Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

i've researched ornamental carved brick for sometime now, but lacked any extensive and/or detailed visual documentation of it in situ. fortunately, i ran across a wide array of examples on houses (built between the late 1870's and mid-1880's) located in and around boston's back bay. i suspect the carved brick i documented was likely executed by the perless brick company...

it’s been awhile since i’ve documented chicago houses faced with death by demolition. with such limited bandwidth as of late, it’s become increasingly hard to document everything i care deeply about. after seeing this 19th century masonry cottage land on the chopping block over the weekend however, i just had to get out and document it. on the way, i...

  i spent two afternoons photographing terra cotta and sandstone ornament adorning the facades of 19th century rowhouses located in boston's back bay neighborhood. the following gallery represents a tiny fraction of my efforts towards beginning what i hope will be an exhaustive photographic study of exterior architecture ornament found on both residential and commercial structures within this notably historic neighborhood.  the survey will shed light...

the following blog entry was first posted on july 15th, 2015. i spent the greater part of a day documenting and salvaging ornament from the historically-important early 20th century saloon building that has been identified as the only known "tied house" (i.e., exclusively sold and served standard-brand beer bottled and distributed by the standard brewery company (1892-1923) beer. the massive carved indiana limestone built-in rondel with the brewery's name...

images of howells and hood's chicago tribune tower (completed, 1925) restoration taken earlier this week. despite repeatedly shooting the building for months now, i never grow tired gazing at the crown's gothic style carved bedford limestone ornament.

my goal is to digitize any and all images taken by richard nickel of the demolition, salvage, and dispersal of ornament from adler and sullivan's garrick theater (1892-1961) by the end of the year. the images will be a primary source used to build upon the narrative i've been working on for a book loosely titled "salvaging garrick theater."  for the...

my latest project involves scanning seldom seen images of architects, advertisements, and buildings from several late 19th and early 20th century "architects and builders" handbooks i recently acquired over the weekend. the softbound books were published by the chicago architects' business association. the building pictured is the 7th street hotel built by the duval construction company. the extant art deco...

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 40,000 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 urban remains website categories.   x

yesterday afternoon i watched as the parapet wall with terra cotta name plaque come crashing down. in the process both border sections and rondel were chipped or damaged. the sullivanesque terra cotta is a total loss, but it appears the plaque - minus border - will live on. the ornament should have been saved - all of it. i'm so...

fulton market has been transforming at a dizzying pace, accelerated by the arrival of google in late 2015. since then, several early 20th century structures have either been wiped off the block or remain standing in the form of restored facades with newly-built buildings. HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT FULTON STREET MARKET DIRECTORY SHED'S LIGHT ON DISTRICT'S STORIED PAST i've documented and/or salvaged...

i was given a small window of time to document the upper floors (3-5) of adler and sullivan's s.a. maxwell loft building (commonly known as the jewelers' building) by the current owners last week.  during that time i focused solely on finding any and all existing sullivan-designed details that managed survive countless alterations since its completion in 1881 (the first...

the following collection of images (posted in chronological order) of howells and hood's gothic style chicago tribune tower are from multiple visits over the past two months (fall, 2018). the tribune tower is one of many projects i've carved out time to revisit time and again to thoroughly document from beginning to end.   whether it's restoration, discovery, or demolition, finding...

  less than 24 hours after securing three historically important 19th and early 20th century chicago building artifacts, i've researched, photographed, and cataloged them for future exhibit in the bldg. 51 museum. images and brief descriptions below. the early 20th century glazed terra cotta rearing lions were sculpted by kristian schneider for the american terra cotta company. they are virtually...

the stevens-davis advertising company building (completed, 1921) is set to be smashed. i was alerted this morning through cityscape's demo tracker (see link below).  the facade is adorned with exquisite polychrome glazed terra cotta ornament executed by the midland terra cotta company. i'm curious whether the sullivanesque ornament is a "stock" pattern or custom design by the building's architect robert...

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 40,000 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 urban remains website categories.

documenting louis sullivan's national famers' bank of owatonna (1908) was exhausting. pouring over and carefully selecting hundreds of images cataloging sullivan, millet, and elmslie's ornament has left me with extreme eye fatigue.  the ornament's energy was intense, but at the same time, calming. hard to explain, so i won't. it was a struggle to leave that room.   below are...

the latest efforts to digitize notable chicago architect john vinci's collection of kodachrome and/or ektachrome slides presented below. to see the first installation or gallery of images from this ever-growing collection, please click on the link below. captions will be added to the slides as time permits. https://www.urbanremainschicago.com/news-and-events/2018/02/22/john-vinci-slides-of-chicago/  

an original and historically important john wellborn root-designed ornamental cast iron pilaster fragment, salvaged during the removal the the building's adams street entrance staircase, is the latest addition to the bldg. 51's every-growing museum architectural ornament collection.  construction of the rookery building took place between 1886 and 1888, and at the time, the twelve-story building was the tallest in the...

additional scaffolding erected against facade of chicago's cook county hospital (1914) since my last visit a week, possibly two weeks ago. i will continue documenting the facade's transformation, which began with its cleaning, until the final product is delivered.   links to previous posts containing extensive photographic documentation of the facade's cleaning are listed below. they can also be accessed by entering...

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 40,000 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 urban remains website categories.