Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

i made a point to stop by the gage building the other day, while i was in the neighborhood doing a systematic photo shoot of the s.a. maxwell lofts building's exterior ornament from sidewalk to roofline (1881, dankmark adler & louis h. sullivan, architects). when i made my way to gage, i noticed that the empty cavity above the building's...

  i began documenting john eberson's atmospheric avalon theater (1927) early last week, and many additional visits lie on the horizon. aside from embarking on the creation of a visual record of the theater's interior and exterior ornament, i managed to spend time in the attic. there i found several mazda light bulb boxes, piled high around the electric "stars...

the following images offer a glimpse at a sizable jenney & mundie archive containing architectural records previously believed to have been lost or destroyed. the archive -which is by no means comprehensive - was acquired by the bldg. 51 museum collection in july of 2017. we are currently working to digitize it, for unabridged access to researchers and/or scholars alike...

the bldg. 51 museum recently acquired a group of diminutive first floor exterior column ornament removed (along with the columns) during the 1950's when adler & sullivan's s.a. maxwell building (1882) underwent extensive alterations (interior and exterior) that obliterated most of the street level ornament. thankfully, richard nickel was present to document the changes and/or removal of ornament, including the...

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. the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.  

in a previous post, i devoted a considerable amount of time to sharing both images and informational notes regarding the careful and systematic extraction of a post-fire chicago italianate row house interior staircase, comprised largely of walnut wood. the inspiration to focus solely on the structure's staircase was drawn from a book i had been studying at the time, entitled...

a photographic study of selected 19th and early 20th century la crosse (wisconsin) commercial building exterior ornaments.  additional information on building history (e.g., architect, build date, material identification, etc.) will be added to each photo as time permits. the extant buildings shown below were chosen for inclusion based upon subjective interests and time commitment required to thoroughly document additional buildings...

i moved quickly to document any and all ornament adorning the lobby and auditorium of the 1927 olympic hotel, formerly known as the sokol slavsky building. Most of it had remained original and largely unaltered since time of construction, and i was preparing to commit the remainder of the afternoon to exploring the theater's remaining untouched nooks and crannies. hopefully...

the discovery of several books, photographic prints, drawings, and papers - including two completely intact and well-maintained ledgers from architectural firm of jenney, mundie, & jensen, was nothing short of one of the more remarkable finds i've run across in recent years. hidden away and forgotten for decades, the ledgers (a peak inside provided through images in this blog entry...

the bldg. 51 museum is offering a first-ever, limited edition line of faithfully recreated cast plaster auditorium theater (1889) proscenium vault perforated domes designed by architect louis h. sullivan and executed by chicago-based decorators supply company. the full-scale "beehive" domes were made possible through a collaboration between the bldg. 51 museum and decorators' supply company. earlier this year, after i was given...

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. the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.

for over a year now, high noon entertainment has been working closely with eric j. nordstrom of urban remains, filming his ongoing efforts to methodically document and save fragments from chicago's late 19th and early 20th century buildings faced with demolition. the project is currently in development.    

during my business trip to buffalo (new york) earlier this month i managed to spend a good deal of time documenting several buildings that hold great interest to me. i could easily spend days shooting adler & sullivan's guaranty building (both inside and out), but due to time constraints, i had to move quickly from one location to the next...

in keeping with the bldg. 51 museum's latest effort to acquire historically important artifacts from notable buildings and/or structures outside of chicago, a remarkable, oversized 19th century gustav lindenthal-designed smithfield bridge portal rosette or medallion has joined the museum collection - along with photographic images and documents pertaining to the bridge it was removed from. the heavy, single-sided ornament features a...

http://www.classicchicagomagazine.com/eric-j-nordstroms-urban-remains/

https://www.urbanremainschicago.com/news-and-events/2017/07/07/high-noon-entertainment-collaborating-with-eric-j-nordstrom-on-documenting-the-death-of-buildings/

for several decades, a maze of cramped and cluttered rooms and hallways hidden within a west side post-fire chicago (1872) italianate rowhouse have remained largely unaltered. despite being dissected into multiple "apartments" during the 1930's, defining architectural elements such as the marble mantels, solid walnut staircase, and multi-part pine wood moldings are still amazingly intact, offering a rare glimpse of...

i was already mentally and physically exhausted prior to beginning the lengthy salvage conducted at the post-fire italianate style charles c. p. holden block (1872). a developer had acquired the property with the intention of stripping it down to "four brick walls" to convert into mixed-residential and commercial use; the restoration of the facade didn't seem to be of major...

  artificial stone, also termed "cast" or "concrete" stone, is a synthetic product that was used mainly during the 18th and 19th centuries to imitate natural building stones. an aggregate of water, natural cement, lime, sand, and/or various binding agents, the concrete mixtures could be incorporated in construction as molded shapes and intricate decorative elements or as plain blocks. with...

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. the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to their respective website categories.