Years Ago Before Refrigerators Were Self Defrosting,

I guess most of us have waited for the ice in the freezer to melt,

then put all of the food back, but imagine having to wait for a 10 story high freezer to defrost, but that is what happened when the Fulton Market Cold Storage Company building was sold to new owners, developers Sterling Bay, but before that happened enter photographer Gary Robert, who went inside and took these once in a life time never to be repeated pictures,

nine decades of cold storage, combined with a lack of maintenance as the building ran at one-third capacity over the last five years, had left its interior encrusted with ice,

I wonder how long the defrosting took?