Salvages

the following photo gallery offers a glimpse of the most recent artifacts acquired and listed on the urban remains website (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories). approaching the ten year anniversary of urban remains, the goal -- now and since 2006 -- has been to have every artifact that is housed in the warehouse available for...

only a few short months ago wreckers stripped the facade and courtyard neon signs from the cedar hotel. being at the right place at the right time, we managed to secure the signs and prevent them being scrapped in a nearby dumpster. weeks later, the ornamental white glazed terra cotta facade, replete with polychromatic columns, anthemions, rosettes and roofline grotesques containing...

just before christmas i had spoken to mike, son of national wrecking's head honcho, to determine whether the historically important "artificial stone" facade of this post-fire building was going to be saved.  i was taken aback when he responded with a "yes", but only two complete window headers or arches (with centrally located keystones) will be reinstalled into the new building...

with 500 blog posts written this year alone, i have carefully assembled just under 200 posts that truly represent what stokes the fire or fuels my passion to document, salvage and be a caretaker. wearing multiple hats can be very overwhelming, and there have been times i collapsed from utter exhaustion. whether i move forward at this pace remains to be seen...

in previous posts (here and here) i've discussed my concern over the number of buildings being demolished that have facades bedecked with glazed white "sullivanesque" terra cotta ornament. this unusual terra cotta, "inspired" by organic design motifs original to louis h. sullivan and his chief draftsman (later an architect in his own right), george grant elmslie, was fabricated as "common stock...

finally, with time to spare, i wanted to tie up loose ends on some of the demolitions projects that were sitting restlessly on my back burner and/or not completely documented to my satisfaction. these "projects," now in the form of a growing number of digital folders containing imagery and information that have yet to be added the urban remains/bldg.51 blog, are both a...

the "chatter" of several concerned chicagoans with a keen eye on the rapidly diminishing residences and commercial buildings constructed in the 19th century may have been overheard by the developers who brought national wrecking onboard to clear a group of extant buildings/structures located along a strip of lake street in preparation for the construction of a new high-rise. unfortunately, the clearance protocol involves the...

in 1912 an apartment complex was built above a small land fill, one that night scavengers (i.e., privy vault cleaners) likely dumped their wagons filled with refuse in, beginning around 1878 up until the 1890's. according to an 1886 sanborn insurance map, this large tract of land west of western avenue had not even been parceled out, nor were the surrounding lots built...

as the year comes to a close i look back in amazement at the amount of disruption and damage done by demolitions of late 19th and early 20th century structures in downtown chicago and its surrounding neighborhoods. according to the daily demolition permit notifications i receive, the urban landscape will continue to be altered through the swift actions of developers and wreckers. i'm...

despite leaving the jobsite of a mostly non-nondescript building with no "salvageable" artifacts of significance, i still felt the need, or perhaps "duty", to document the building before its remains are trucked off to the dumpsite. i'm especially saddened when i witness the demolition of buildings anchored on the corner of street intersections, regardless of architectural merit or condition. this...

after the demolition delay hold was lifted for 209 west lake street, i knew that within a week the wreckers would be onsite to rapidly tear apart the former osborne and adams leather company building -- a shame since it was constructed shortly after the great chicago fire of 1871 wiped out the downtown district. over the last two days i've...

long after a heavily modified 1870's-era two-story building was demolished last month, the excavators rolled in to begin laying the foundation for yet another new structure that is devoid of character. sure enough, shortly after the backhoe began digging, pockets of artifacts left long ago by 19th century chicagoans were pulled from the mud. for an entire week i would sporadically...

with only two days before demolition of an early 20th century two-story brick residence began, we had very limited time to salvage an interior outfitted in pristine golden oak wood millwork on both the first and second floors. from door headers to built-in cabinets, and everything in between, there was a great deal of work cut out for us. unfortunately...

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 26,700+ 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...

i normally don't salvage in this area of chicago, but when i received an email notification that a largely unaltered chicago workers cottage was set for demolition, i had to make the journey to see it, tucked away on a block where several working class shanties, boarding houses and other cottages were all but a memory. upon arrival i pulled...

yesterday i received good news that my "bid" to secure a historically important ornamental cast iron louis sullivan-designed gage building exterior facade stringer was accepted. shortly thereafter, i had a staff member secure the piece and bring it to the studio to photodocument, before making it the latest installation at the ever-growing bldg. 51 american architectural artifact museum. the elaborately designed cast...

as of late i've been giving my body - especially my back - a break from the latest wave of incredibly draining and time-consuming demolitions and excavations.. these have been bombarding my phone and email inbox on a daily basis. during this less strenuous time, i decided to tackle the arduous task of compiling and editing images taken from various salvages over the...

the bldg. 51 museum just acquired the historically important and virtually untouched c. 1893 time capsule in the form of a diminutive corrugated copper metal box containing several newspapers, typed letters, a bible and other pertinent artifacts stowed away in the former german zion's evangelical society church building cornerstone, located in chicago's ukrainian village. the heavily oxidized  corrugated copper box has...

for years i would drive to work along grand avenue, and i always paid special attention to a heavily modified commercial building, which contained a remarkably intact fret-sawn ornamental pine wood sill or belt course panel that likely would have fallen to pieces if it weren't covered over sometime in the 1950's. judging from the 19th century characteristics found at...

with a little over a week to do some exploratory surgery in a three-story house, built between 1881-1886 on the near west side of chicago, we had ample time to carefully examine any and all extant architectural artifacts original to the house. remarkably, the original carved wood header blocks, single-part molding, passage doors and even cast plaster ceiling rosettes were...