Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

fatigue and restlessness from spending too much time digitizing photographs, slides and ephemera on chicago's architectural past has reinvigorated me to resume my work, or rather, photographic studies on the city's architectural ornament through the use of my camera and zoom lenses. the intimacy i feel with architectural ornament - achieved through the use of my lenses - has always...

continued digitization of chicago architect john vinci's kodachrome and/or ektachrome archive remains a top priority in 2018. to see the first two installations or galleries of images from this ever-growing collection (over six-hundred completed as of this writing), please click on the links below. the color photographs were taken by john vinci using either a rolleiflex 3.5.f or hasselblad 500c camera. digitized images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom. ...

the following images were taken during a recent visit to frank lloyd wright's home and studio (1889). unlike most of my blog entries, i selected a handful of images, focusing on exterior and interior details that appealed to my mind'y eye. 

i can't reiterate how fulfilling it is to travel back in time and immerse myself in a seemingly endless cache of richard nickel contact prints documenting the death of first chicago school buildings, including many built by the firm of adler & sullivan. as an architectural documentary photographer and salvager i immediately identify with the wrecking sites, extraction of ornament...

the following john vinci slides paint the demolition of adler & sullivan's schiller building or garrick theater (completed in 1892) in full color, thanks to the use of kodachrome, which was the first commercially successful color film praised since the great depression for its sharpness, archival durability, and vibrant yet realistic hues. those familiar with the garrick and its demolition have been accustomed...

the following images were pulled from one of my latest photographic archives devoted to the study of ornamental detail found throughout interior spaces within adler & sullivan's 1889 auditorium building. images taken from the building's theater and ganz hall will be addressed in future posts. courtesy of bldg. 51 museum and chicago architectural ornament archive. courtesy of bldg. 51 museum...

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 35,800 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.  

the following selection of images were taken during the salvage operation at 170-172 n. halsted. we salvaged anything and everything, including old elevator equipment and a pair of steel elevator doors. our work is done there, but i will likely stick around to document the building's destruction. the modest early 20th century three-story commercial brick building was last occupied by...

undated kodachrome slide courtesy of the john vinci collection. i recently stumbled across several images taken by an amateur photographer of the reliance building prior to extensive renovations - both inside and out - in preparation for it's new life as a classy "boutique" hotel. the images are raw and gritty. no editing was done. each and every photograph...

  john vinci kodachrome images capturing the final moments of adler and sullivan's chicago stock exchange building (1894) in late april of 1972. note the gargantuan main steel trusses (fully exposed) that spanned the elaborately stenciled trading room. the stock exchange was completed in 1894 by the architectural firm of dankmar adler and louis sullivan. the general contractor and/or builder george...

a few months ago (see blog entry below) i documented the village theater (built in 1916 as gemania) shortly before the building's auditorium was set to be demolished. as of this afternoon, only the theater's facade is left standing - still concealed in part by 53-foot storage containers stacked three high.   with the auditorium demolished, chicago caisson contractor revcon...

a renewed and increasingly obsessive interest in painstakingly photographing architectural ornament on downtown chicago's landmarked buildings has been a welcome change from spending hours on end digitizing any and all ephemera and photographic images tied to the first chicago school of architecture - another project that has consumed much of my time in 2018.  i'm pleased that the following selection...

the following acquisitions (see images below), in the form of architectural building fragments, photographic images, and, miscellaneous ephemera, represent a fraction of historically important materials recently added to the bldg. 51 museum and its newly formed sister organization focusing architectural ornament and ephemera (website for the latter will be launched in the fall of 2018) from the first chicago school...

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 35,700 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.

three 19th century masonry worker cottages located on the north and west side of chicago were issued demolition permits within one week of each other. as of this writing, one has already been reduced to rubble. a red brick two-flat with jeweled and beveled transom windows above the main entrance shares a lot where one of the cottages is located...

in preparation for my "deconstructing chicago" publication (slated for completion after "unearthing chicago hits circulation),  i continue data-gathering by documenting any and all building material used in the construction of the balloon frame, beginning from the 1840's on through the 1880's. all of the material collected thus far has been carefully harvested from numerous demolitions happening all around the city of chicago. in...

the following images are from a two-story victorian era commercial building built around 1882. additional research will hopefully flesh out architect and/or builder along with commercial and residential tenements that resided there since the time the building was completed.  the largely intact storefront was fabricated by chicago-based union ironworks. variations of the exterior post and beam configuration surrounding the plate...

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 35,600 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.

sullivan devoted a great deal of energy to the masonry joinery, making it a critical facet of the structure's overall composition. the ashlar limestone slabs were arranged horizontally to form the lower walls. the arches and windows or portals are surrounded by a field pattern consisting of repeating octagons accentuated with starbursts. the roof consists of three massive stone...

  sorting through and processing boxes of carefully cataloged richard nickel contact sheets documenting the life and death of adler & sullivan's schiller building (later known as the garrick theater) has resurrected my laser-like focus or "maniacal obsession" from a seemingly inescapable or crippling battle with perpetual burnout.  immersing myself in this unexplored world of imagery aimed at documenting...