Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

in addition to acquiring multiple winslow brothers exterior cast iron stringcourse or frieze panels from the gage building late last year, the bldg. 51 collection has now obtained a rare sullivan-designed terra cotta fragment from the facade of the same extant building, located in downtown chicago at 18 s. michigan avenue. the following details the acquisition, as well as showcases...

following up on the recent demolition at the corner of wells and chicago, of the former "voltz hall" -- i cannot help but return time and again to sites that peak my interest. over the weekend, i identified one of the limestone window headers laying largely unscathed on the remains of the former 19th century german saloon.   on sunday...

i would like to thank rich ellis for featuring the bldg. 51 museum historic artifact book in his latest Architectural Salvage & Antique Lumber News email and the homepage of his newly revamped website, which pertaining to the architectural antique and/or salvage industry. according to rich's publication, his presence online and in print, is "back and better than before." having conversed with rich time and...

regardless of season or day of the week, i remain busier then ever -- devoted to delivering meaningful posts and revising the pile of projects that were set on the back-burner when multiple demolitions were taking place each week. i spend every night reviewing photo-documentation, and researching the massive array of artifacts collected from demolition sites (some dating back to...

on a recent weekend trip to milwaukee, i revisited and toured the famous pabst mansion, a monumental limestone and terra cotta residence that sits on wisconsin avenue. the house is an anomaly, set back from the street and situated between non-descript university buildings. though hard to imagine, at one point in time the street was dotted with large, elite residences...

moving and organizing old inventory this past week, i re-discovered several interesting pieces from a lengthy and tumultuous salvage nearly 7 years ago. the artifacts described in this post had completely slipped from my mind, since i didn't devote much attention or time to removing architectural artifacts from the simon wexler psychiatric research center. the pavilion was just one of 31 buildings that...

last month, chicago architecture reported the "demolition derby" on wells street, with two sites making way for a 39-story apartment block and 22-story residential tower. the wreckage continues this month at 800 n. wells street. joining the graveyard of century-old buildings turned into high rises, a 4-story brick commercial building known as "voltz hall" was recently razed in anticipation of...

like new york city, chicago's landscape is riddled with rooftop wooden water towers, often abandoned due to impracticality. in the early to mid-twentieth century, major cities often passed ordinances that required buildings of 6 or more stories to be equipped with towers as a cost effective method of maintaining a high pressure system. barrel makers were routinely hired to construct...

the bldg. 51 building artifact has recently acquired yet another important "gardenesque"  architectural remnant in the form of a massive ornamental cast iron frieze or stringer panel generously donated by chicago's cultural historian, tim samuelson. the 1928 exterior building facade panel fragment was recovered by tim on the jobsite in 1989 when the 30 w. washington building was undergoing demolition. the historically...

during the first week of january 2016, the bldg. 51 museum received an original and historically-important post-fire window keystone from a lake street loft building (osborne and adams, 1872). this was comprised of a seldom encountered material -- "artificial stone" -- which undoubtedly adds to its importance as rescued ornament from a post fire building. the significance of the acquisition is that artificial...

early in the morning i arrived onsite with a delivery of boxed donuts (per tim samuelson's suggestion when negotiating with national wrecking). sure enough, mike -- the foreman and son of the company founder butch mandell -- delivered on his promise to set aside a single post-fire osborne and adams building "artificial stone" keystone, removed from the central window on the topmost floor. shortly...

the following photo gallery offers a glimpse of the most recent artifacts acquired and listed on the urban remains website (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories). approaching the ten year anniversary of urban remains, the goal -- now and since 2006 -- has been to have every artifact that is housed in the warehouse available for...

i often refer to living a dichotomous lifestyle when telling people how i went from molecular geneticist to the urban "archaeologist" at demolition and excavation sites. back then, at moment's notice i would leave the laboratory a little early if an impending demolition was on the horizon near campus. on the other hand i would sometimes be called back if a guest lecturer was...

only a few short months ago wreckers stripped the facade and courtyard neon signs from the cedar hotel. being at the right place at the right time, we managed to secure the signs and prevent them being scrapped in a nearby dumpster. weeks later, the ornamental white glazed terra cotta facade, replete with polychromatic columns, anthemions, rosettes and roofline grotesques containing...

the early 20th century prairie school style madlener residence was completed in 1902 by architect richard e. scmidt and design collaborator hugh garden. the chicago mansion was built for brewery owner albert fridolin madlener and his wife, elsa seipp madlener, who was the daughter of another notable chicago brewer, conrad seipp. albert commissioned his brother-in-law, richard e. schmidt to design...

just before christmas i had spoken to mike, son of national wrecking's head honcho, to determine whether the historically important "artificial stone" facade of this post-fire building was going to be saved.  i was taken aback when he responded with a "yes", but only two complete window headers or arches (with centrally located keystones) will be reinstalled into the new building...

with 500 blog posts written this year alone, i have carefully assembled just under 200 posts that truly represent what stokes the fire or fuels my passion to document, salvage and be a caretaker. wearing multiple hats can be very overwhelming, and there have been times i collapsed from utter exhaustion. whether i move forward at this pace remains to be seen...

in previous posts (here and here) i've discussed my concern over the number of buildings being demolished that have facades bedecked with glazed white "sullivanesque" terra cotta ornament. this unusual terra cotta, "inspired" by organic design motifs original to louis h. sullivan and his chief draftsman (later an architect in his own right), george grant elmslie, was fabricated as "common stock...

i spent a few hours over the weekend at the chicago art institute photographing their collection of architectural artifacts on display along the outer walls of the light court or atrium. nearly a year has passed since i finally had time to carefully document both the artifacts on display and later marvel at the reconstructed chicago stock exchange trading room...

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have 26,800+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the urban remains online and/or virtual catalog.   the ultimate goal since day one is to have each...