Oak Knoll Naval Hospital Demolition Time-Lapse Video

Photographer Riki Feldmann and I attended the implosion of the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital yesterday in Oakland. Areas with a clear view along Keller Avenue were crowded with onlookers. We were very fortunate to share an excellent spot with a small group of government employees who were involved in selling the property to the developer SunCal and Lehman Brothers in 2005 for $100 million. We talked to a woman who was born in the hospital, and a few people who had worked there before it closed in 1996. I've seen plenty of abandoned places that I've photographed disappear, but have never seen one blown up. Quite an amazing experience. Here's a gallery of night photographs of Oak Knoll.

Time-lapse technical details: I shot 12 minutes of HD video at 30fps with the Canon 5D Mark II and a 70-200/4L lens. The still frames were extracted from the video using QuickTime Pro. Every 10th frame was selected, and then re-imported into QuickTime Pro at 30fps. The time-lapse and video footage were then imported into iMovie, where titles and music were added. The music is The Waltz from the 1969 Art Ensemble of Chicago album Jackson in Your House/Message to Our Folks.