or refurbished, is there a chance for Six Flags to end up as more than another defunct amusement park?

Creepy Sad

(image credits: smwarnke4, Liquorhead)

Way beyond the state of falling into disrepair, what was once cheerful is now cheerless and downright creepy. Although there has been some cleanup after Katrina ripped the amusement out of this park, it’s still left to be ravaged by the elements and unmaintained. The creepy clown, menacing jester, and other statues with once happy open mouths now seem to utter a silent yet never-ending scream. These dismayed busts have “seen” their home destroyed. The stuffed animals which should bring children of all ages great joy, now seem hopeless and an ever-present and depressing reminder of 4 1/2 years passing after abandonment.

Monster’s Mouth & Krewe of Kreeps Ride

(image credits: Brynne Photography, Brynne Photography)

The Krewe of Kreeps ride was never supposed to be this creepy. The trains sit parked as if awaiting phantom riders, but the tracks are a rusted wreck. According to wikipedia, flat rides at Six Flags New Orleans that are still standing but not operating include: Catwoman’s Whip, Dizzy Lizzy, Krazy Krewe, Gator Bait, Lex Luthor’s Invertatron, Mad Rex, Zydeco Zinger, Joker’s Jukebox, Lafitte’s Pirate Ship, The Big Easy, Jocco’s Mardi Gras Madness, and Mardi Gras Menagerie.

Death At Every Turn

(image credits: malamutechaos, Brynne Photography)

Now it appears as if death is awaiting urban explorers at every turn. The Mardi Gras skeleton seems an ominous omen for those who venture out of curiosity into this abandoned amusement park. A piano hangs outside a building as the supports weather and rot as if waiting to claim another victim and add another ghost to roam New Orleans.

Forlorn, Forgotten, Battered

(image credits: smwarnke4,Brynne Photography, malamutechaos,smwarnke4)

The statues and busts appear beyond sad into miserable. With mud and mildew on his face, the man seems morose and forlorn. With chipped faces and bodies overturned, the southern belles are a gloomy reminder that Six Flags will probably never regain the glory and good times it once claimed. Even the lonely mermaid and merman seem melancholy.

Rides Are Rotting

(image credits: EvenShift, malamutechaos, Doobybrain, Brynne Photography, malamutechaos, Brynne Photography)

The bumper cars went from bumpless to rusted-out bummer. Here are more dead rides on our tour of Six Flags New Orleans, clearly showing that the abandoned amusement park is going to hell in a giant 140-acre hand-basket. Even the former water rides Ozarka Splash and Spillway Splashout did not pass unscathed by Katrina’s wrath.

Main Street

(image credits: Liquorhead)

The eerie silence at Six Flags is beyond unnatural for an amusement park. Left abandoned, Main Street is as deserted as a ghost town. Destroyed by a horrific hurricane and flood waters years ago, the rides rust, the attractions rot, and the buildings crumble.

In Shambles

(image credits: ilxor, Liquorhead, malamutechaos, *brynne , Liquorhead, Liquorhead)

Urban explorers first have to find a way into this forsaken park and then they risk their necks out of curiosity. In one case, after sneaking in and then back out, some of the explorers were handcuffed by the waiting cops and the film was destroyed. In other cases, the explorers are simply told to vacate the premises. Is it the park or city officials, or both, who don’t want the water-damage and despondent decay documented as photographed proof and becoming public knowledge? Or is it simply too dangerous, too painful, after all the hardships and tragedies the people of New Orleans have had to endure?

Fade to Black…Darkness

(image credits: Brynne Photography, Brynne Photography, Brynne Photography, Brynne Photography)

The Big Easy Ferris Wheel paints a pretty picture against the sunset. Darkness falls, but the curtains closed years ago on the final show at the abandoned amusement park. It’s sad yet intriguing, pulling at the curious who want to see inside the park, pulling at our hearts for the people of New Orleans who still need our help. Thank you, urban explorers, for finding the courage to go inside. Thank you for bringing us these photographs so we could share your adventures at abandoned Six Flags New Orleans.

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Abandoned Mental Asylum Hellingly, RIP, 33 Creepy Photo Tribute

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When you look at these photos, do you think death and derelict nightmare or do you think urban explorers’ dream? Explorers dared security guards and guard dogs to investigate and to photograph the decaying, otherwise forgotten, and rotten bedlam of massive Hellingly Asylum. Maybe these adventurers are just insane, or maybe they wanted to sift through the eerie and unspeakable beauty of the Victorian hospital complex. Hellingly Asylum even had an electrified railway, so let’s go off the rails on a crazy train to explore the decomposing mental hospital since it is at this moment being torn down. Here’s an ode to abandoned Hellingly Mental Asylum with 33 creepy photos. R.I.P.

Ode to Hellingly Asylum

(image credits: Luke Woodford,liamch)

Hellingly Hospital was designed by asylum architect George Thomas Hine and was one of the most advanced asylum designs ever constructed. Hellingly Asylum opened its doors in 1903 and then closed them permanently in 1994. Most of the psychiatric hospital is to be replaced by new housing. Good luck with that to those of you who think you will live peacefully on a land soaked with trauma.

Hellingly Asylum, Sussex

(image credits: Howzey’s Hellingly Photostream)

Patients and staff all lived in red brick buildings, villas of this gigantic asylum. Men and women lived in separate wings. There were big windows to let in as much light as possible. Even as “advanced” as it was thought to be, Hellingly was also a place where women who had children out of wedlock were incarcerated. (Unless otherwise credited, all images are from Howzey, urban explorer and photographer extraordinaire.)

The decadent ballroom is only a tiny fraction of an asylum tagged, explored, smashed, trashed and a target of numerous arson attacks. In the theater, facing the stage, near the front right door, there was a hatch where some urban explorers were brave enough to crawl around the creepy underground passageways.

For over 20 years, abandoned Hellingly has been dying, fading, and peeling, but there is a lovely quality that makes you shudder about the ruination. Some explorers have reported hearing unexplained noises up and down the many corridors. Of course, old buildings make noises. The hallway above is one that was in “better” condition than many others.

Besides having a farm, train, water tower, clothing store, boiler room, chapel, dentist office and so many others, there was also a Hellingly Hair Salon. This room has been heavily vandalized and photographed about as much too.

Arson left its smoky and charred touch to the kitchen and central stores, the administration block, medical officer’s residences and much more. There is substantial fire damage to the above Hellingly Hospital corridor.

There is something utterly creepy about seeing a child’s wheelchair in the decaying mental hospital. According to county asylum records, Hellingly Asylum had a special building just for “mentally defective” children. Of course, this was back in a time when people were locked away in isolation, people with mental illness or an illness in which the family did not want to deal.

Outside one of the roasted toasty corridors is one of the many padded cells rooms. Other “advanced” facility care therapeutics included shock treatments.

Hellingly Asylum even had its own morgue and the above body fridge. On the grounds, there could be found “body trolleys” for transporting human remains into this chamber of the dead.

Some folks call it vandalism and others call it art, but many graffiti artists have left their mark up and down the hallways, rooms, stairways, and spooky corners of abandoned Hellingly Asylum. The top two photographs showcase works by Snub.

(image credit: BBC)

Graffiti artists can have a great sense humor, placing the semi-undressed woman carefully above the bathtub. The rest of the black and white portions in this picture are a product of merging Hellingly Asylum in its glory with its decrepit and tagged state now.

Given its sad state of decay for 26 years, nature was trying to reclaim Hellingly. The paint had peeled, the ceiling had crumbled in places, and the glass had been smashed out of windows, exposing the once grand Victorian architecture to be a victim of the elements. If this urban explorer’s paradise was not being destroyed, eventually nature would have swallowed the abandoned asylum whole. Perhaps the asylum ghosts were acting at night as gardeners?

The top photo shows what was once a service area. Walkers, foam, mattresses, and clothing are scattered over the moss. The “Yellow Chair” in the bottom picture is in about the same state as abandoned Hellingly Asylum. Yet there is something infinitely sad about this decrepit hospital being demolished by wrecking crews for new construction.

If the walls could talk within Hellingly, could you imagine the tales you might hear? Would the building scream in terror at what has happened within those walls? If you want to stay updated with the progress of destruction and demolition, Hellingly Asylum has a Facebook page. Some former patients, some children during their stay at Hellingly, report recalling a distinctive smell and plenty of scary memories from this place.

Since the asylum has been abandoned and left to slowly rot, exposure to the weather was not the only thing hammering on Hellingly. Signs of vandalism were almost everywhere. In theory, that is why security guards were hired. But there was something scarier than guard dogs and ghosts within Hellingly . . . asbestos.

In its prime, Hellingly Asylum was a beautiful example of Victorian architecture. Just the same, that might not be overly comforting when having to bath in one of the many bathtubs along with many others in the “public” restrooms.

(image credits: Howzey’s Hellingly Photostream)

Goodbye Hellingly Hospital, where both good and bad happened. The huge complex will soon be nothing more than written stories and urban explorers’ documented photographs. Some people do not enjoy visiting the dentist. Add that with all that transpired at this asylum and it might send a shiver up your spine. Would you have gone down those spooky stairs, ready to bark at the moon and take on anything? Despite unexplained noises in the deserted and decaying asylum, would you have kept going if you ran into the ghosts in the lower right photo? Actually it is a trick of the trees outside and the moonlight . . . or is it? We salute urban adventurers in general and howzey specifically this time for sharing his pictures with us.

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10 years into the 21st century, film photography has been almost completely written off as obsolete, with even amateur photographers ditching traditional cameras for the crispness and convenience of digital. But there’s something missing from today’s almost-too-perfect pictures: that indescribable magic that film can have. All the Photoshop filters and iPhone apps in the world can’t quite approximate the effects of low-tech photography taken with pinhole, Polaroid and Holga cameras.

Pinhole Photography

(image via: xiao shan)

The concept of camera obscura may be older than we know, with observations of the way light passes through a hole and projects an image onto a surface going back to Chinese philosopher Mo-Ti in the 5th century BCE. But once the first pinhole camera took advantage of this phenomenon along with the development of chemical photography, the result was permanent photographs that have an infinite depth of field and often an eerie, otherworldly feel to them.

(images via: nhung dang)

Considering how expensive and complicated many modern digital cameras are, it’s refreshing to realize that essentially, a camera is just a dark box with a hole, a shutter and some photo paper or film.  Tea tins, oatmeal tubs, paint cans, pumpkins – all of these things can be turned into a camera with a needle, some tape and possibly black spray paint. Corbis even offers downloadable templates to create your own colorful camera from paper.

(images via: ralph howell)

These pinhole cameras are sometimes fascinating and beautiful objects in themselves, so it’s no wonder that photographer Ralph Howell decided to allow his creations to take their own self-portraits using mirrors. Conch shells, shoes, coffee bags, plastic Buddhas and a Krusty the Clown jack-in-the-box are just a few of Howell’s chosen objects.

“I perceive the pinhole as a “seeing eye”, a single hole sieve that filters information,” Howell says in his artist statement. “The human mind has the capacity to perceive and form perceptions into thought and image and to then reflect upon both itself and its products. This concept is the basis for the Mirror Reflection series: the pinhole camera’s “self-portrait” is an image of creator reflecting on its creation. I am also concerned with the pinhole camera-as-object, as a ‘ready-made’ – the pinhole camera being as important as the images it creates.”

(images via: papercams)

It doesn’t get much simpler than this: Thomas Hudson Reeve’s pinhole camera is made out of photo paper itself. The photo paper, fitted with a pinhole in a brass plate, creates a direct positive image made complex and absolutely unique by the manner in which the paper is folded. “Like a salad bowl made of lettuce leaf, and consumed with the meal, the camera doesn’t exist after its utility is fulfilled. There is no machine. It is more of an arrangement than a thing,” Reeve says on his website.

Holga Photography

(image via: cherie)

What is it that gives amateur 1970s and ‘80s photographs that signature diffused, dreamlike look? It has a lot to do with cheaply made camera bodies and flawed plastic lenses, both of which combine to allow little streaks of light in, create subtle vignetting and give parts of the image a blurred or grainy look. To most photographers, these qualities are undesirable – but when you give in to them, they can conspire to create images that just can’t be replicated any other way.

(images via: vick the viking)

Enter the Holga: a piece of plastic made-in-China junk that takes unbelievably magical photos. The shoddy construction of this medium-format toy camera is actually what makes the images taken with it so special, so completely one-of-a-kind. No one Holga takes pictures quite like any other. Since its debut in Hong Kong in 1982, the clunky Holga has amassed a cult following addicted to the rush of constantly being surprised by what the camera produces. That’s part of the fun: the mystery of the final result.

(images via: boliston)

It’s the simplicity of this camera that allows for so much creative freedom. An extremely basic film advancing knob gives the user total control over each frame, easily allowing multiple exposures, and the optional bulb mode permits long exposures. Many people modify their Holgas to increase or decrease light leaks, add to the number of apertures available and even take different kinds of film including 35mm and Polaroid. As with practically any other camera, filters and the type of film used also alter the results.

(images via: jelleS)

Holga photographers encourage literally ‘shooting from the hip’ to add to the spontaneity of the results, and why not – the viewfinder doesn’t give you an accurate idea of what the photo is going to look like, anyway.

(images via: lomo-cam)

Polaroid Photography

(images via: lepiaf.geo)

The Polaroid camera changed photography forever, but its particular quirky brand of instant photos was a relatively short-lived precursor to quick-and-easy digital photos. Some say digital photography killed Polaroid, and indeed, the company stopped production of both its cameras and its film – the last of which expired in October of last year.

(images via: brainware3000)

One form of instant gratification may have been exchanged for another, but many lament the loss. Jason Bitner, author of the book Found Polaroids, calls the medium “instant nostalgia–framed and faded, a picture that already looked decades old.”

(images via: sicoactiva)

But all isn’t lost for Polaroid aficionados – “a new chapter of analog Instant Photography” is coming in the form of The Impossible Project, which leased a former Polaroid factory in Holland and is set to debut their version of the beloved classic this month.

(images via: chaps1)

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(images via: tony demarco)

Outdoor advertising is so ubiquitous in almost every urban setting around the world, it’s difficult to walk down a street, take an escalator or sit on a bench without getting slapped in the face with one product or another. But the city of São Paulo, Brazil is like an advertising ghost town: all of its billboards stand oddly blank and empty.

In September of 2007, the world’s fourth-largest metropolis was scrubbed of almost every type of outdoor advertising – even pamphlets. It’s all part of mayor Gilberto Kassab’s quest to eliminate visual clutter, making the city itself the focal point rather than colorful, increasingly desperate marketing campaigns.

(images via: eduardoZ)

“The Clean City Law came from a necessity to combat pollution . . . pollution of water, sound, air, and the visual. We decided that we should start combating pollution with the most conspicuous sector – visual pollution,” said Kassab.

The results are astounding: gone are the 50-foot lingerie ads and oversized neon signs a la Times Square. In their place are strange vacancies, gaping holes… space. Suddenly, the architecture and natural scenery come into sharp focus.

(image via: katedubya)

While advertisers weren’t too happy about the law – $8 million in fines were levied against those who dawdled in taking ads down, and Clear Channel launched an unsuccessful campaign to raise support for putting them back up – the citizens clearly approve. Surveys found that at least 70% are happy with the change.

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Model cities aren’t just the stuff of kids’ toys. They’re used all over the world for urban planning, architectural proposals and research. But while miniature cities are useful, they’re also a unique kind of art. Older models give us a very real glimpse into what cities looked like in past generations, while new models can help us to visualize what our surroundings will look like in the future. And as an added bonus, tiny cities manage to turn even the most jaded grown-up into a kid again, at least temporarily. Their diminutive size lets us pretend and imagine again, just like we did when we were kids.

(image via: Stuck in Customs)

You’re looking at one of the largest complete miniature cities in the world. At over 1,000 square feet, this massive scale model of Shanghai covers more ground than many apartments. It’s a projection of what the city will look like in the year 2020, with current buildings and planned buildings standing in this dazzling display. The model is currently in the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum.

(images via: mrceri.co.uk)

The story behind this incredible model of Manhattan is almost as amazing as the model itself. It was built over the course of about 2,000 working hours by software engineer Michael Chesko. He wasn’t building the model in a professional capacity; he was simply having fun. He hand-carved each tiny piece from balsa wood using nothing more than an X-Acto knife, a nail file, and a Dremel. The impressive 1:3200 model now rests in New York’s Skyscraper Museum after being hand-delivered by Chesko and his wife; amazingly, neither had ever set foot in the city before that day.

(images via: Queens Museum)

Built as an exhibit for the 1964 World’s Fair, the Panorama of the City of New York remains to this day a revered part of New York history. The huge 9,335 square foot architectural model contains over 895,000 individual structures and required a team of more than 100 workers to bring it to life. The incredible model is a point of pride for the Queens Museum of Art, where it is on permanent display. To provide for the care of the model, the museum has recently started “selling” real estate on it.

(images via: Wired)

The Bay Model is one of America’s most well-known models. It doesn’t depict an entire city; rather, it is a scale reproduction of the San Francisco Bay. It was built in 1957 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to give a better understanding of the water flow patterns in the Bay. The model was used in countless scientific experiments until it was decommissioned as a research tool in 2000. It still remains a popular tourist attraction, and it was even used as a tool on the television show Mythbusters.

(images via: Dornob)

It takes a special kind of dedication to spend more than three decades constructing a painstaking recreation of downtown San Francisco out of more than a million toothpicks. Scott Weaver created this amazing masterpiece over the course of nearly 35 years. It’s a fantastical San Francisco not quite true to the original, but the ping pong ball tracks running through the landscape are a notable improvement over the full-size city.

(images via: Dornob)

This miniature origami city may not have taken half a lifetime to complete, but it’s just as impressive as if it had. Using simply paper, glue, and basic tools, Japanese artist Wataru Itou spent four years on this unique palace. The finished piece includes lights, moving parts, and even cranes and other construction equipment, implying that the city was built by a civilization of tiny people with a mind to keep growing and improving their impressive home.

(images via: English Russia)

This Soviet-era model of Moscow is the largest miniature recreation of the city. Covering more than 400 square feet, the model opened in 1977 and is an incredibly detailed representation of the city at that time. Unfortunately, the museum it was in since the 1970s didn’t think it was worth the considerable electricity costs it generated, and in 2006 it offered the entire model for sale, for a modest price of just $3 million.

(images via: PlanetOddity)

This version of mini Moscow, however, is still very much in use. It’s a city planning model that is meticulously updated whenever a building is built, demolished or significantly altered. The massive model spans over 1540 square feet and was originally built in 1988. The tiny homes and other buildings are surprisingly detailed  – so detailed, in fact, that it would probably be almost impossible to resist wanting to stomp through the itty-bitty city like a human Godzilla.

(images via: USC)

From 1938 to 1940, a team of architects and model makers built a huge, detailed model of downtown Los Angeles. The U.S. Works Progress Administration contracted the project; today, the landscape of the area is dramatically different, but a few familiar buildings can still be spotted in the large model.

(images via: Build Your Own Chicago)

Chicago has always been at the forefront of city planning. In 1909, Daniel Burnham’s “The Plan of Chicago” was the first truly organized effort to plan the controlled growth of a city. To celebrate the centennial of the groundbreaking urban plan, the Chicago Architecture Foundation developed this scale model of the city’s downtown area. But this isn’t just any model – all of the buildings were created via stereolithography (3D printing), making it a truly 21st century production.

(image via: MKC Partners)

This wonderfully tiny (1:1000) scale model of Minato-ku, Tokyo was meant to give a better view of potential sites for the 2012 Olympics. Unfortunately, Tokyo lost the bid for the games to London, but this incredible model – which took over 14 months to complete – is an impressive achievement of its own.

(images via: City of Sound and Pipers)

These pictures show two different models of London from the same architectural model-making firm, Pipers. The top model is on permanent display at the New London Architecture building; the bottom was a model commissioned by the City of London Corporation. Both show the City in incredible detail; the top was made with a finely-tuned laser cutter, while the buildings on the bottom are made of hand-carved wood.

(image via: Parks Canada)

Constructed in 1806 by two members of the Corps of Royal Military Surveyors Draftsmen, this model of Quebec City was sent to England in 1810 to make a point: the city’s defensive system needed to be updated. The model was returned to Canada as a gift in 1908, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Quebec City. Today, the model is a permanent display at the city’s Artillery Park.

(images via: Ahoodie)

This scale model of an unnamed futuristic city looks pretty run-of-the-mill at first, until it becomes clear that the model was built from found objects and various leftover model parts. Josh Spooner was inspired by the great dystopian movies, like Blade Runner and The Fifth Element, to create a landscape that was technology-based but clearly indicated humankind’s negative effect on the environment. Spooner considers the model to be a work in progress.

(image via: Kieran Huggins)

While it isn’t a complete scale reproduction of Toronto, this miniature city on display in City Hall does point out some recognizable landmarks. According to City Hall, it also displays some planned future developments, giving visitors a glimpse of what Toronto may look like in the coming months and years.

(image via: mrceri.co.uk)

Renowned kooky architect Buckminster Fuller designed this model of a futuristic floating city in the 1960s. Despite its age, it resembles many of the “futuristic” designs still being produced today. The city was supposed to contain space for residents to live, work and play – all without leaving their own floating paradise.

(image via: Peter Root)

This anonymous city, constructed by artist Peter Root entirely of staples, proves that you don’t have to have an architectural goal in mind to built your own city. The fun little model, says Root, is vulnerable to even the slightest breath or vibration; one false move by a normal-scale human and the whole city comes tumbling down.

(images via: Dinosaurs and Robots)

Like a tiny, cavity-inducing Las Vegas, this model city features landmarks and famous buildings from all over the world. There’s the Sydney Opera House, the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, the London Eye and many other recognizable elements in this made-up landscape composed entirely of white sugar. Artist Meshac Gaba calls his masterpiece “Port City.”

(images via: Brendan Jamison)

Gaba isn’t the only one to take a cue from childhood art projects and make something spectacular out of sugar. Artist Brendan Jamison also builds detailed structures from the sweet stuff, though it looks like he hasn’t yet constructed an entire city.

(images via: Spiceship Studio)

If he or any other artist ever gets the inclination to build model cities out of sugar, though, may we suggest using these fabulous sugar cube cinder blocks from Spiceship Studio?

The Sandpit from Sam O’Hare on Vimeo.

And finally, we have the miniature city that’s not at all what it seems. This delightful short film by director Sam O’Hare seems to give us a look into an incredibly detailed mini New York, complete with pedestrians, construction sites and tourists. But the film is actually a series of 35,000 still photographs using tilt shift to make them look miniaturized. The result is a precious film that lets us see the city in a whole new light.

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