Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

another year of new residential development has once again left us to mourn the loss of hundreds of 19th and early 20th century house casualties leaving in its wake a quickly eroding historic fabric that has given chicago's neighborhoods visual character, identity, and a seemingly unbreakable link to the past. while i may feel tied down by discouragement and defeat...

a rare artifact deserving highlight in the urban remains warehouse is a turn of the century cast bronze plaque designed by edward kemeys and executed by the winslow brothers. the single-sided metalwork depicts the cheyenne diplomat and warrior "chief left hand," remembered for his attempts to negotiate his people's survival during the onslaught of gold rush settlers to colorado. left...

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.

i've devoted several hours each and every week at the ryerson and burnham library where the richard nickel archive is housed. there, i get lost in the past, where i carefully study, select, and digitize/edit thousands of images taken by photographer and salvager richard nickel beginning in the 1950's and ending in the early 1970's when he was tragically killed...

as of late nearly every cottage slated for demolition contains virtually no interior or exterior ornament worth salvaging due to countless renovations, remuddlings that have subsequently stripped those distinctive elements that contribute to a historically specific identity. i've come to accept this as the norm, but remain eager to engage with these cottages, irregardless of their lack of salvage "value." beyond...

the following images were taken while chicago architect john vinci and i spent the afternoon on a self-guided tour of st. louis-based city museum's architectural artifact installations scattered on multiple floors of an old colossal warehouse.   the majority of the ornament comes from chicago, with large caches of terra cotta from building commissions designed by louis h. sullivan and...

yet another early 20th century single-story commercial building accentuated with a white glazed midland terra cotta stock pattern facade - some of the pieces are from the "sullivanesque series - will be demolished next week.  

after weeks of negotiating, i managed to purchase an original john wellborn root-designed kansas city board of trade building (1888) panel for the bldg. 51 architectural ornament collection. when the combination cast and wrought ornamental iron header panel arrived the other day, i spent nearly all afternoon documenting it. in my humble opinion, this is some wellborn's very best ornament...

montgomery ward's mail order house and administration building (1907) undergoing facade restoration. the mammoth 8-story reinforced concrete building accentuated with sullivanesque terra cotta ornament was completed in 1907 by architectural firm schmidt, garden, and martin. the ornament was designed by hugh garden. built as a warehouse and administration building by one of the nation's first large mail-order catalog businesses founded...

john vinci and i made the trek to st. louis to visit richard nickel's architectural ornament at southern university edwardsville, the wainwright and union trust buildings, city museum, and the wainwright tomb, located in bellefontaine cemetery. time was very limited, so i didn't get a chance to extensively document building ornament during our brief stay. fruitful dialogue and observations of...

images of richard nickel’s adler & sullivan building ornament collection on display at lovejoy library, southern illinois university edwardsville (siue). nickel sold his architectural artifact collection to the university in 1965 but continued salvaging additional fragments until his untimely death in 1972.    it was incredibly cool to see the collection with chicago architect john vinci, who had not seen...

richard nickel images of adler & sullivan's solomon blumenfeld building taken during its demolition. the three-story building with limestone facade was built for chicago clothing merchant solomon blumenfeld between 1883-1884.  taken by nickel while still a student at the institute of design. nickel would revisit the adler & sullivan building in 1963 to document and/or salvage ornament. during its demolition...

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.

reorganizing the bldg. 51 chicago architectural ornament archive has given me incentive to reshoot any and all historically important artifacts previously on loan, display, or in storage. it's immensely gratifying to reacquaint myself with the ornament (and its history) as it makes its way into the studio. two original red slip glazed terra cotta grotesque face exterior corbels salvaged from...

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.

                    adler & sullivan’s wainwright tomb - located in bellefontaine cemetery st. louis – was originally constructed for charlotte dickson wainwright, the wife of ellis wainwright, who’s building was designed by the same firm a year before the tomb was completed in 1892. shortly after construction of the adler & sullivan’s wainwright building...

  if i recall correctly, i salvaged an old pharmacy located in east chicago sometime in 2006. the family-owned business and the 1920's building housing it, shut down after a walgreens moved in around the corner. while salvaging the drugstore - or what was left of it -  the family would visit periodically and chat about the history of the...

        in 1951, crombie taylor – then acting director of chicago’s institute of design – worked with newly-appointed photography instructor aaron siskind to develop a photographic study or survey of commercial and residential buildings designed by the firm of dankmar adler and louis sullivan.   over the span of three years, siskind and his students photographed several...

the uptown theater (1925) is one of the few remaining "roaring twenties" neighborhood movie palaces left standing in chicago. the gargantuan structure is the last of the "big three" theaters (i.e., non-extant tivoli, 1921 and the extant chicago, 1921) designed by the architectural firm of rapp and rapp for the balaban and katz theater corporation founded in 1916. the spanish...

although i'm not well-versed in bridge technology - in this case, a pony truss bascule bridge completed in 1914 - i figured it was worth an afternoon to document the historic chicago avenue bridge and operator houses not only to gain an appreciation for its materials and construction methods, but create a thorough visual record of it before its impending...