New Acquisitions

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 50,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 50,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.    

several original and highly desirable early 1920's antique american craftsman style interior residential leaded art glass windows were recently salvaged from a chicago bungalow last week. the all original and amazingly intact strongly geometric windows were designed and fabricated by the notable chicago-based h. eberhardt & company. the matching chicago bungalow leaded glass windows exhibit a strongly geometric overall design...

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 50,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.  

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 50,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective urban remains website categories.    

shortly after acquiring a sizable amount of creosoted wood street pavers or blocks, several brown brothers vault light artifacts came through our front door last week. all of the documented artifacts were salvaged by a perceptive city contractor who knew i was vigorously seeking out any form of vault lighting (very little remains in chicago) that were being removed due...

several historically important interior architectural artifacts from holabird & roche's 1893-94 old colony building were added to the bldg. 51 museum's building ornament archive earlier this week. the most important architectural elements headed to the museum's first chicago school exhibit include an ornamental wrought and cast iron staircase landing baluster and cast iron elevator screen. both pieces of displayable ornament...

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 50,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective urban remains website categories.  

the bldg. 51 museum archive recently acquired a louis h. sullivan-designed elevator screen electro-plated copper "t-plate" and cast iron header or frieze panel salvaged from the chicago stock exchange building (1893) during its demolition in 1972.  the exceptionally hard to find and highly sought after c. 1893-94 interior single-sided elevator grille ornamented stamped copper "t-plate" plaque was originally used to...

the following gallery of artifacts represent only a small fraction of the bldg. 51 museum archive, which is comprised of thousands of meticulously cataloged (with images and descriptions) objects, ornament, ephemera, and other materials revolving around the first and second chicago schools of architecture. additional "installations" will be added to the blog and bldg. 51 virtual museum (bldg51.com) website when...

the latest digitized images from notable chicago architect john vinci's collection of kodachrome and/or ektachrome slides and other photographic images/ephemera are presented below. to see previous posts containing images from this ever-growing collection, please click on links under "further reading." captions will be added to the slides as time permits.  as of june, 2019, over 4,000 vinci kodachrome slides,documenting american architecture from coast...

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 50,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective urban remains website categories.

for over 13 years, urban remains continues to be one of the leading architectural artifact companies in the county, distinguished by its ever-expanding website, populated with over 35,000 objects and artifacts meticulously cataloged with professional images and detailed descriptions. our newest website, launched earlier this week, includes several new features, including, but not limited to: clean, modern, minimalist design responsive...

prismatic glass appeared on the american market at the 1893 columbian exposition in chicago from gustave falconnier. falconnier was an architect and city council member in nyon, france. a graduate of the ecole des beaux-arts in paris, falconnier had many patents in the 1880s for various types of glass block with interesting geometric shapes. prismatic glass was ribbed on one...

an original interior cast plaster cove molding fragment salvaged from adler and sullivan's albert sullivan house (1892) is one of the first historically important bldg. 51 museum acquisitions in 2019. the double-sided plaster ornament was located in the 2nd story bedroom where louis sullivan slept when he lived in the house between 1892-1896. the plaster ornament was a recast originally used...

with the surrounding neighborhoods virtually unrecognizable, post-fire chicago two-story cottages have been on chicago’s “threatened” historic buildings list for years now. the “for sale” sign on this particular cottage quickly came and went in recent months, the green fence erected quickly thereafter. thankfully, i repeatedly documented this cottage and now gone neighboring post-fire buildings before the neighborhood was completely decimated...

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 50,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective urban remains website categories.

the last pocket of 19th century residential buildings spanning three decades (i.e., 1870s, 1880s, 1890s) on a downtown chicago city block are undergoing demolition, beginning with the heavily modified three-story 1870s italianate to the far left.  the house in the middle features a painted brownstone (michigan sandstone) facade with projecting bay, decorative window hoods, and mansard roof punctuated with pedimented...

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 50,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective urban remains website categories.

louis h. sullivan-designed chicago stock exchange building (18930 door hardware, executed by the yale & towne mfg. co., stamford, ct. the ornamental cast iron hardware retains the original bower-barff finish, consisting of a magnetic iron oxide coating applied by exposure to superheated steam.  the hardware pictured, was designed for use with the building's office, passage, utility, and swinging doors. the...