The Visser Building is a key location in, and the primary focus of, the first season of Archive 81, investigated by Melody Pendras in her tapes.
Visser is described as having been a run-down Lower Manhattan apartment building, used partially as government housing, with a wide range of tenants. The building was constructed in 1951 by the Vos family/Baas company to be used as the skin of an inter-dimensional entity. The exterior was described as having a standard post-war construction, and was situated at the corner of two unspecified streets. Visser was 21 stories tall, though seemed taller, upwards of 30, and curved somewhat, described as like "it's about to fall over on top of you". It was destroyed on September 9th, 1994, after Melody Pendras foiled Samuel's apotheosis, the building reportedly collapsing, exploding, and imploding all at once, before being partially erased from existence. It left behind rubble, Melody's collection of tapes, and 34 dead residents, with many more drawn into The City. Baas very quickly cleaned up the wreckage, and within the week had handed both the tapes and dead bodies over to LMG, at Liam Davenport's insistance.
As a result of the entity inhabiting it, the architecture of the building appeared to shift somewhat, and residents were subjected to a wide array of strange phenomena.
Floors of Note[]
- Basement: Facilities room. Gas and electrical metering. The meters were old but fully functional, and the area very well ventilated, more so than Melody's own apartment building.
- Ground Floor/Main Lobby: Quiet during the day, but echoey. Melody attempts to record the Visser song here. Jesse noted it was huge, like "it should take up three floors or something".
- First Floor: The surveillance room was on this level.
- Second Floor: Melody attempted to record the Visser song here.
- Fifth Floor: Joshua Martinez and Victor Rivera had apartments here.
- Sixth Floor: Tamara Morris, Gladys and Craig Simmons had apartments here. The Visser Historical Preservation society sometimes held meetings on this floor. Melody first met Jacob Lester here.
- Seventh Floor: Melody attempted to record the Visser song here.
- Twelfth Floor: Jesse Lewis and his family had an apartment here.
- Sixteenth Floor: Melody first interviewed both Jacob and Samuel here. Samuel had an apartment on this floor.