• #megaindustry

    The Pyrotechnic Tragedy of Sheffield's Hyperbolic Cooling Towers

    Over the weekend, an industrial-age legend was blown up — literally — in Sheffield, England. The Tinsley water cooling towers, two hourglass-shaped, 250-foot-tall structures, were built almost 70 years ago as part of a long-demolished power plant. Several local artists tried to convert the abandoned structures into art projects, but the lonely hulks were instead blown up by a company that is replacing them with a biomass power station. Thousands of people gathered to watch the towers blown up, and now you can see the tragic carnage too. More »