on a calm afternoon, only myself and the wreckers were present as the humongous carved limestone columns proudly gracing the facade of the charles sumner frost-designed public life insurance building (1921) were quickly turned to a crumbling heap. the clunky, menacing clam bucket attached to the boom...
following the recent announcement that the old cook county hospital will finally be rehabbed and put to new use, i took the time to visit the 100+ year old beaux arts-style main building, to photograph the facade and capture up-close detailing in the exquisite terra cotta...
the 11-story "moorish gothic" office building was completed in 1899 by architect harry bergen wheelock, originally serving as the offices of the western methodist book exchange, later as the stop and shop warehouse. this week's acquisitions include an additional "sullivanesque" spandrel panel (four sections creates a...
this week the bldg. 51 collection acquired a pair of historically important bronze and pressed two-piece frosted glass elevator indicator light fixtures dating to william drummond's renovation of the rookery building in the 1930's. the super super streamlined elevator fixtures feature centrally located rings flanked on...
it's friday afternoon and i find it hard to get anything done. there is so much to edit, research and write about. when i'm overwhelmed and anxious it's hard to gain traction and build momentum enough to feel in control again. as of this writing, i'm...
following the revelation of a time capsule, or foundation deposit, in the cornerstone of humboldt park's former st. paul's ev. lutheran church, it seems appropriate to elaborate the twentieth century history of the building. as dnainfo covered, the most recent iteration of the building was as a d.i.y....
just this past week another late nineteenth century church was wrecked in humboldt park. arriving to scope out the recipient of this new demolition sentence, the two-story masonry jehovah's witnesses church held immediate intrigue, a modest structure painted completely gray, but veiling certain architectural features that appeared...
while the mountainous piles of rubble were being carted off, the last remains of the recently demolished crane brothers mfg. factory building addition (the main building constructed in 1865 still stands), i discovered a small cavity against the foundation wall that yielded a wealth of artifacts. the 19th...
a month ago i posted about the uncertain fate of the ornamental terra cotta adorning the facade of presbyterian hospital's daniel a. jones building, completed in 1888. as the small collection of wrecking machines slowly erased the building's lengthy existence, i was growing concerned that...
on occasion urban remains ventures to acquire architectural artifacts from outside chicago, and this week brought a fragment from a mid-nineteenth century building in milwaukee that is undergoing redevelopment. the artifact is an original section of allover crazed painted cast iron entryway load-baring column with...
as in san francisco, i spent a great deal of my "vacation" wandering the streets of new orleans armed with a camera and multiple lenses. i deliberately avoided putting forth any objectives or parameters for myself in terms of producing architectural imagery that could be assigned greater...
a peek inside the construction being done at 112 south state street yielded a surprising glimpse into the building's former life as a luxurious vaudeville theater. to say the current architecture is unassuming is a vast understatement, as its facade effectively conceals over a century of history....
after returning from my week-long trip to new orleans, i revisited the site of the crane brothers manufacturing factory complex (renamed northwestern manufacturing and then crane mfg. co. shortly after the 1871 great chicago fire). the building that most interested me was one of two pre-fire structures, built in...
[caption id="attachment_20372" align="alignleft" width="900"] rose's product was advertised to contain nearly five pounds of fresh, lean beef in the form of a heavy syrup, priced at one dollar per pound. preston b. rose moved to chicago, where he used his chemistry knowledge to concoct a new...
after thoroughly photo-documenting the interior and exterior of the two extant pre-fire crane brothers factory buildings constructed in 1865 and 1870, we were given 1-2 days to extract artifacts that i expressed interest in during a lengthy afternoon of search and discovery. with insurance certificates issued and...
as the early 20th century head (roman goddess diana) of montgomery ward's "spirit of progress" joins an exhibition at the chicago cultural center, a new historically-important (with ties to both st. louis and chicago) and finely executed artifact enters the bldg. 51 collection, thanks to...
an exciting acquisition joining a number of egyptian revival artifacts in the urban remains/ bldg. 51 collection is a brightly colored exterior polychromatic glazed terra cotta window surround cornice segment removed nearly 40 years ago from the historically-important chicago art deco gem known as the reebie storage warehouse,...
the historically important 19th century "spirit of progress" weathervane head, which once crowned the chicago school montgomery ward building (designed in 1898 by schmidt, garden & martin) is once again viewable to the general public at the cultural center, thanks to eric j. nordstrom (bldg. 51 museum)...
following a recent demolition alert for the public life insurance co. building, it seems appropriate to segue into another charles sumner frost-designed structure that was torn down long ago. as it happens, frost's work links us to the crane family (see the recent blog on the crane mfg. company's pre-fire factory building). shortly before...
a gargantuan early twentieth century neoclassical style commercial building, originally built for the public life insurance company and last occupied by the plumbing council of chicagoland, was recently handed a death sentence in the form of a demolition permit that virtually came out of nowhere....