This research project examines the forgotten spaces of a shrinking West Texas downtown, in an effort reintroduce a consciousness of time passing by witnessing the reality of the everyday condition of decay. San Angelo is caught in a borderline, there is no longer any oil to pump, major industry has left town due to the city’s proximity to Mexico or resources have been exhausted. The local air force base has been on the cutting block for the past six years. Population growth is stagnant.

These remnant sites of abandonment have been replaced by service industries or have remained in the stasis of disuse, only standing to resist the forces of time. This derelict urban core of San Angelo provides us with a history of buildings and a view of how the entropic forces are transforming the space of the city. The process of decay is never as predictable and controllable as the processes of order. As a result, we consider them unaesthetic and uneconomical. These buildings are in that moment of uncertainty a borderline between two conditions: birth and death.