Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

the following collection of images offers a small visual record of the painstakingly slow eradication of two adjoining late 19th century multi-story masonry chicago buildings that housed vincent formusa's italian import business (see above) since 1898. the discovery and subsequent documentation of the building's hidden upper-story "time capsule" during its deconstruction inspired me to reach out to formusa's family members to return "lost" photographs and correspondences...

a theater-related acquisition this week joins the bldg. 51 collection, as a rare remnant of restoration efforts that took place at the iconic chicago theater over twenty years ago. the highly ornate floral terra cotta fragments were fabricated by boston valley, the decorative cream-colored terra cotta made to hold a central bulb, protruding from the floral motif. the segments prove...

it's been nearly two years since i got to spend several consecutive afternoons photographing the entire facade of henry ives cobb's chicago athletic association building. my access was granted during a time when the building was covered from top to bottom in a web of scaffolding, replete with a makeshift staircase and haphazardly placed gang boards to walk along, allowing for full...

on friday, september 24th, i received a phone call from a very elated brad suster, president of preservation chicago, informing me that the historically important st. boniface church erected in 1902 will not face the wrecking ball. instead, the remarkable henry schlacks-designed church building had passed on to a new owner who fully intends to convert the building through adaptive...

an alarming number of chicago churches constructed in the 19th and early 20th century have been taken down this year. st. john's (1910) on moffatt street is the latest casualty. when i arrived on its last day, it was already a pile of ruin with the exception of the crumbling facade and severed bell tower (the bronze bell was carefully extracted weeks ago...

two 19th century houses were handed the death sentence earlier this week. the late 1890' two-flat with rusticated stone arches on george street (see below) has already been pulled apart and trucked off. the second house (1880-1884), replete with pressed ornamental brick, rusticated stone, and exceptional stamped zinc metal cornice, was cleared for demolition this morning. documentation of the exteriors and...

  after the evergreen street post-fire cottage (1874) was brought down and the dust settled, i jumped up on the heavily notched old growth white pine wood sill plates, resting atop the few brick walls that remained standing. with camera in tow, i aimed to closely examine the materials and methods used to build this house, which resided outside the neighborhoods i've spent...

as the facade of st. john's church came crumbling down (a terrible loss for chicago's preservation movement) several pieces of limestone ornament, the dated cornerstone, and the copper time capsule found within it, were carefully removed. they are currently being documented in my studio, where there are already hundreds of photos to edit and several hours-worth of research required. i...

when in new york i always visit sullivan's bayard-condict building (1897-1899) not only to reacquaint  myself with an "old friend" of sorts, but to closely study and photo-document the exceptional white glazed terra cotta facade through time, executed by the perth amboy terra cotta company, perth amboy, nj. the playful and lively terra cotta curtain wall adorning the bayard-condict building's steel skeleton frame is such a radical...

several original single-sided documented brushed and refurbished cast iron staircase panels recently entered the bldg. 51 collection: the exquisite cast iron ornament exhibit symmetrical and restrained floral motif inside overlapping geometric shapes that once adorned the stairs of a historic uptown building whose alteration is intertwined with the upheaval of early 20th century businesses that have shaped the neighborhood. the goldblatt’s chain...

The Eric J. Nordstrom Interview Posted on September 16, 2016 Since I was a much younger person I've been interested in "lost" Chicago, the buildings that have been boarded up or torn down and lost to history (you can check out an interview with David Garrard Lowe, who literally wrote the book on that topic,here.) So I had lots of...

the decorators'' supply company traces its history back to 1883 when the original founders, simon strahn and richard c. foster, established a partnership to manufacture "artistic decorative accessories." an old lease document dated april 13, 1890 describes the company as a carving and guilders business. by 1893, decorators supply had blossomed into a manufacturer of cast ornamental plaster. the company was...

a remarkably intact wood-framed cottage with gable front was reduced to rubble in a matter of hours this past weekend. once the residence of william schmidt - a chicago patrolman during the 1870's - the house likely dated to shortly after the great chicago fire of 1871. several interior and exterior elements remained intact, but this was sadly not enough...

the bldg. 51 museum has secured several historically important chicago building artifacts over the past month that are just now being carefully documented and photographed for exhibition in the ever-growing collection. earlier this week it began with an all original heavily ornamented figural cast iron panel salvaged long ago from henry ives cobb's federal building (1898), prior to its senseless demolition...

the following photo gallery offers a glimpse of the most recent artifacts salvaged and/or acquired and posted in the urban remains massive website catalog (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories). this year marks the ten year anniversary of urban remains, and from day one, one of the primary goals -- now and since 2006 -- has been to have...

there's good reason why i cannot leave a wrecking site until everything has been trucked off, including the earth excavated for laying the foundation of the structure replacing the one reduced to rubble. every now and then, while a building is being blasted by the excavator's bucket, something hidden emerges - something i oversaw or didn't imagine even existed behind the walls...

i never made it to work on friday. instead, i drove over to evergreen street after seeing demolition permits reissued, and hearing from an associate that the bright yellow wrecking machine is parked in front of the four endangered structures there. catching wind of this caused my heart to skip a beat and i knew i had to push aside...

a little over a month ago urban remains covered the initial stages of the death sentence handed to noble square’s early 20th century historically important st. boniface church. as wrecking begins on the dilapidated structure, despite community protest to adaptively reuse the building, urban remains is there to document the tragedy and salvage remarkable ornament that would otherwise likely be...

i'm so thankful to have made the time to quickly document this remarkable pot-fire italianate style residence before it was brought down earlier this week. thanks to quality wrecking i managed to document both the interior and exterior shortly before and during the house's untimely demise.                            ...

since 1910, st. john's oversized cast bronze church bell was used to call the congregation to service, announce weddings, and of course, toll at funerals. late last week that oversized bell, fabricated by the henery stuckstede foundry, st. louis, mo., was carefully extracted from the exposed bell tower and brought to my studio where it will be cleaned and possibly restored...