Salvages

urban remains owner eric j. nordstrom and anthony baus work together on the roofline of the richman brothers building on a balmy saturday afternoon. the polychrome terra cotta ornament was carefully removed and preserved. two of the figural birds reside in the bldg. 51 museum. the richman brothers clothing store (formerly known as the bee hive dry goods store was...

we are currently in the process of salvaging a recently shuttered chicago funeral home that will ultimately be demolished in the coming weeks. the morgue is always a fine place to contemplate one's mortality. however, i believe i was more preoccupied or perhaps sickened by the appalling stench, coupled with the incredibly hot weather (inside and out) on that particular...

the hartwell houses will be facing the wrecking ball within the next few weeks. the adjoining victorian era three-flats were built for lumber baron edwin s. hartwell’s two children in 1885 by architect julius h. huber. each unit contains a large red slip-glaze terra cotta bust, depicting both son and daughter in costume, surrounded by intricate floral motifs. i’ve reached...

urban remains has recently acquired a sizeable amount of meticulously documented original building elements removed from the historic reliance building after nearly 16 years in off-site storage. the majority of the artifacts found in storage were either replaced with faithful reproductions or were rendered obsolete under current day building codes during a lengthy restoration occurring in the 1990's. building materials...

sadly, the massive, intricately designed "sullivanesque" unglazed and speckled terra cotta frieze, adorning the facade of the c. 1905 michael reese hospital (designed by the architectural firm of garden, martin and schmidt), was destroyed in early may of 2011. in addition, nearly 300 terra cotta figural lion heads flanking the ends of the window sills were lost as well. any...

the michael reese hospital "salvage" was no doubt a formidable experience on a multitude of levels. the logistics surrounding the acquisition and removal component seemed rather straight forward and largely uneventful in the beginning, despite the fact that we were faced with a partially abandoned 28 building complex with very little, if any, operable utilities. however, as the project began...