20 Dec Part 1: How one man races to keep the past of Chicago present
http://wgntv.com/2016/12/20/how-one-man-races-to-keep-the-past-of-chicago-present/...
19 Dec historically important r.r. donnelley terra cotta shields join bldg. 51 museum
Posted at 22:51h
in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products
the bldg. 51 american architectural artifact museum recently acquired several r.r. donnelley printing plant (extant) ornamental terra cotta exterior shields featuring richly colored polychromatic finishes. fabricated by the midland terra cotta (chicago, ills.), the shields adorned the exterior facade of the massive printing facility, considered the...
14 Dec bldg. 51 museum secures multiple pallets of st. boniface school exterior ornamental terra cotta
Posted at 20:26h
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in a previous post, the bldg. 51 museum acquired a unique and highly figurative terra cotta rondel that was positioned between the spandrels on the exterior of the sullivan-inspired late 19th century st. boniface school building (demolished in the 1990's). late last week several pallets of...
13 Dec city of chicago stops demolition of post-fire christopher bettker frame cottage
after learning that the city had rejected the demolition of a post-fire chicago cottage located at 1639 n. north park avenue this morning, i opened up my schedule to spend the afternoon photodocumenting the frame house's exterior characteristics. from there, i decided to broaden the...
12 Dec park view lutheran church quickly brought down and trucked off to landfill
Posted at 20:30h
in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages
with the drebohl brothers and zessler "munich" style art glass windows removed from park view lutheran church (see prior posts), my only business being was to document its senseless and destruction, that surprisingly, went largely unnoticed by neighbors and preservationists alike. it was utterly surreal...
09 Dec utilitarian objects salvaged from the fulton market cold storage building
Posted at 23:51h
in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages
a collection of fulton market cold storage warehouse utilitarian objects. ...
09 Dec bldg. 51 acquires sullivan-designed louis frank house ceiling medallion modeled by james legge
Posted at 08:18h
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earlier this month, two nearly identical, museum-quality cast plaster interior residential ceiling medallions salvaged by richard nickel in 1968 were recently added to the bldg. 51 museum collection. the remarkable solid plaster ceiling medallions or rosettes were designed by louis h. sullivan for the louis...
05 Dec chicago theater’s balaban & katz highly thematic massive art glass window
documenting rapp and rapp's chicago theater (1921) today was nothing short of sensory overload. my camera crawled over so many intricate fixtures, and i was engulfed in a sea of ornamental plasterwork - both in the lobby and auditorium (see previous posts for a discussion...
02 Dec a look back at several object assemblages by eric j. nordstrom
Posted at 22:14h
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01 Dec photodocumenting aging architecture in milwaukee
my eye gravitates toward crazed paint, cracked windows, timeworn stonework, and "ghost signs" as i walk the streets with camera in hand. those are only a few of the numerous attributes that i look for in aging buildings that have avoided substantial alteration. even when...
25 Nov rookery building basement vault room safeguards remnants from its repairs and renovations
to this day, the rookery building (burnham & root, 1888) still houses the northern trust company's old central safety deposit vaults in its basement. while the vault room no longer houses the 1100 private safes (installed in 1901) used to protect chicagoan's securities and valuables, the...
23 Nov demolition permit assigned to late 19th century two-flat residence on iowa street
an exceptionally well-maintained two-story masonry residence, constructed between 1888-1894, was issued a demolition permit late last week. despite being structurally sound and a solid representation of a late 19th century victorian-era chicago boarding house and/or two-flat, it seems it was sadly only a matter of...
22 Nov revisiting chicago’s past through architectural remnants
Posted at 20:06h
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after spending the day engaging with people over my pop-up exhibition of "fragments from chicago's past," i brought some of the architectural artifacts to my studio to photograph before they return to the bldg. 51 museum. i cleaned, documented, and photographed each and every fragment, both...
18 Nov an original polychromatic ornamental cast iron uptown theater aisle seat end
Posted at 16:10h
in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products
after spending an afternoon a few ago photographing the facade of the congress theater, combined with revisiting nortown theater ornament i salvaged in 2007, and researching the architectural firm of rapp and rapp for an upcoming exhibit i'm putting together on "artifacts from atmospheric theaters,"...
17 Nov death sentence handed to 1870’s italianate style chicago residence located at 2033 n. howe street
less than a week ago i posted images and a brief commentary about two adjoining 1870's italianate "athen's marble" fronted residential buildings on monroe street, which were vacated in preparation for a demolition that i suspected to be only weeks away. i'm constantly surprised how quickly...
16 Nov the work of rapp & rapp – a 1928 highly sought after softbound book of many notable commissions
Posted at 21:25h
in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products
the architectural firm of rapp and rapp, consisting of brothers cornelius ward rapp and george leslie rapp (founded in 1907), was widely considered to be one of the leading designers of the great movie palaces constructed during the early 20th century. the firm designed over 400...
15 Nov exchanging historically important building fragments from chicago’s past
Posted at 14:04h
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i spent the afternoon last week helping my friend tim samuelson transport an ornamental terra cotta figural rondel head salvaged from sullivan & adler's schiller building (garrick theater) to be repaired by another mutual friend, mike gruzca, in preparation for an upcoming exhibit. gruzca is...
13 Nov two 1870’s italianate conjoined rowhouses fronted with “athens marble” face the wrecking ball
several 1870's-era joilet limestone commercial and residential structures have been wiped away from chicago's ciyscape this year. i find this deeply disconcerting. could you imagine buildings in soho, fronted with cast iron facades, being broken apart and scrapped? just as with the buildings in soho's cast...
13 Nov challenges of capturing congress theater’s cream-colored terra cotta ornament covered in scaffolding
as i stood across the street from the congress theater's facade, i was reminded of my good fortune, to at one time have had intimate, unabridged access to the chicago athletic association's intricately ornamented building facade. the athletic club had a similar scaffolding configuration as...
11 Nov post demolition, early 1870’s richard maurice birdsall cottage just a former shadow of itself
Posted at 03:43h
in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages
after keeping a watchful eye on the post-fire richard maurice birdsall cottage since the day it was handed a death sentence earlier this summer, the moment finally arrived when the wrecking machine was delivered to 1241 n. state street. less than 24 hours later, a cottage...