Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

the bld. 51 museum houses one of the most comprehensive and diverse collection of late 19th and early 20th century terra cotta ornament from historically important chicago buildings. the following images represent a fraction of ornament on display and/or in storage that has been meticulously documented employing a number of parameters to assign exhaustive narratives to each and every fragment...

contact print one: ornament salvaged from the albert sullivan residence (1891): contact sheet number one. the artifacts were salvaged from adler & sullivan's albert sullivan residence (1892). the cast plaster escutcheon was salvaged by john vinci and/or robert furhoff from the samuel stern residence (1885). john later stripped numerous layers of paint that concealed sullivan's intricate design. the ceiling escutcheon...

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 60,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 15 years). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.

a selection of stories from 2019: over a decade devoted to documenting and salvaging chicago's architectural past a look back at images of tribune tower's continued transformation in 2019 documenting louis sullivan-designed carved berlin sandstone panels on facade of 1881 s.a. maxwell loft building bldg. 51 and ryerson archive collaboration on chicago stock exchange trading room exhibit now open exhaustive...

i’m finally consolidating images and ephemera gathered after devoting nearly two years documenting extant chicago depression-era theaters. the discovery of material left behind by the tradesmen who built the theaters, along with piles of “trash” found within the auditorium plenum chambers, was by far the most rewarding experience and, in many ways, interested me more than photographing the interior and...

outside of urban remains and the bldg. 51 musuem, i've been relentlessly pursing several obsessional exploits for years now. from deconstructing chicago cottages to documenting objects tradesmen left behind in the domes of chicago movie palaces, i've come to realize i'm long overdue to gather any and all artifacts and archives to push these "projects" to completion in the form...

the following links provide access to hundreds of images taken of 19th and early 20th century architectural ornament adorning extant residential and commercial structures in and around downtown milwaukee, taken over the past several years. images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom and the bld. 51 archive.  WEEKEND TRIP TO MILWAUKEE: WORKER COTTAGES, SOLOMON BEMAN, TERRA COTTA ORNAMENT AND INCISED BUILDING...

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 60,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 15 years). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.

one day i received a call from the general manager at hotel burnham (named after notable chicago architect daniel burnham), which is downtown chicago hotel that currently occupies the reliance building, completed march, 1895. prior to being converted into a boutique hotel, the building sat largely abandoned, the upper floors containing only a few transient tenants in dimly lit, crumbling...

within a week's time, i discovered that an amazingly intact 1880s brick two flat residence, jefferson hospital (1922, f.o. demoney) and a 19th century richardsonian romanesque apartment building with a rusticated and finely carved bedford limestone facade are either undergoing demolition or will be within the next few weeks. this comes on the heels of documenting a pre-fire chicago cottage...

late last week urban remains purchased a massive collection of 19th century american victorian era majolica glazed residential fireplace tile sets salvaged over the past few decades from chicago two and three-flat greystones undergoing demolition. the majority of the richly ornamented and deeply embossed fireplace tiles were executed by the trent tile company or american encaustic (see brief company history...

the following gallery below represents a small fraction of images culled from the ongoing 19th and early 20th century photographic survey of architectural ornament adorning extant commercial and residential buildings across the city of chicago. any and all images have been meticulously cataloged and printed (in full color) where they are securely housed in bld. 51 archive's physical facility which...

during a recent visit to chicago's pilsen neighborhood to document and salvage ornament from two 19th century cottages undergoing demolition, i carved out time, including repeated visits to begin surveying and photographing 19th and early 20th century commercial and residential structures that remain amazingly well-maintained, with very little, if any, substantial and/or irreversible alterations that would have otherwise compromised their...

the use of indiana limestone — also known as bedford limestone — has been instrumental as a building material for both residential and commercial building since the late 19th century. indiana limestone was primarily quarried in south central indiana, between the cities of bloomington and bedford.  notable 19th and early 20th century buildings built using bedford limestone: many prominent public...

the following images were chosen from my ever-growing photographic survey of extant late 19th and early 20th century chicago residential and commercial structures located across chicago. most, if not all the work, was done on the south side of chicago, with an emphasis on ornament detail. taken as a whole, the seemingly random selection of image reflect a multitude of...

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 60,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 15 years). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.

a collection of historically-important architectural ornament, comprised of sullivan-designed ornament salvaged from adler and sullivan's guaranty building (1896), and an exterior brick wall fragment recovered during demolition of frank lloyd wright's larkin building (1904-1906) during its demolition in 1950, was purchased for the bldg. 51 museum and archive late last week. the fragment collection is tied to a deeply informative...

images documenting removal of iconic 1950s-era signage from the used ok'd cars dealership located at 846 n. western ave. on the west side of chicago. sadly, the building and surrounding lot will be demolished, but the signs will live on elsewhere.  images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom and bldg. 51 archive. 

latest digitized images from chicago architect john vinci's collection of kodachrome and/or ektachrome slides and other photographic images/ephemera are presented below. to see previous posts containing images from this ever-growing collection, please click on links under "further reading." captions will be added to the slides as time permits. the kodachrome slides are posted in chronological order, with the most recently edited and...

richard nickel images of adler and sullivan’s morris selz residence completed in 1883.. david norris, john vinci, and richard nickel documented/salvaged exterior and interior ornament shortly before the house was demolished in 1967. architectural ornament saved from the selz residence is housed in private collections, museums, and universities. designed by the architectural firm of adler and sullivan, the selz residence...