BLDG51. News and Events |

24 Aug remnants of a newly discovered garrick theater graveyard on display

Posted at 20:22h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions by Eric

a friend invited me over to a warehouse where crates of terra cotta from the garrick theater, scoville factory, and rosenfeld flats have been in storage for several years. when i arrived, all of of the ornament was on display on the floor, arranged as...

24 Aug showcasing ornament through a northwestern terra cotta company executive’s residence

Posted at 18:24h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

the northwestern terra cotta company was founded in chicago in 1877 by a group of investors that included john r. true. the company became a major producer of terra cotta trimmings used by the construction industry. by the beginning of the 20th century, architectural terra...

17 Aug returning to avalon to further record theater’s moorish style polychromed ornament

Posted at 21:22h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

during my second visit to chicago's atmospheric avalon theater, i spent the first few hours documenting any and all of the exterior terra cotta, primarily from the rooftop. the images below provide the viewer with the multitude of design motifs employed by eberson, along the...

17 Aug visiting merchants national bank, foshay tower, masonic temple, grain exchange, and purcell-cutts house during single day road trip

Posted at 20:20h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Travel by Eric

the following images were taken during a recent road trip where i manged to briefly stop in winona, red wing, and minneapolis over the course of an afternoon. a sizable chunk of tiime was devoted to photodocumeting the interior and exterior ornament of purcell, feick,...

17 Aug nearly year later, west side chicago italianate style lemont limestone flats succumb to wrecking ball

Posted at 15:11h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

last week, a group of post-fire three-story italianate style flats finally surrendered to the wrecking ball. a blog post from late last year sounded the alarm, triggered by a proposal to replace the 1870's lemont limestone flats with more of the same dull, bland, and...

16 Aug documenting chicago movie palaces remains a top priority for 2017

Posted at 04:42h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

for several years now, i've wanted to document chicago's congress theater (1927). the opportunity finally arrived at the beginning of 2017, when a production company and the theater's developers signed off on a contract, allowing me unabridged access to explore both the interior and exterior,...

16 Aug highlights from the soon-to-be published “unearthing chicago” bldg. 51 museum book

Posted at 03:24h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Sales and Promotions by Eric

the following photographs (and collages) were taken from more than 546 folders containing over 9,800 images of jobsites and salvage work "in the field," as well as unearthed artifacts cleaned and assembled in my studio afterward. all of my urban excavation began two years ago,...

11 Aug rare albumen print captures adler & sullivan’s auditorium building with iconic tower under construction

Posted at 21:02h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

[caption id="attachment_32052" align="alignleft" width="1500"] dated (february 2, 1889) albumen photographic print of adler and sullivan's auditorium building under construction. note the tower beginning to rise, along with the piles of common building brick in the foreground. the building was competed the same year. adler and...

10 Aug daniel h. burnham’s fisher building interior lobby original elevator doors executed by winslow brothers

Posted at 13:48h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

"to appreciate the fisher building one has to see it in the late afternoon of a winter day. the fading daylight softens the redundant ornament detail; the lighting within transforms the wall into a glittering and transparent sheath crossed by thin horizontal and vertical lines"...

09 Aug art deco slip shade fixtures, vintage examination room furniture, palmolive building elevator indicators, majolica tiles, and figural brownstone rondels

Posted at 05:01h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Sales and Promotions by Eric

the following gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 26,500 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and...

05 Aug ornamental terra cotta panel from rapp & rapp’s southtown non-extant theater joins bldg. 51 museum american building artifact collection

Posted at 21:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the building 51 museum and archive recently acquired an all original and historically important heavily ornamented terra cotta panel rescued from rapp and rapp's southtown theater during its unfortunate demolition in 1991. the single-sided polychromed exterior theater panel features foliated scrollwork with centrually located petalled...

04 Aug bldg. 51 museum acquires “lost” records of architectural firm graven and mayger

Posted at 20:00h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the bldg. 51 museum recently secured another important archive, containing previously undocumented materials belonging to the short-lived notable chicago-based architectural firm of graven and mayger. the drawings, ledgers, blueprints, photographs, and paperwork last belonged to edward rupinksi, who worked as a draftsman for the firm....

03 Aug putting louis h. sullivan’s gage building (1898) terra cotta facade back together again

Posted at 04:19h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

i made a point to stop by the gage building the other day, while i was in the neighborhood doing a systematic photo shoot of the s.a. maxwell lofts building's exterior ornament from sidewalk to roofline (1881, dankmark adler & louis h. sullivan, architects). when...

02 Aug what tradesmen left behind in the attic of john eberson’s 1927 persian atmospheric regal theater

Posted at 04:43h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

i began documenting john eberson's atmospheric avalon theater (1927) early last week, and many additional visits lie on the horizon. aside from embarking on the creation of a visual record of the theater's interior and exterior ornament, i managed to spend time in the attic....

31 Jul ephemera, photographs, drawings, and books from the architectural offices of jenney & mundie acquired by bldg. 51 museum

Posted at 19:09h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the following images offer a glimpse at a sizable jenney & mundie archive containing architectural records previously believed to have been lost or destroyed. the archive -which is by no means comprehensive - was acquired by the bldg. 51 museum collection in july of 2017....

26 Jul forgotten ornament from adler & sullivan’s s.a. commercial loft building joins bldg. 51 museum collection

Posted at 05:25h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts by Eric

the bldg. 51 museum recently acquired a group of diminutive first floor exterior column ornament removed (along with the columns) during the 1950's when adler & sullivan's s.a. maxwell building (1882) underwent extensive alterations (interior and exterior) that obliterated most of the street level ornament. ...

26 Jul wide array of old signage, salesman samples, 19th century east coast soda bottles, faries lighting, and builders’ hardware

Posted at 04:40h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the following gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog. the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and photographed prior to being added to...

25 Jul photographic study of post-fire italianate row house interior element extraction

Posted at 22:34h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

in a previous post, i devoted a considerable amount of time to sharing both images and informational notes regarding the careful and systematic extraction of a post-fire chicago italianate row house interior staircase, comprised largely of walnut wood. the inspiration to focus solely on the...

17 Jul a photographic study of historic commercial building ornament in la crosse, wisc.

Posted at 21:10h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Travel by Eric

a photographic study of selected 19th and early 20th century la crosse (wisconsin) commercial building exterior ornaments. additional information on building history (e.g., architect, build date, material identification, etc.) will be added to each photo as time permits. the extant buildings shown below were chosen...

17 Jul documenting cicero’s historic olympic theater (1927) cut short by heat exhaustion.

Posted at 04:45h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

i moved quickly to document any and all ornament adorning the lobby and auditorium of the 1927 olympic hotel, formerly known as the sokol slavsky building. Most of it had remained original and largely unaltered since time of construction, and i was preparing to commit...