Salvages

tragedy, or perhaps irony, characterizes many of chicago's largest construction and demolition efforts in recent history. just six years ago, vying to be the next host to the olympics, the city chose to demonstrate its bid by preemptively razing a 130-year old compound of historically important medical facilities (in the end the olympics went to brazil). the michael reese hospital complex...

in synchronistic fashion, a rather interesting connection was recently discovered between artifacts that had separately been excavated from two chicago demolition sites. initially seeming like a simple curiosity, a detailed 7.5" tall spelter coin bank representing the first national bank of chicago was unearthed from a downtown excavation. the small but hefty architectural model struck me as an especially comical...

demolition permit issued for a chicago two-story 19tcentury masonry cottage or "boarding house" with completely intact fret-sawn pine wood bracketed cornice, oculus, and diminutive lemont limestone window hoods accentuated with deeply incised simple scroll motifs flanked by centrally located floral rosettes. images courtesy of bldg. 51 archive and chicago workers cottage association. further reading: DOCUMENTING AND DECONSTRUCTING THE 19TH CENTURY...

richard nickel photos of adler and sullivan's hammond library (1882-1883) undergoing demolition in 1963. thankfully, most of the terra cotta ornament was saved. the terra cotta was fabricated by the northwestern terra cotta works, chicago, ills.  a single smokestack with simple sandstone rondels remains standing against union park congregational church and carpenter chapel (1869).  courtesy of the richard nickel archive...

an uncanny find this week arrived in the form of a hefty, solid block of stone recovered from the basement of a wood frame cottage undergoing demolition near downtown chicago. the mottled, pink and gray rectangular block is a granite brick laid in 1883 at the center intersection of state and madison.   along with the paver, an accompanying newspaper clipping...

i was given unfettered access to carefully document and subsequently salvage the 19th century young women's christian association hotel building  (later known as 830 s. michigan avenue hotel) shortly before it was demolished in the winter of 2009.  the seven-story combination red brick and terra cotta hotel located at 830 south michigan avenue it was designed by chicago architect john m. van osdel...

richard nickel images of adler & sullivan's martin barbe residence (1884) enlarged from multiple contact prints. nickel documented the surrounding neighborhood (the house was located at 3157 south prairie avenue), the interior and exterior before and after the fire, and salvage efforts to remove ornament before the house was demolished in 1963.  the ornamental pressed and folded tin lunette (facing...

in the landscape of contemporary chicago, buildings are rarely moved, and transformations are more likely to involve razing old buildings for new development than changing location. a rare example of a move-- just two years ago -- was when the historic c. 1888 harriet f. rees house was loaded onto dollies and transported to a plot of land just 600 feet away...

richard nickel images – selected from multiple contact sheets – showing the extraction of louis h. sullivan-designed cast iron spandrel panels from the 5-story rothschild building (1881 ) during its demolition in 1972. additional information and images: albert levy albumen print of d. adler and co. and sullivan's e. rothschild and brothers store taken shortly after it was completed in...

ill-prepared immediately comes to mind as i comb through the hundreds of images i took after spending nearly two hours in a small, 19th century chicago cottage that had not been lived in since 1939. sure, the house was looked after, but the homeowner(s) were more inclined to "patch" existing problems rather then make any alterations that would have disturbed the overpowering...

the following images - digitized, enlarged, and edited from richard nickel contact sheets housed in the richard nickel committee archive at the ryerson and burnham library, art institute of chicago, were taken by richard nickel of the charles p. kimball house during its demolition in 1964 by aball wrecking. negotiations for the ornament were handled by jack randall and richard...

from the time of its settlement chicago had begun a lumber trade, with a sawmill on the north branch of the river that served the local construction trade, and soon after began sending timber by ox-drawn wagon to settlements along hubbard's trail. sure enough, this would become one of the most crucial fields of manufacturing during the period of industrialization...

  demolition of eckhart and swan milling company (flanders and zimmerman, architects) is well underway. additional images documenting its destruction will appear in future posts.  the architectural firm of flanders and zimmerman (located at 1521 in masonic temple), designed the flour mill, warehouse and stable in 1897 for eckhart and swan milling company, chicago, ills. the the five-story factory, measuring...

  the excavating machines showed signs of life as they began opening a formerly vacant parcel of ground located just west of ogden slip (a man-made harbor located near the mouth of the chicago river) in preparation for yet another high-rise (the 42-story "optima"). shortly after they dug into the earth, i was drawn to the job site with strong suspicions...

an original early 20th century granite paver was added to the urban remains collection this week, as a souvenir of the city’s early infrastructure and as an artifact tied to the wells street station that once operated at the site of the merchandise mart. the wells street station was a passenger terminal of the chicago and north western railway, located...

the bunte candy factory salvage was a massive undertaking on a multitude of levels. the hulking structure was a 600,00 sq. foot factory, which included an administration building with a soaring water tank tower and its owns power plant building. the factory complex was considered one of the largest examples of a prairie school style commercial building. the brick and...

milwaukee's venetian theater - an italian renaissance atmospheric movie palace designed by the architectural firm of peacock and frank - was reduced to a pile of rubble when i arrived in march of 2007.  two of us spent a cold sunday afternoon pulling out any and all ornament we could fit in the bed of my truck. the ride back...

a well maintained three-flat red brick apartment building punctuated with ornamental floral moif anderson pressed brick, fret-sawn painted pine wood window lunettes and original ornamental cast and wrought iron newel, bracket and pipe railings (flanking stoops and front elevation), were demolished and trucked off to the landfill.  in addition, a structurally sound pre-fire wood-framed chicago workers cottage raised and moved...

third and final installment, documenting the death of chicago's second german evangelical zion church, built by chicago architect  theodore duesing in 1905.  sadly, but not suprisingly, nothing was salvaged and/or saved during its demolition. interestingly, the cornerstone didn't have a time capsule. images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom and the bldg. 51 archive.    further reading: SECOND GERMAN EVANGELICAL ZION...

before its rapid transformation, the “fulton street market” of tech giants and restauranteurs was a quintessential part of chicago’s industrial past, a thriving home to the city’s first century as a gritty, blue collar hub, where food distribution and manufacturing boomed. sadly, as preservation becomes a front for more development, and landmarking an effort to calcify that history into higher...