Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

latest photographic images from ongoing restoration of howells and hood's tribune tower (1925) and partial demolition of jarvis hunt's printing plant (1929). the majority of the images focus on capturing tradesmen restoring the tower's bedford limestone from their swing stages hanging off the facade like spiders in a web.  at the same time, i'm tracking progress of the partial demolition...

the john vinci garrick theater lecture was a great success. some of the images below were used in vinci's slideshow, with one of the primary highlights being his latest drawings of the theater he has spent months working on. more to follow.   Program Description: The Garrick Theater (originally known as the Schiller Building) looms large in Chicago history – both...

four chicago buildings from the 19th and early 20th century will be wiped off the map in the coming weeks. the four links to past posts provide additional information and images. ANOTHER EARLY 20TH CENTURY SOUTH SIDE CHICAGO VON HOLST-DESIGNED SUBSTATION FACED WITH DEMOLITION HERMAN V. VON HOLST'S SOUTHSIDE CHICAGO PRAIRIE STYLE GAITAN BUILDING (1924) THREATENED WITH DEMOLITION FREDERICK B...

there is a great deal of facade restoration work being done on downtown chicago's late 19th and early 20th century buildings this year, including, but not limited to, chicago tribune tower (howells and hood, 1925), marquette building (holabird and roche, 1895), cook county hospital ( paul gerhardt with schmidt, garden, and martin as supervising architects, 1914), jewelers building (joachim g...

after taking a break from digitizing and editing images pulled from richard nickel's contact sheets on demolition of adler and sullivan's 1893 schiller building or garrick theater, i'm back at it with the sole purpose to have a complete digital record of any and all photographs nickel shot of the demolition (i.e., before, during, and after) using his trusty indestructible...

while cataloging my photographic archive from 2017 i ran across a folder containing hundreds of images taken at graceland cemetery on a dreary afternoon with john vinci as my "guide." i learned a great deal while we wandered the cemetery including several engaging stories about dead architects he once worked with or in some cases, desgined their grave markers (e.g...

the latest installment of photographic images, taken over the last few weeks, revolve around the continued transformation of adler and sullivan's jewelers building with an emphasis on the anatomy of the building (i.e., materials and methods), before its once again covered over with new construction materials in preparation for conversion to livable spaces on the loft building's upper floors (3-5...

latest photographic images from the chicago architectural ornament survey is provided below. the architectural ornament is sourced from extant late 19th and early 20th century buildings within chicago's city limits. the majority of the buildings enjoy landmark status, while others are relatively unknown, but are dressed with highly stylized architectural ornament executed in a variety of mediums, including, but not...

i took a few hundred images of howells and hood's tribune tower building (1925) when i was given access to the interior (including ground floor lobby, office tower, and printing plant) to inspect the original dull green enameled commercial grade steel muntin plate glass windows (there are several configurations/sizes) that were being systemically replaced with code-compliant windows at the time...

faced with a tight schedule revolving around back-to-back lectures given by john vinci on louis sullivan's ornament, i didn't have much time to document the architecture of st. louis like i did the year before. thankfully, vinci and i stayed in adler and sullivan's union trust building (now a boutique hotel renamed "saint louis") so i had time to photograph...

richard nickel kodachromes taken at navy pier between 1961-63. three images show john vinci examining one of two garrick theater mosaic lunettes awaiting to be reassembled.  the other images feature various garrick theater ornament assemblages to be distributed to various institutions (note the hand-written signs) across the country.  nickel and joe benson spent years agonizing over the logistics of arranging...

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 50,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.

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...

latest images documenting chicago tribune tower (howells and hood, 1925) and jarvis hunt's printing plant (1929). the plant housed the printing presses below the newsroom, located on the top floor. the tower was primarily used for office space and mccormick's lavish rooms and personal office. i was amazed at the amount of exterior bedford limestone (original and recreated) piled up...

during a recent trip to st. louis accompanied by john vinci and tim samuelson, we made a visit to edwardsville, where richard nickel's architectural ornament collection is housed. nickel sold his original collection - where he amassed early adler and sullivan ornament during chicago's land clearance project in the late 1950s under the guidance of jack randall for 12,000 in...

richard nickel contact sheet images of adler and sullivan's chicago stock exchange building (1894) terra cotta arched entrance and surrounding facade.      the undated images were taken prior to 1964 when brenner-danforth-rockwell (bdr) removed sullivan's original ornamented iron and plate glass transom with a bronze tympanum screen echoing sullivan's "golden door" on the 1893 world's fair transportation building.  nickel...

shortly after learning a demolition permit was pulled for the destruction of the gaitain building, a south side chicago commonwealth edison substation designed by hermann valentin von holst in 1924, i dedicated a great deal of time in the winter months of 2018 researching and photo-documenting the colossal substation with a facade bedecked with carved bedford limestone rondels representing power...

the following images a part of an ongoing project pertaining to the documentation of interior and exterior alteration and/or restoration of late 19th and early 20th century buildings located in downtown chicago. the first set of photographs focus on tradesmen working on the facade of holabird and roche's 1895 marquette building. for weeks now, i've made an exhaustive visual record...

i've spent months looking for richard nickel images of frank lloyd wright's a.d. german warehouse (1921) located in the architect's hometown richland center, wisc. i found a contact sheet and digitized the images posted here. i cannot recall the date offhand, but must be 1950's.  the individual standing in front of the ornamented concrete frieze is the building owner. i...

the following images highlight an in-depth photographic survey of the massive exterior carved bedford limestone sculptures adorning the facade of hoabird and roche's stevens hotel (1927). the exterior limestone was executed by the indiana limestone company, bedford, ind. the beaux-arts hotel was developed by james w. stevens, his son ernest, and their family who ran the illinois life insurance company...