images of tradesmen preserving chicago’s historic building facades. i’ve finally found time to start processing several thousand images – taken over the past 5 years – pertaining to this fascinating subject matter. to see and thoroughly document “portals to the past,” where materials and methods dating to the time a structure was built are fully exposed is incredibly important, especially in light of the materials and methods used today by the tradesmen shown below. 

i’ve focused on the chicago tribune tower (1925), jewelers building (1928), gage building (1899), and cook county hospital (1914) for at least 2-3 years as of this writing. i’ve recently added the marquette building (1895), and adler ans sullivan’s s.a. maxwell & company loft building (1881), with full interior and exterior access permitted by the owner of the latter.