Urban Remains Chicago News and Events

the extant noel state bank building, located in the wicker park neighborhood of chicago, is an american neoclassical style bank building designed and built by the architectural firm of weary & alford co., chicago, il., for joseph noel, who founded the north west savings bank in 1905.

urban remains just completed a west side chicago factory salvage containing a wide assortment of old industrial furniture. we managed to secure over a dozen beautifully aged crank handle die carts designed and fabricated by the hamilton took works. the website contains a small selection, representing the shopworn painted version, or a completely refinished alternative with newly added custom-built wood...

after photodocumenting the chicago athletic association building for weeks now, i focused my camera on the unusual and greatly oversized cast plaster chandelier at the foot of the grand staircase leading to the upper level or balcony of the swimming or "plunge" room. i suspected the chandelier and the matching candelabra sconces and heavily ornamented coffered ceiling, replete with highly...

the urban remains hardbound coffee table book featuring photography from salvages i've been apart of is moving along at a very healthy pace now. i'm hoping to include a dvd tucked inside, containing supplemental material (e.g., a salvage in progress, etc). the book will likely be available beginning fall 2014. the 500+ page softbound book or catalog containing my personal collection...

the first national bank & trust company building was built in 1920 with a heavy neoclassical presence both on the inside and out. the exterior contained an ornamental facade consisting of carved bedford limestone featuring detailed winged griffins. the interior was outfitted with nickel and chrome plated bronze work, ornamental plaster and marble paneling throughout. designed in the 1920's by...

DEC 25, 2013 Locals hear details on cost to restore two homes at risk By LINDSAY WELBERS Staff Writer To restore the decaying Frank Lloyd Wright houses at the center of a controversy in South Kenwood will take between $4 and $5 million, in addition to their purchase prices. The Blossom and McArthur houses have languished on the real estate...

 By Kristen Zambo NEW YORK — An office desk and chair designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright for SC Johnson’s Racine administration building have been removed from Sotheby’s website ahead of Wednesday’s auction.  Both pieces were valued at a combined estimate of $480,000 to $720,000. The two items had been slated to go on the auction block Wednesday. But SC...

ST. LOUIS • The St. Louis Art Museum is buying a Frank Lloyd Wright chandelier to go with its Frank Lloyd Wright chair, aiming to bolster its collection of the renowned Midwestern architect. On Monday, the board approved spending $825,000 on the fixture, its largest purchase this year. The 1903 chandelier is in brass, bronze and iridescent leaded glass. It stretches...

more and more layers are peeled back - week after week - and i'm there to document it with my cameras. the frequency of extensive "remuddlings" that have occurred over the decades in this building are rather astonishing, yet equally depressing in some ways (at the very least, when considering the historic integrity). so much has been lost (or thrown...

December 05, 2013, 11:41 AM By Ruby Hazael Illinois, USA - Eric Nordstrom sent through an email last week about a sale he was having on the Urban Remains website. He also sent a photo of some of his personal collection of architectural antiques. Eric said 'I am a collector at heart. I have to apologise to visitors for all the...

a single luxfer patent "sawtooth" tile with embossed lettering... photograph by eric j. nordstrom prismatic glass, which was a highly successful building material in the united states between the turn of the century and the 1920's, promised to refract daylight from the facades deep into a building and thus would help to save energy, create healthier working environments, and contribute...

the tower club was initially known as the electric club, founded in 1916 by opera enthusiast samuel insull, who established commonwealth edison and, according to legend, was the inspiration for monopoly character rich "uncle pennybags". the club, located at north dearborn street and west calhoun place, was originally an elite fellowship for titans of the electrical industry. after insull commissioned...

sullivan's design for the auditorium building stair baluster is transformed into copper-plated cast iron by the winslow brothers foundry of chicago. this early, if not first collaboration between sullivan and winslow would lead to many more notable commissions including, but not limited to, the chicago stock exchange, guaranty building, schlesinger & mayer building, owatonna state bank, etc.

Dan Doyle on Designing an Industrial Kitchen Dan Doyle discusses how he designed a sturdy, industrial kitchen in St. Helena, California. By Christine Pittel Christine Pittel: You're tough! I see raw steel, rough wood, open shelves... Dan Doyle: I like open shelves. I did one sketch with standard upper cabinets, but it looked too tame. My wife said we'd be dusting glasses...

nearly sixteen years ago, i was attending college during the day and working as an audio engineer at night in a recording studio a friend and i haphazardly piecemealed together in the basement of the historic odin j. oyen building. during the course of organizing the studio space, i befriended the new owner of the building, who had every intention of...

the centerpiece (found within the bell jar) is identified as a "briquette." this unusual looking rectangular-shaped crushed brass metal block consists primarily of old recycles radiator components. large quantities of these bricks are ultimately melted down at a foundry for producing metal castings. interesting "art" objects.

the light was right. the scaffolding was in place and easily accessible. i spent a great deal of time documenting the exterior - especially the carved limestone columns and capitals (the stone setter was john arnold), and the art glass windows designed by healy ad millet. i hope a get chance to photodocument the annex (both additions) containing some visually...

here are a few more photographs of the chicago athletic association building (henry ives cobb) taken late last week. more to come.

i managed to get away from the shop this afternoon so i could continue photo-documenting the interior of the athletic club association building while it undergoes its transformation from abandoned club to boutique hotel. although they have an industrial photographer onboard, i told the developers that i would do this free of charge and hand over any and all edited...

any and all architectural artifacts bearing historic significance (i.e., original to the residence) were successfully removed from the loeb mansion this week. the georgian revival style allen loeb mansion, located at 1427 waverly road (highland park, il.), was completed in 1929. the 10,200 square foot stately residence was designed by the architectural firm of walcott and work, although there is strong...