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the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 60,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 15 years). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.

one day i received a call from the general manager at hotel burnham (named after notable chicago architect daniel burnham), which is downtown chicago hotel that currently occupies the reliance building, completed march, 1895. prior to being converted into a boutique hotel, the building sat largely abandoned, the upper floors containing only a few transient tenants in dimly lit, crumbling...

late last week urban remains purchased a massive collection of 19th century american victorian era majolica glazed residential fireplace tile sets salvaged over the past few decades from chicago two and three-flat greystones undergoing demolition. the majority of the richly ornamented and deeply embossed fireplace tiles were executed by the trent tile company or american encaustic (see brief company history...

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 60,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 15 years). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.

a collection of historically-important architectural ornament, comprised of sullivan-designed ornament salvaged from adler and sullivan's guaranty building (1896), and an exterior brick wall fragment recovered during demolition of frank lloyd wright's larkin building (1904-1906) during its demolition in 1950, was purchased for the bldg. 51 museum and archive late last week. the fragment collection is tied to a deeply informative...

another year has drawn to a close and looking back, the bldg. 51 museum collection managed to secure several historically important architectural fragments, in addition to the evolving archive, consisting of period photographs, books, documents, drawings, blueprints, models, and other related materials that will prove invaluable to bolster the narratives of the museum's ornament for future exhibitions. highlights from 2019...

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 50,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 15 years). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.  

two richly ornamented and historically important architectural fragments from adler and sullivan buildings are the latest additions to the rapidly-expanding bldg. 51 archive and museum. the first piece, executed by james legge and cast in plaster, was salvaged from the 10th floor hotel dining room (now roosevelt university's library) in adler and sullivan's extant auditorium building, completed in 1889. the...

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.  

looking over newspapers on the guaranty building, i discovered plans that announced (january, 1951) to do away with the original open-cage sullivan-designed elevator enclosures within the guaranty building (adler & sullivan, architects, 1896). the "modernization" would cost 20,000, which included new otis elevator cabs ordered to replace the "antiquated cages." in subsequent decades, adler and sullivan's guaranty building fell into...

2019 has been an incredibly fruitful year in terms of ephemera, book, and artifact acquisition - based upon what the bldg. 51 museum archive has already secured, along with arrangements in the works or nearing finalization. the ever-growing museum archive has reached a critical mass, where a publicly accessibly venue is necessary to properly display and/or exhibit chicago-based 19th and...

among the bldg. 51 museum archive's latest addition is an original frank lloyd wright-designed buff-colored terra cotta exterior robert roloson rowhouse (1894) baluster  salvaged when the front terraces where dismantled/demolished in the early 1970's. most of the surviving balusters exhibit some degree of damage, espeically around the necks and bases. a single centrally located iron rod was used to reinforce...

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.

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...