Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

i've been watching this post-fire chicago commercial building located on west of downtown chicago for the past few weeks. in fact, i spent an afternoon (with consent from the contractor) photodocmenting the interior from the basement to the top floor. the building is in an ideal state (at least for me) with any and all structural members exposed, which invites...

multiple "ash pits" were recently discovered (in addition to the documented brick-lined privies) on the site of the former john kent russell house as we continue to excavate before the "earth movers" roll in to finally eradicate any and all remains left by the former occupants in preparation for the construction of three-story condo. the ash pits yielded a vast...

i have been waiting for this day since 1996, when i first laid eyes on these unusual and mysterious iron and glass sidewalk panels found around the cast iron (i.e., soho/noho) district of manhattan. better yet, at night, when wandering the area again, these massive, interlocking panels came alive when incandescent light from below transformed them into these fantastic grids...

it has been several weeks since the pre-fire chicago john kent russell frame dwelling was brought down and sent off to a nearby landfill. now, the site of the former house is yet another empty lot containing dirt and residual debris strewn about. i thought for sure that would give me closure and i could move on to researching the photographs...

the historically important 19-story towering beax-arts style lakeshore athletic club building was designed by renowned chicago architect jarvis hunt in 1927. the extant chicago landmark is located on a prominent corner along the shores of lake michigan. the interior boasted a gargantuan marble-clad lobby, with ornamented bronze chandeliers and gilded plasterwork. in addition, the building contained stunning ballrooms, a reading...

within an hour after arriving home from my buying trip in wisconsin late in the evening, i decided to push ahead and not only completely unload the haul, but proceeded to fire up the studio strobes and begin shooting selected renderings i really felt deserved immediate attention. i promised myself in the beginning that once i successfully acquired the odin...

after waiting very patiently for nearly 16 years, the opportunity to secure the odin j. oyen design firm's "collection" of art, artifacts and personal belongings (that were formerly tucked away and undocumented) has become a reality, thanks to thoughtful and sympathetic negotiations. there are several thousand articles or objects to catalog, photodocument and ultimately publish as a collection, that i...

This 1868 pocket map of Chicago shows the city in full-blown expansion, a mere 3 years before the infamous blaze By Esri , Natasha Geiling   Rufus Blanchard, a Chicago map publisher whose business flourished in the late-18th century, made this 1868 map of Chicago as part of a guidebook called “The Citizen’s Guide for the City of Chicago.” The map itself is...

slowly but surely, any and all historic or architectural detailing original to the time of the chicago athletic association building's construction (1893), is carefully being reinstalled after a seemingly minor restoration and/or repair was completed months ago. remarkably, the second floor "reading room," with its gargantuan stone mantels and darkly stained and intricately designed gothic style oak wood work, appeared...

i was pleasantly surprised to learn that the original bronze plating was largely intact under a botched restoration or rather, a unsympathetic and careless remuddling applied to the louis h. sulllivan-designed cyrus mccormick radiator grille's surface over 30 years ago. i knew when i purchased the mccormick mansion radiator grille that repair work would be required to make it presentable...

urban remains just received several matching original c. 1920's "sani" swing-out factory lunch room table stool brackets with the majority retaining their solid maple wood seats.   the swing-out stool components were fabricated for, and heavily advertised by, the sani products company, located in the sani building, chicago, il. the sani products company was formed to merchandize the products of the...

two out of state reputable colleagues, who i consider friends that share an equal passion towards appreciating and rescuing ornament from buildings undergoing renovation or demolition, recently brought to my attention the availability of a set of historically important bronze exterior and/or building facade plaques removed from the chicago building (1904) designed by architects holabird and roche (read below for...

a late 19th century warehouse and a turn of the century hardware store along lake street (west of downtown chicago) are quickly being decimated by backhoes operated by two of the city's larger wrecking firms.   the presence of protests and/or picketing was absent when the steel claws began tearing down the structures. instead, the commercial buildings are quickly and quietly...

a striking chrome-plated art deco lobby elevator directional arrow indicator plaque with pressed glass insets and a monogrammed office door bronze handle, were recently acquired from the art deco style cincinnati times-star building. both artifacts contain distinctive features that bare characteristics to the time period and/or the building itself, with zig-zag motifs, a stepped rosette and monogram with initials representing the...

over the weekend i managed to document the ongoing restoration of milwaukee's treasured city hall building (1895) designed by henry c. koch in the flemish renaissance revival style. j.p. cullen & sons was the primary contractor that "completed" the restoration of more than 13,000 terra cotta units on the historic building back in 2008.   in february of 2011, three...

having recently visited the dana hotel and spa (i.e., dana hotel 2.0) a few weeks ago, it brought back many memories of  the salvage work i did on the site nearly 8 years ago, when urban remains was in its infancy. the original dana hotel (built as the erie hotel) was designed by architects normand s. patton and reynolds fisher...

being utterly consumed with the john kent russell house salvage (and 1850's chicago for that matter) for several weeks now, i only recently had the chance to get up to speed on other demolition activity happening in the chicago area. last sunday i discovered that the lawndale theater was not only being demolished, but is nearly gone. i was aware...

i didn't have much time to photodocument the chicago athletic association building this afternoon after spending a great deal of time "excavating" the russell house site in the morning, and having to hastily find my way to wicker park to document the recently exposed wood frame building (only a few of these structures remain along milwaukee avenue), where capturing the...

the image depicting the delicate porcelain enameled. multi-paneled wrigley chewing gum factory sign grasped tightly in the "claws" of a wrecker's backhoe did not look to very promising in regards to the sign's fate. weeks later, a portion of the wrigley factory sign was discovered resting against the former guardhouse directly off of ashland avenue. clearly, damage to the porcelain enameled...

rarely does one find an all original and completely intact residential entrance or vestibule door lockset with every component being apart of the short-lived and thus, highly desirable anglo-japanese designed hardware fabricated by the russell  & erwin company, with design patents issued as early as 1879. this recently discovered vestibule door set is unique in that every component is intact...