Events & Announcements

DEC 25, 2013 Locals hear details on cost to restore two homes at risk By LINDSAY WELBERS Staff Writer To restore the decaying Frank Lloyd Wright houses at the center of a controversy in South Kenwood will take between $4 and $5 million, in addition to their purchase prices. The Blossom and McArthur houses have languished on the real estate...

 By Kristen Zambo NEW YORK — An office desk and chair designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright for SC Johnson’s Racine administration building have been removed from Sotheby’s website ahead of Wednesday’s auction.  Both pieces were valued at a combined estimate of $480,000 to $720,000. The two items had been slated to go on the auction block Wednesday. But SC...

ST. LOUIS • The St. Louis Art Museum is buying a Frank Lloyd Wright chandelier to go with its Frank Lloyd Wright chair, aiming to bolster its collection of the renowned Midwestern architect. On Monday, the board approved spending $825,000 on the fixture, its largest purchase this year. The 1903 chandelier is in brass, bronze and iridescent leaded glass. It stretches...

more and more layers are peeled back - week after week - and i'm there to document it with my cameras. the frequency of extensive "remuddlings" that have occurred over the decades in this building are rather astonishing, yet equally depressing in some ways (at the very least, when considering the historic integrity). so much has been lost (or thrown...

sullivan's design for the auditorium building stair baluster is transformed into copper-plated cast iron by the winslow brothers foundry of chicago. this early, if not first collaboration between sullivan and winslow would lead to many more notable commissions including, but not limited to, the chicago stock exchange, guaranty building, schlesinger & mayer building, owatonna state bank, etc.

nearly sixteen years ago, i was attending college during the day and working as an audio engineer at night in a recording studio a friend and i haphazardly piecemealed together in the basement of the historic odin j. oyen building. during the course of organizing the studio space, i befriended the new owner of the building, who had every intention of...

here are a few more photographs of the chicago athletic association building (henry ives cobb) taken late last week. more to come.

i managed to get away from the shop this afternoon so i could continue photo-documenting the interior of the athletic club association building while it undergoes its transformation from abandoned club to boutique hotel. although they have an industrial photographer onboard, i told the developers that i would do this free of charge and hand over any and all edited...

after dismantling the false or "drop" ceiling installed during a classic remuddle, the original cast plaster "drooping tip" ceiling was exposed for the first time in decades. unfortunately, the installation of the drop ceiling caused considerable damage to the ornament. i'm glad i was able to capture the moment during this unusual "unveiling." the ceiling was installed in 1892-93 in...

completely and utterly exhausted. worked 13 hours straight. removed several truckloads of salvaged items from the chicago athletic club. fortunately, nearly all of the historically significant architectural elements from the original 1893 building (henry ives cobb, architect) and the 1907 "michigan building" addition (schmidt, garden & martin, architects) will be carefully restored and reincorporated into the final design as a...

the urban remains showroom will undergo a mild overhaul during the fall of 2013. additional retired or decommissioned artifacts from my personal collection will be brought over to complement or enhance the existing items already available for sale at the showroom. the core of my collection, consisting primarily of commercial and residential artifacts from notable chicago commissions, will remain permanent...

i was returning from a demolition site the other day when i decided to make a detour to revisit the old abandoned cooky county hospital, which is considered to be one of the best remaining examples of beaux arts-style architecture in the city of chicago. sadly, the ornamental terra cotta facade, which stretches two city blocks in length, continues to...

a mostly random assemblage of photographic prints taken by eric j. nordstrom will go on display in the urban remains showroom beginning in fall of 2013. the majority of the prints will be matted and framed. some will be for sale, while others will be for display only. a few carefully selected photographs will be enlarged with the hopes of...

over the past few days urban remains has been consumed in removing a large load of mobile industrial carts or "floor trucks" from the burhop paper company factory complex, located west of downtown chicago. the incredibly robust, shopworn carts were designed and fabricated by the j.t. towsley mfg. co., cincinnati, oh. nearly a hundred matching carts were originally purchased by...

the 2009-2010 Emerging Media Innovation Grant team Michele Chiuini (architecture) and John Fillwalk (IDIA) launched the Digital Chicago Stock Exchange website, the result of their work to virtually reconstruct portions of the 1894 Chicago Stock Exchange building, designed by the famous duo Adler and Sullivan. The stock exchange was demolished in 1972, but a number of structural elements were salvaged and...

the long-term collaboration involving the creative brilliance of architect louis h. sullivan (with assistance from chief draftsman george grant elmslie) and execution by the notable winslow brothers ornamental iron foundry culminated in 1899 with the fabrication (and generally well-maintained) enameled ornament adorning the schlesinger & mayer building street level facade.

in other news, i'm dangerously close to pulling the trigger on securing the lease for this 38,000 square-foot factory building that would house the new urban remains warehouse, showroom and museum. urban remains outgrew the existing warehouse two years ago, so this seems to be the next logical step towards expansion. the satellite showrooms will remain open until further notice.

urban remains is currently in the early stages of self-publishing a limited edition, hardbound photo-book entitled “salvaged chicago.” the book will consist of a curated collection of photography offering a glimpse into urban remains owner eric j. nordstrom’s experiences pertaining to the exploration and deconstruction of chicago’s most historic buildings undergoing demolition.  

The sheer variety of rare and unusual pieces here is mind-blowing. Between the huge warehouse in Chicago’s West Town and the online catalog, this architectural antique store is like a museum where everything is for sale. From stained and leaded glass windows, to historic building hardware and 1920s Farie lamps, Toledo stools and industrial tables, antique electrical devices, the odd...