Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

while i have touched on the importance of photo-documenting salvages, lately my focus has expanded to buildings undergoing historic renovations in chicago’s downtown. a number of facades are worked on each year, with little public attention to the craft and care involved in the restoration process. though i have worked on similar projects in the past (including documenting the sensitive...

urban remains received a call last week over the removal of long-forgotten artifacts and building elements buried in the recesses of logan square’s armitage baptist church building as they begin clearing out remnants of its original occupant - the logan square masonic lodge. we spent nearly a week carefully removing these “lost and found” masonic artifacts which were strewn, and...

"Lost and Found" will be available for purchase by the end of December 2017. The 58 page, soft-bound booklet scours the depths of the Congress Theater, chronicling the building's history through depression-era artifacts and detritus found in hidden corners of the structure. A full-color catalog and historic photographs give texture to the found objects accompanying Eric J. Nordstrom's narrative of...

i wanted to take a moment out of this busy fall period to document the beauty of certain buildings here in chicago that i just find exceptionally appealing; the pittsfield is one of those such places. combining both art deco and gothic influences, the exterior terra cotta and bronze elements are truly something to behold. one of the numerous buildings...

urban remains recently secured several pallets worth of american vintage industrial furniture (dating to the 1940's-1950's), removed from the zim manufacturing company factory building. founded in 1919, the zim manufacturing company specialized in the manufacture of automobile specialty tools and gauges, housewares, and other hand tools. the extant factory is located on the far west side of chicago. we are currently...

i didn't have much time to shoot congress theater's interior after spending the afternoon out on the facade. before leaving for the day, i decided to lug my camera equipment up to the attic where i could capture additional images of the methods and materials used to build the multi-tiered plaster dome around the "iron tent." marbro theater's (demolished) "iron...

the following historically important architectural artifacts (identified below) were acquired by the bldg. 51 museum collection with an understanding that restoration was necessary to undue any and all short-sighted alterations that blurred their intended functionality. fine art restorer mike gruzca mike grucza was brought on board to revive the hidden beauty found within these artifacts. with an arsenal of methodologies, tried...

the oscar heinemann silk factory began its construction in 1918. a four building complex, underground tunnels were built to allow workers to travel from building to building.  this specific sprawling addition, at the time, was commissioned for $100,000 - four stories, 125 x 125 ft, and enough room for 1,500 employees. with this expansion, oscar heinemann became the largest manufacturer...

a single story diminutive brick workers cottage, built between 1875-1885, has found its fate surrounded by the all-too-common green fence. this barrier from prying eyes serves as a visual indication that the wrecking machine will soon be arriving to smash the structure into oblivion. i haven't had the time to look over insurance maps and the like to determine what...

after spending the spring and summer documenting other, historically important chicago-area theaters, i returned to congress (completed, 1926), where this project was fist launched. i spent the majority of the afternoon shooting the facade, which i was eager to do after securing three additional lenses. i devised a more systematic approach, in order to capture any and all ornament, along...

as i continue to fine-tune the "unearthing chicago" book, i decided to share my documentation of several soda and/or mineral water bottles dating to the 1850's. the bottles depicted (courtesy of the bldg. 51 museum photo archive) were dug in and around downtown chicago from 2014 up to the present day. william h. hutchinson "whh" soda and/or mineral bottles. the...

a new chapter has been opened that will allow me to expand the project of archiving historically important ornament from around chicago and filling in gaps of knowledge about salvage and preservation work. in this case, rather than directly salvaging a building under threat of demolition, i will be gathering information about other collectors’ objects. note: all photographs coutresy of...

completed in 1922, the krause music store was the final building commission of notable chicago architect louis h. sullivan, who designed 126 buildings, with the great majority built during his partnership with dankmar adler. the krause music store's facade is bedecked with a remarkable glazed terra cotta treatment, consisting of curvilinear and/or strongly organic design motifs surrounding a deeply setback and...

the following 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 28,500 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 removal, recreation, and reinstallation of the historically important gage building (1899) terra cotta cartouche is complete. i dedicated a great deal of time and money to ensure that this once-in-a-lifetime project was visually recorded from beginning to end. the storefront (see below) was complete obliterated in the 1950's. the images were sourced from bldg. 51 museum's copy of a...

the farmers & merchants union bank first got its humble start in a dry goods store in columbus, wisconsin, at the immediate out start of the civil war. new yorker and businessman john r. wheeler named it “the union bank” to signify his support for the northern states and abraham lincoln. several years later, at the end of the war...

a group of pre and post-chicago fire privy-dug chicago bottles used for ales, ciders, and porters. any and all bottles courtesy of the bldg. 51 museum collection.

chicago city hall building (1911). holabird & roche, architects. carbon & carbide building (1929). burnham brothers, architect. montgomery ward tower building (1899). richard e. schmidt, architect. hugh garden, designer. jewelers' building (1925-1927). joachim g. giaver and frederick p. dinkelberg, architects. starrett-dilks company, contractor. concealed water tank undergoing extensive restoration. heyworth building (1904). d.h. burnham & company, architects. atlantic bank...

update: the original cartouche on the gage building has been painted over with a 3-part paint - perhaps to match the recreated one currently being installed? i don't recall seeing any substantial glaze spalling from the ground, but after speaking to the lead mason working on the restoration, the extant cartouche's glaze was badly comprised. where preservation standards for historic...

the primary reason for ending nearly every post with "to be continued" or "i will revisit at a later time" is lack of time. i feel weighted down by the stress of chasing deadlines everyday. i've reached a state of mind where i calculate my actions based on minutes in a given day. i feel manically obsessed with this world of...