25 Jul adler and sullivan’s guaranty building as it appeared before devastating 1974 fire

john vinci kodachrome slides of adler and sullivan’s 1895 guaranty building taken a year before the 1974 5-alarm fire that devastated the building’s upper six floors. around this time guaranty was likely going to be demolished, but because of jack randall, who offered to be building manager free of charge, the building was saved (he did the same when he moved to st. louis and fought successfully to save adler and sullivan’s 1891 wainwright). 

the images vinci took are simply amazing. i’ve never seen decent photos of the building’s condition during this time, including the lightcourt, interior offices, and the soiled unglazed terra cotta, which had already been carelessly sand-blasted in 1958.

courtesy of john vinci archive.