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people in my inner-circle are growing concerned that i'm dangerously consumed or unhealthily immersed in the "deconstruction" and "unearthing" projects that i do for intellectual gratification when not operating urban remains. i cannot disagree, but i feel imbued over this newly found conviction that this body of work is incredibly important on so many levels. as a consequence however, i have...

thank you so much anne sullivan for having me as guest lecturer in your building and materials class this year. i was truly honored and feel now that all of my efforts toward gathering this crazy assemblage of chicago balloon frame components is indeed important. at the very least, these objects are learning tools sampled from the "field," where most...

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 26,000+ 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 and...

the vast scattering of excavation sites in and around downtown chicago have provided a dizzying, seemly endless amount of artifacts discarded by chicagoans of the 19th century. the quantity of "hutchinson" type soda or mineral water bottles alone is impressive to say the least. moreso, the sheer variety of medicinal bottles, chinaware and condiment bottles extracted from these dump sites has offered tremendous insight into...

an unusual number of original and matching ornamented cast iron "chicago style" newel posts were recently salvaged from a chicago residence dating to the 1880's. the nicely distressed paint ball-finial newels are identical in size with various open hole configurations designed for use with tubular pipe railings. the freestanding newel posts were designed and fabricated by the dearborn foundry works...

over two hours of talking and sustained concentration left me utterly exhausted but satisfied, knowing that i managed to communicate a single important message: urban archaeological research in chicago is virtually non-existent, and an especially overlooked area of the field is in documentation of 19th century household privy pits. hopefully with the publication of "unearthing chicago," filled with case studies pertaining to...

the fisher building is 20-story, 275 foot tall neo-gothic landmark building in the chicago loop community area of chicago. commissioned by paper magnate lucius fisher, the original building was completed in 1896 by d.h. burnham & company with an addition later added in 1907. it was designated a chicago landmark on june 7, 1978. at the time of its completion...

as mentioned earlier, after discussing my recent urban privy find with several people in the field (e.g., historians, archaeologists, chicago bottle collectors and so on), there is very little doubt that i have come across the oldest known/documented chicago urban privy pit, with artifacts pulled from various "pockets" dating to the late 1830's-1850's. most of the nearby mid-19th century pockets a few...

on the final day of the freemont street house demolition, the day before we salvaged the ornamental white painted galvanized sheet iron cornice, we managed to secure any and all of the decorative face brick or blocks that adorned the two-flat's facade. the salvaged terra cotta bricks were designed with an embossed bulls eye or sunburst design motif. a few...

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 25,800+ 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 and...

an assortment of some of my favorite artifacts, objects , and other diminutive fragments mounted on custom-built hardwood plaques by my shop's carpenter.   end

photographed in my studio, the following images represent an impressive assemblage of discarded objects once used in the everyday life of a chicago family household spanning from the late 1860's through the early 1880's. the privy pit or "vault" was sealed and forgotten when a horse stable was constructed on the site of the privy around 1881-1884. when the stable...

the following images were taken during the demolition of a heavily altered "chicago balloon frame" oakley avenue house constructed sometime between 1879-1884. the multi-story house was raised sometime around the turn of the century with the addition of a basement or "garden apartment." original mortise and tenon sill plates and girders were slightly altered and reinforced with wire nails, since the...

i finally forced myself to transport this completely intact and unaltered full-sized residential sill plate into my studio to be documented every which way i saw fit. this massive wood beam is comprised of solid old growth pine wood, with a tenon on one side and a mortise on the other.   as i discover more and more houses dating prior...

a utility subcontractor excavating a small parcel of land located just south of downtown chicago came across one of the most remarkably intact and long-forgotten 19th century landfills or dumping grounds, which in a few days times, yielded hundreds of bottles. from c. 1880's hutchinson type carbonated soda and/or mineral water "blob tops" to utility bottles and everything in between...

while en route to a residential salvage, i ran across a friend of mine who was wrecking an early 20th century (1910-1915) two story brick commercial building. his excavator had not reached the only redeeming architectural artifact in the form of an oversized carved bedford limestone keystone located directly above a large bay window surrounded by cream-colored face brick and...

i was pleasantly taken aback by the amount of community feedback and shared disgust over the demolition of an incredibly intact 19th century victorian era brick two-flat residence demolished late last week. the responses i received prompted me to expound upon a previous post pertaining to my salvage efforts connected with this house. the question on everyone's mind was "why"? the structural integrity of the...

i've been spending great lengths of time reviewing images taken from various excavation sites, privy pits and other underground spaces to include in the highly-anticipated "unearthing chicago" hardcover book due out by the end of the this year. at times i feel my eyeballs are going to drop out of my head after opening one folder after another filled with hundreds...

neighbors have expressed both interest and concern over the fate of a 19th century victorian era red brick house bedecked with several stained glass windows, ornamental terra cotta brick and a visually striking, painted, galvanized tin bracketed cornice with a large circular-shaped sunburst. a similar house built across the street featuring an equally impressive facade is currently for sale, with the possibility that...

heneghan wrecking leveled the assemblage of finkl steel framed sheds and brick and mortar foundry buildings earlier this year. urban remains was fortunate to participate in the salvage, and managed to rescue an impressive catalog of distinctive artifacts and furniture that otherwise would have been scrapped or brought to the landfill. a reflection of our efforts can be viewed in both...