Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

images taken during a 2-3 hour window while traveling through columbus, indiana, the "athens on the prairie," on valentine's day, 2024. the architecture is very much out of my wheelhouse, but wanted to challenge myself.  images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom and the bldg. 51 archive. all rights reserved. 2024.

architectural images taken during a brief visit to racine, wisc. during the middle of winter, 2024. buildings documented - mostly in detail - include barry byrne's st. patrick's church and st. catherine's high school (the terra cotta ornament was likely sculpted by edgar j. miller), holabird and root's city hall building, and the egyptian revival style masonic temple, with the...

detailed images of american muralist richard haas's "homage to the chicago school," located at 1211 north lasalle, chicago, ills. the mural draws from the chicago board of trade, chicago tribune competition, sullivan banks, adler and sullivan's transportation building, chicago stock exchange, etc. four portraits are located on the south wall, beginning with frank lloyd wright, john wellborn root, daniel h...

a partial selection of eric j. nordstrom photographic images of pond and pond's purdue memorial union (1924), located at 101 north grant street, west lafayette, ind. the irving k. pond ornament - both interior and exterior - is both unusual and distinctive, especially if one carefully examines the dynamic and fluid interplay between the forces of nature and geometry within...

late 2023-early 2024 photographic images from bldg. 51 archive's chicago architectural ornament survey (caos) are provided below. the ever-expanding photo-documentation project focuses on systematically recording any and all architectural ornament located on historically important 19th and early 20th century extant buildings located in downtown chicago and surrounding neighborhoods. images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom and the bldg. 51 archive. all...

digitization of a massive mixed bag of chicago architecture images spanning four decades in currently underway. the other night i finally made time to begin scanning what i call the "shoebox collection," which is comprised of thousands of koda and ektachrome slides of chicago dating from the 1960s-1990s. the slides, boxes, etc., are marked "city" in pencil. i have no...

  George A. Fuller (October 21, 1851 – December 14, 1900) was an American architect often credited as being the "inventor" of modern skyscrapers and the modern contracting system. Early life and career: Fuller was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, near Worcester. After graduating from Andover College, he took a course in architecture at the Boston School of Technology and then started in...

latest 2023-2024 photographic images from bldg. 51 archive's architectural ornament survey (aos) are provided below. the ever-expanding photo-documentation project focuses on systematically recording any and all architectural ornament located on historically important 19th and early 20th century extant buildings in cities located across the country. over 376,000 images have been digitized and made available for viewing on the website blog...

original 1924 saddle-stitched bell building booklet distributed to prospective building tenants. the profusely illustrated tri-fold booklet contains detailed images and information on the building. the 23-story classical style cream-colored terra cotta office building was designed by the architectural firm of vitzthum, karl, and company in 1924. it was commissioned by businessman herbert bell as the headquarters for the bell and...

the louis h. sullivan and frank l. wright-designed ornamental plaster within the auditorium of adler and sullivan's garrick theater (1892) was painted hideous colors around the time it was converted into a television studio in 1951. one such example - a star-pod panel - from the proscenium vault was recently acquired by the bldg. 51 museum collection this week.  filllllllllllllllll...

stanley tigerman studied at massachusetts institute of technology, but flunked out after one year. after, the dean of architecture at mit helped tigerman get an apprenticeship with chicago architect george fred keck. after a year with keck, he left to start his own practice, which failed. he then joined the u.s. navy for four years, serving in the korean war...

a sizable collection of custom-designed commerical door hardware was recently purchased by both the bldg. 51 museum and urbna remains earlier this month. the emblematic and monogrammed cast brass, bronze, and bower-barff iron doorknobs and backplates are from numerous historically important american buildings (many demolished) across the country. a sampling of the hardware photographed in the studio is provided below...

eric j. nordstrom's new book on his unrelenting efforts in researching, recording, and ulimately rescuing architectural ornament from historically important 19th and early 20th century residential and commerical buildings will be published in the early months of 2025. updates to follow. 

john h. edelmann (1852–1900) was a socialist-anarchist who worked as an architect in the office of alfred zucker, a successful commercial architect of the 1880s and 1890s in new york city. as an architect, edelmann's sole surviving monument is the former headquarters of the decker brothers piano company, the decker building (1893), at 33 union square west, new york. louis...

with a surprisingly large number of frequent acquisitions populating both museum and gallery these last three months, i have been deeply entrenched in documenting and displaying chicago-centric ephemera, photographs, and architectural artifacts in a satisfactory manner before another acquisition – big or small – arrives and leaves everything once again in disarray. the following images provides a glimpse at some...

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural artifacts added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 95,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 18 years). the newly acquired items for the winter months of 2023-20 have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories. any and...

contact sheet images of frank lloyd wright’s francisco terrace (1895) taken shortly after it was rebuilt in oak park in 1978. realtor john baird, attorney, historian devereux bowly, and architect ben weese were instrumental in salvaging frank lloyd wright-designed ornament (e.g., bedford limestone columns, lintels and sills, buff-colored terra cotta, face brick, etc.) during its demolition in 1974 for use...

i haven't had time to do my research on a badly burned bronzeville residence located at 4550 south michigan avenue - just south of the swift mansion (1892) that burned in early december of 2023, but i did get a chance to shoot the distinctive carved bedford limestone facade on new year's day. in the case of 4550, the blaze...

sullivan's newark revisited. images of home building association bank building. the "old home" was designed by louis sullivan in 1914. the ornamental terra cotta was modeled by kristian schneider and executed by the american terra cotta company, chicago, ills. the richly colored tiled mosaic panel (one of two), caramel-colored slag glass transoms, and clear leaded glass casement windows were carried...

the exterior buff-colored ornamental terra cotta 1893 world's fair pabst beer pavilion (designed by architect otto strack, who also designed the extant pabst theater) will likely be dismantled in 2024 acoording to several sources, but will it be rebuilt and to what extent. the last time it was taken apart, crated and rebuilt, was in 1893, at the conclusion of...