Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

original lexington hotel (clinton j. warren, 1892) red glazed figural terra cotta loggia corner panel fabricated by the northwestern terra cotta company, chicago, ills. the identity of the face is not known. if you look closely, you can see the corner panel in john vinci's kodachrome slides of lexington hotel loggia taken shortly before its demolition in 1996 by national...

over the course of 2020, the bldg. 51 museum managed to secure several historically important architectural fragments and objects, 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. well over 300 objects and ephemera have...

at the southeast corner of wells and division in chicago’s near north neighborhood, excavation and the choreography of new development have been happening for some time. just last march, ground was broken on the mega-project at atrium village, which will transform a mid-rise residential complex constructed in 1977 into the site of four new high-rises. the original atrium village was...

a little over a year ago a single house demolition dramatically altered the course of my life's work, in ways I could never have imagined. in ways i still struggle to make sense of. this house held an odd fixation for me and I would later discover it connected deep passions from my past with a new path for my...

photographic study of charles b. atwood-designed tan and red speckle glazed terra cotta ornament for d.h. burnham's 18-story steel frame fisher building (1896, addition, 1907).  all images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom and the bldg. 51 archive.  digitized image showing the lobby of burnham and atwood's fisher building shortly after it was completed in 1896. the floor and ceiling mosaics...

after sharing objects i discovered in the attic of congress theater (1926) with john vinci the other day, he told me about finding an old coin purse under floorboards of the garrick theater's upper balcony while salvaging plaster ornament in 1960. note:the adler & sullivan- designed building - built as the schiller building - was handed a death sentence earlier...

it's rather unfortunate that my recollections of exploring the partially operational (or perhaps largely crippled and chaotic) cook county hospital's power plant are so faint and fragmented. to make matter worse, hundreds of digital photographs taken of cook county hospital's interior during the short-lived salvage were lost due to a computer crash. i did, however, manage to extract a handful of images...

archival prints for sale: eric j. nordstrom has recently launched a website category (a dedicated website and gallery to his photography and collection through the bldg. 51 museum will launch in mid-2021) focusing on the art prints for sale in addition to rights-managed architectural stock photography for commercial licensing.   archival prints are now available and sold using simple and easily...

i spent several hours looking at and digitizing images from richard nickel's chicago stock excange contact sheets the other day. like the garrick, nickel methodically documented each and every detail, including the building's hardware. adler and sullivan's chicago stock exchange (1894) was outfitted with sullivan-designed cast iron hardware with a bower-barff "rust-proof" finish. the main office doors contained oversized knobs...

  the other day i was rearranging my reference library and ran across frank lloyd wright's stained glass and lightscreens by architect and photographer thomas a. heinz. shortly after reacquainting myself with this great resource, i began combing through images taken of frank lloyd wright-designed windows housed in the bldg. 51 building museum collection, including recently acquired leaded glass windows from the arthur heurtley and...

rare early 20th century comprehensive and profusely illustrated pittsburgh plate glass company's "glass paints, varnishes, and brushes: their history manufacture and use" hardbound book and/or catalog featuring an informative glance at the early beginnings of glassworks, paint development and distribution and the formation and establishment of their company, followed by an extensive listing of their product line and custom services...

the following images represent my ongoing effort to systematically document exterior architectural ornament adorning historically significant buildings across chicago. as of this writing, the bldg. 51 archive houses over 500,000 digital files, including several printed on museum quality paper (for traveling exhibitions), which are methodically cataloged with the sole purpose of making them readily accessible to scholars, researchers, architectural historians...

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 65,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 15 years). the newly acquired items for the month of DECEMBER have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their...

the above sign, housed in the chicago history museum, is a powerful historic artifact from the great fire of 1871: the first sign on the first building erected in the "burnt district" in the aftermath of the disaster. the man responsible for the still-surviving item was a chicagoan named william kerfoot, a well-respected  and successful businessman whose real estate office and portfolio...

the following collection of important and seldom seen original real photo postcards (rppc) represents just a fraction of materials currently being digitized from the ever-growing bldg. 51 museum and archive, housed in chicago and owned and maintained by eric j. nordstrom.  early 20th century real photo postcard of christian a. eckstorm's 1902 international harvester company headquarters building and holabird and...

urban remains recently acquired one of the largest known collections of original 19th century american victorian-era salvaged chicago majolica figural tiles and fireplace surrounds executed in a multitude of rich color schemes and elaborate designs. examples from this remarkable collection are shown below. update as of 11-24-2020: since the acquisition of one of the largest 19th century majolica tile collections...

the bldg. 51 museum recently acquired late 19th century original and completely intact brand brewery administration building terra cotta roofline ornament executed by the northwestern terra cotta company, chicago, ills. the remarkable and historically important ornamental square-shaped block was salvaged from the brewery complex during its demolition in 2012. the brand brewery was designed by prolific chicago architect louis lehle...

demolition in glencoe on the horizon. images from a visual record i made of the sprawling estate of h. earl hoover (nephew of william h. hoover), who purchased the land in 1922 and commissioned architect william furst of armstrong, furst and tilton to design the tudor style mansion and outbuildings (e.g., stable, greenhouse, etc.) completed in 1925. with the exception...

when companies are contracted by the developers to extricate structurally unsound vaulted sidewalks and alleys in and around sites to be excavated for future construction, work continues with subsequent digging to remove concrete and asphalt, which in many cases, leads to the discovery of well-preserved 19th or early 20th century fired red brick or granite pavers, and in rare cases...

with more and more projects piling up, including taking over a thousand images of the congress theater (completed 1926, fridstein & company, architects) the other day before it undergoes an extensive rehabilitation this spring, i've decided to simply begin posting images of central park theater's cavernous interior (note: the ornamental terra cotta exterior and hub electric lightig system were covered in...