images (taken nearly a decade ago) of the original open-ended switch board (removed from service during the 1940s) housed in the basement of the lumber exchange (later known as the roanoke building). the interconnected slate panels, once illuminated by i.p. frinke mirrored reflectors, are adorned...
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)...
before and after: disgraced and disfigured through intentional negclect and abandonment. two years after awarded preliminary landmark status, edward uihlein’s schiltz-tied commercial building and flats was largely forgotten and left abandoned. consequently, the building’s exterior ornament (e.g., stamped or pressed ornamental copper) has been defaced, stripped...
defaced. for years i've admired and repeatedly documented the ornament on hy biermann's store and flats (1887). the red slip is so delicate...
a number of mid-19th century bottles were recently unearthed deep below the site of chicago’s former grand central station, with the four richly colored iron and smooth base soda bottles serving as the inspiration to further investigate the slew of structures that were built above...
for the past several years now, i've assembled a sizeable photographic database of ornamental red body terra cotta found on 19th century (1880-1899) residential and commerical buildings within chicago's city limits. brief descriptions, including addresses, year constructed, architect (if known) and building status, will be...
the following images represent carefully curated online collection of exterior ornamental terra cotta salvaged from historically important chicago commerical building. the ornament is housed in the bldg. 51 museum, located in downtown chicago. ...
as more and more 19th century cottages succumbed to the wrecking ball over the course of the past year, i could not help but entertain the idea of salvaging bigger and more visually-striking house "systems," whose parts alone are powerful in size and scale. [gallery ids="22908,22910,22909"] in...
after mecca, before crown. great collection of images (possibly taken by nickel) of excavation work for mies's crown hall (1956) at iit. the images - scanned this afternoon from contact sheets - offer a great visual record of the surrounding area, including long-gone buildings along...
Wainwright Building (1891): original copper-plated ornamental cast iron newel post salvaged from adler and sullivan's wainwright building (1891) during extensive interior renovations that virtually gutted the building of its original sullivan-designed ornament - including staircases, elevators, woodwork, door hardware, etc. the newel was likely executed by the...
in preparation for publishing "unearthing chicago" in 2022, i've pulled some images capturing 19th and early 20th century bottles at excavation sites around chicago. shortly after being discovered, these remnants of victorian-era rubbish were carefully exposed by removing surrounding dirt and debris to reveal a...
Capturing Louis Sullivan: What Richard Nickel Saw August 26, 2022 -February 19, 2023 Richard Nickel (1928-1972) was a Polish-American architectural photographer and preservationist. Nickel first encountered the work of Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) as a student, when photographing the architect’s buildings for a project at the IIT Institute...
selection of images taken during a brief visit to st. louis in the early summer months of 2022. prior blog posts from this trip focus on the work of harvey ellis commissions (with the exception of union station). ...
adler and sullivan's loeb apartments (1891-92) as they appeared in 1964 (photographed by richard nickel) compared to the present, with only the south entrance and two-story staircase left standing. sadly, the frank lloyd wright-designed bedford limestone entrance was heavily damaged from falling debris when the majority...
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...
anticipating another year of lost buildings through demolition, i've already prepared additional storage space for the ever-growing collection of lost or discarded objects found under attic floorboards, ledger and sill plates, foundation walls, and stud cavities within those 19th century chicago cottages that are faced with...
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...