urban remains salvages walter burley griffin's "solid rock house" shortly before its destruction

with the power cut and fence erected, walter burley griffin's historically important william f. tempel house (commonly referred to as the "solid rock" house) will be destroyed this week. located in winnetka, ills, the reinforced concrete house was erected in 1911 and later remodeled in 1919 by barry byrne and alfonso iannelli.

image courtesy of chris ware collection.

a partial list of interior architectural artifacts salvaged:

any and all of the house's griffin-designed casement windows with leaded glass insets, along with cast bronze sash locks and operators (patented by griffin), several roman fireplace bricks, quartered oak wood radiator covers and stamped or hammered brass light fixtures with frosted glass pendalogues (designed by barry byrne and alfonso iannelli in 1919), custom-designed multi-paned golden oak wood doors, door hardware, cabinet doors, and iannelli-designed ornamental cast iron fireplace surround (the mural above it was removed long ago by previous home owner).

documentation:

an exhaustive visual record was made before, during, and after the salvage operation was completed. a small number of images documenting extraction are included in this post. additional information and images will be added in subsequent posts.

image courtesy of chris ware collection.

tim samuelson and chris ware greatly assisted in the house salvage.

all images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom, urban remains and the bldg. 51 archive. all rights reserved. 2022.