PHOTOGRAPHS from the SAIC HISTORIC BUILDING MATERIALS and Technology LECTURE

thank you so much anne sullivan for having me as guest lecturer in your building and materials class this year. i was truly honored and feel now that all of my efforts toward gathering this crazy assemblage of chicago balloon frame components is indeed important. at the very least, these objects are learning tools sampled from the "field," where most researchers do not have the access to wrecking sites that i do.

this most recent lecture lasted nearly three hours, and i tried to communicate a single important message: gathering data in the form of field work on 19th century building methodologies and materials (as it pertains to the development and evolution of the chicago balloon frame in chicago between 1840-1890) is virtually non-existent. thus, this field of knowledge needs to be re-evaluated and possibly re-written based on the alarming lack of field data. it is critical that scholars gather photodocumentation, statistical analysis, and further examine the building materials recovered and recorded.

i'm incredibly grateful to the highly experienced excavator, Dmytro Trotsenko, who has put up with my outlandish demeanor and weirdness on job sites. his patience and skills allowed me, time and again, to extract these beams by his machine and my hand.