History Main / NeverRecycleABuilding

* Dixie Square Mall, the location of the indoor car-chase scene in TheBluesBrothers, was filmed in a recently abandoned mall in 1979. After filming, the mall sat abandoned for over thirty years and ''is still there''. The governor of Illinois has promised to have it torn down but as of this writing (March 2011), nothing has been done.

* Dixie Square Mall, the location of the indoor car-chase scene in TheBluesBrothers, was filmed in a (in real life) freshly-abandoned mall in 1979. After filming, the mall sat abandoned for over thirty years and ''is still there''. The governor of Illinois has promised to have it torn down but as of this writing (March 2011), nothing has been done.

* Gotham City in the Adam West version of ''{{Batman}}'' had some serious problems with abandoned factories and warehouses. It's almost like they ''wanted'' them to be taken over by criminals.

How much of this is TruthInTelevision varies widely. In highly-populated areas, this will almost never occur; if an AbandonedHospital is sitting unused for any period of time, ''someone's'' going to exploit the local abandoned property laws to claim the land and build something. On the other hand, structures in depressed economic areas, remote locations, or [[http://englishrussia.com/?p=293 disaster zones]] can lay untouched for years, simply because no one is around (or ''wants'' to be around) to care.

* As noted in the description, the entire city of Pripyat, Ukraine, site of the famous Chernobyl incident. Hasn't been touched in over 20 years.

* The Hyperion Hotel has been sitting abandoned quite a long time until the title character rents it in ''{{Angel}}''. Of course, the demon in residence there might have had something to do with it.

* Averted in ''TheDresdenFiles''. After the Full Moon Garage is abandoned due to the [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent lycanthrope biker gang]] that owned it being slaughtered, it is left relatively untouched... mainly because other bad guys like its convenient location and run down appearance for their own dirty work. Harry finds himself revisiting it.

* Inverted in ''Film/TheShadow''; Shiwan made everyone believe that the building got torn down, though no one can remember when.

!!Examples:

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* Disney's ''TronLegacy'' begins when Sam Flynn, the son of [[{{Tron}} Kevin Flynn]], is spurred to investigate his father's disappearance decades ago. Sam's search takes him to Flynn's abandoned arcade, which has been sitting intact for the last 25 years on the outskirts of town.
* In ''ItsAWonderfulLife'' George & Mary Bailey move into an old abandoned mansion which until then had been used for the local teens to throw rocks at.
* Carl and Ellie's house in Pixar's ''{{Up}}''. It appears to have been abandoned for quite some time when Carl and Ellie first meet inside as children, and it remains that way up until they buy and refurbish it after their marriage. Especially [[TVTropesDrinkingGame egregious]] because WorldWarTwo ([[FridgeLogic and it's accompanying]] dual housing shortages - one during the war, [[ItGotWorse and one after]]) happened somewhere in between there.

-->'''Spengler:''' "I think this building should be condemned. There's serious metal fatigue in all the load-bearing members, the wiring is substandard, it's completely inadequate for our power needs, and the neighborhood is like a demilitarized zone."\\
'''Stantz:''' "Hey. Does this pole still work?" [slides] "Wow, this place is great! When can we move in?!"

[[AC:Literture]]
* Averted in the DresdenFiles. After the Full Moon Garage is abandoned due to the [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent lycanthrope]] BikerGang that owned it being slaughtered, it is left relatively untouched...mainly because other bad guys like its convenient location and run down appearance for their own dirty work. Harry finds himself revisiting it.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]

* An example of NeverRecycleARoom: In ''{{Fringe}}'', the MadScientist returns to his lab in the basement of a Harvard building after 17 years and just has to just dust the place down before getting back to work; not only has the space been left unused, but all the equipment is still there.
** Would you want to touch whatever Walter was working on before he was declared insane?
* Another example of NeverRecycleARoom can be found in the fifth season of the new ''DoctorWho'' series. In this case, of course, there really ''is'' something protecting the room.

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* SimCity 2000 takes this trope and makes it go as fast as lightning. The moment tenants move out of a building, it is instantaneously transformed into a dirty, run-down ghetto shack, regardless of what it was before. Sometimes a new building will appear on that site, but usually not.

[[AC:{{Webcomics}}]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''CodeLyoko'' has the kids going to an abandoned factory every episode. There's never any presence of demolition crews and the plot never revolves around saving the factory from destruction.
* Parodied and averted in TheSimpsons, where Homer tries to hide in an AbandonedWarehouse only to find it's now no longer abandoned.

[[AC:RealLife]]

** ''That'' part is subverted by some {{Abandoned Hospital}}s, where equipment that was left behind decades ago - wheelchairs, bed frames, even iron lungs (read: pickup-truck-bed-sized loads of scrap metal, on casters for your convenience) have remained in place for decades.
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[[AC:{{VideoGames))]]

{{AC:{{VideoGames))]]
* SimCity 2000 takes this trope and makes it go as fast as lightning. The moment tenants move out of a building, it is instantaneously transformed into a dirty, run-down ghetto shack, regardless of what it was before.

* Carl and Ellie's house in Pixar's ''{{Up}}''. It appears to have been abandoned for quite some time when Carl and Ellie first meet inside as children, and it remains that way up until they buy and refurbish it after their marriage.

* The Hyperion Hotel has been siting abandoned quite a long time until the title character rents it in ''{{Angel}}''. Of course, the demon in residence there might have had something to do with it.