Construction Site Reference Photos: Buildings Going Up and Coming Down

Going up: a building in layers

A construction site follows a fixed order. First the ground is dug and the foundation is poured. Then the frame rises, floor by floor, with cranes above it. Walls, windows and services come last. If you show a crane next to a finished facade, or steel reinforcement on a completed floor, the scene looks wrong to anyone who has worked in construction.

These packs follow that order:

• Ground and foundations. Foundation Building Site (83 photos, Sydney, $5.99) shows the base of a high-rise. Heavy Earth Moving Machinery (553 photos) covers named models of excavators, bulldozers, dump trucks and graders from Volvo, Komatsu and Caterpillar at work.
• Frames and cranes. Panel Buildings Under Construction (220 photos, Ukraine) shows prefabricated concrete panel housing rising, with tower cranes and concrete textures. The Tall Crawler Crane pack documents a Hitachi KH700-2 with a boom of around 60 metres, at 6240 × 4160.
• At night. Malaysian Construction Site at Night (116 photos, Kuala Lumpur) is a drone view of foundations, rebar frames, cranes, pipes and wet ground under site lighting.

Coming down: controlled demolition

Every demolition pack on this page shows planned, controlled work by demolition crews. These are not disaster or war scenes. Demolition is useful reference because it reveals structure in reverse: cladding comes off, then walls, then floors, and the rebar and services are left hanging.

• Multi-Story Building Demolition (432 photos, Canada) and Demolition of Carpark Building (152 photos) were both shot by matte painter David Edwards, with ruins, debris and broken structure photographed for matte painting use.
• Asian Building Demolition (108 photos, Bangkok, $7.99) follows the demolition of a high-rise.
• House Demolition Process (86 photos, New Zealand) is a sequence of an ordinary suburban house taken down over a couple of days. It is a good guide for animation or for showing time passing.
• Brick House Demolishing (116 photos, Vancouver) was shot in both sun and overcast light. Brick rubble, torn wooden panels and exposed pipework.
• Demolished Building Site (43 photos, Bogota) shows the cleared ground afterwards, a useful floor texture.

Repair after damage

The Neo-Gothic Building Earthquake Reconstruction pack (173 photos, Christchurch) shows a heritage building being rebuilt after an earthquake, with bracing and scaffolding around old masonry. It sits between construction and demolition, and is rare reference for restoration scenes.

Frequently asked questions

I need ruins for a destroyed city. Is this the right page?

Demolition debris is a good, neutral starting point for rubble, broken slabs and rebar. For documentary reference of conflict damage, see destroyed buildings reference. For buildings that have since disappeared, see photos of places that no longer exist.

Can I model the machines in 3D?

Yes. Several packs name the exact machine model, which makes it easier to find dimensions. The license allows you to create your own 3D models and textures from the photos.

Are these sites still there?

Most demolition sites are gone or rebuilt by now. The packs record each building at a moment that cannot be photographed again.