when richard nickel meticulously documented the construction of mccormick place in the summer of 1969, he only printed a limited number of large photographs that would i periodically see in various collections and exhibits. when i ran across one this past week, i decided to dig...
bldg. 51 museum's collection of early electric sockets and fixtures. morris selz house (1883): this unrestored morris selz house (1883) three-arm tubular brass wall sconce is quite possibly the earliest known surviving light fixture from an adler and sullivan commission. remarkably, two of the three edison sockets...
richard nickel documented george h. edbrooke's willoughby building (1887) shortly before it was demolished by harvey wrecking in 1964. the 9-story building was built for charles l. willoughby in 1887 at the northwest corner of franklin and jackson. ...
several important and seldom found building trade product catalogs, ranging from the late 19th century to the early 20th, have been painstakingly digitized and added to the bldg. 51 architectural artifact archive over the first half of 2022. the majority of the catalogs, brochures, building...
old (and rather primitive) newsletters dating from the early years of urban remains to the launch of the website blog in 2013, were recently found and digitized this past weekend. the newsletter "snapshots" are provided below in chronological order. ...
the oddball. richard nickel documented adler and sullivan's herman braunstein building or flats (1894) shortly before it was demolished around 1965. the building's facade was no doubt designed by...
the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural artifacts added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 75,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 16 years). the newly acquired items for the month of JUly, 2022, have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be)...
the bldg. 51 museum archive has finally begun the long and arduous process of digitizing any and all blueprints, photographic images, contracts, and shop drawings of the noel state bank (1919) designed by the architectural firm of weary and alford. the largely intact archive was salvaged...
the bldg. 51 chicago building artifact museum just acquired an early john edelmann-designed hand carved walnut wood interior residential door surround block salvaged in 1959-60 from the levi strauss house (1860s, 1880 remodel). interior ornament - all designed by john edelmann during the 1880 remodel...
images of richard nickel taken from the time he was an ID student to weeks before he was tragically killed salvaging ornament. ...
detailed exterior photogrpahic survey of adler and sullivan's wainwright building (1891) taken over two days on recent st. louis field trip in june of 2022. ...
the bldg. 51 archvie, which houses the largest repository of 2d and 3d materials pertaining to the life and work of odin j. oyen - a la crosse-based late 19th and early 20th century artist and interior decorator - will be completely digitized by the...
the cleaned/not cleaned buff-colored spandrels and roofline terra cotta was executed by the northwestern terra cotta company, chicago, ills. wright used the distinctive oversized bead or ball cornice blocks for both waller (1896) and the non-extant francisco terrace apartments (1895-1974), located just north of waller...
the wrecking machine is immobile for a moment, but research on this cottage remains active, as i repeatedly visit to explore and document the house's framework -- bedecked with pegged and notched sill plates, rough-sawn white pine "sticks," and so on. both the interior and exterior have been altered so...
a compilation of images, brief comments taken from other social media platforms, and previous blog bld. 51 blog posts on louis h. sullivan's henry babson house are presented below. the babson house are richard nickel, john vinci, and david norris salvaged louis h. sullivan's 1908 henry babson...
latest photographic images from bldg. 51 archive's chicago architectural ornament survey (caos) are provided below. the ever-expanding photo-documentation project focuses on systematically recording any and all architectural ornament located on historically important 19th and early 20th century extant buildings located in downtown chicago and surrounding...
unidentified institute of design student photo album (discovered in the house shortly before demolition) of washington porter's kiosk sphinx taken between 1954-57. the cast concrete complex was demolished in september of 1957 to make way for chicago housing authority's lakefront properties. ...
located at 1820 w. grand avenue in the west town neighborhood of chicago, urban remains and bldg. 51 have combined forces in the form of showroom and musuem, housing carefully curated displays of historically important architectural and/or building artifacts dating from the late 19th and...
photographic survey (a work in progress) of the romanesque style compton hill standpipe water tower designed by architect harvey ellis in 1898. the compton hill water tower (1898), is the earliest of three extant stand pipe-water towers located in st. louis. the 179-foot water tower was...
the bldg. 51 museum houses a large repository of ornament and artifacts representing some of chicago's finest depression-era "movie palaces" that have succumbed to demolition or short-sighted alterations and/or renovations where ornament was removed or rescued. in addition to the architectural ornament, the museum houses the...