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...
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,...
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,...
[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...
"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"...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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....
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....
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. ...
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...
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...
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...
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...
the discovery of several books, photographic prints, drawings, and papers - including two completely intact and well-maintained ledgers from architectural firm of jenney, mundie, & jensen, was nothing short of one of the more remarkable finds i've run across in recent years. hidden away and...
the bldg. 51 museum is offering a first-ever, limited edition line of faithfully recreated cast plaster auditorium theater (1889) proscenium vault perforated domes designed by architect louis h. sullivan and executed by chicago-based decorators supply company. the full-scale "beehive" domes were made possible through a collaboration...
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...
for over a year now, high noon entertainment has been working closely with eric j. nordstrom of urban remains, filming his ongoing efforts to methodically document and save fragments from chicago's late 19th and early 20th century buildings faced with demolition. the project is currently in development. ...