29 Jan

Posted at 15:05h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by

exactly a year ago i was spending a great deal of time excavating a site in west chicago, at the corner of paulina and wood, that i deemed the "big dig." over the course of several days , despite the temperature hovering around zero degrees and the earth being incredibly...

28 Jan

Posted at 11:38h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

joining a number of other artifacts in the bldg. 51 collection that originated in holabird & root-designed buildings, is an art deco cast bronze lobby elevator grille from the palmolive building, at 919 michigan avenue. the heavy square panel features an elaborate motif that once...

26 Jan

Posted at 00:36h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

in addition to acquiring multiple winslow brothers exterior cast iron stringcourse or frieze panels from the gage building late last year, the bldg. 51 collection has now obtained a rare sullivan-designed terra cotta fragment from the facade of the same extant building, located in downtown...

25 Jan

Posted at 14:18h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by

following up on the recent demolition at the corner of wells and chicago, of the former "voltz hall" -- i cannot help but return time and again to sites that peak my interest. over the weekend, i identified one of the limestone window headers laying...

24 Jan

Posted at 18:54h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous by

i would like to thank rich ellis for featuring the bldg. 51 museum historic artifact book in his latest Architectural Salvage & Antique Lumber News email and the homepage of his newly revamped website, which pertaining to the architectural antique and/or salvage industry. according to rich's publication, his...

21 Jan

Posted at 15:07h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

regardless of season or day of the week, i remain busier then ever -- devoted to delivering meaningful posts and revising the pile of projects that were set on the back-burner when multiple demolitions were taking place each week. i spend every night reviewing photo-documentation,...

20 Jan

Posted at 22:49h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Travel by

on a recent weekend trip to milwaukee, i revisited and toured the famous pabst mansion, a monumental limestone and terra cotta residence that sits on wisconsin avenue. the house is an anomaly, set back from the street and situated between non-descript university buildings. though hard...

19 Jan

Posted at 15:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

moving and organizing old inventory this past week, i re-discovered several interesting pieces from a lengthy and tumultuous salvage nearly 7 years ago. the artifacts described in this post had completely slipped from my mind, since i didn't devote much attention or time to removing architectural artifacts from...

18 Jan

Posted at 12:45h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

last month, chicago architecture reported the "demolition derby" on wells street, with two sites making way for a 39-story apartment block and 22-story residential tower. the wreckage continues this month at 800 n. wells street. joining the graveyard of century-old buildings turned into high rises,...

15 Jan

Posted at 14:54h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the bldg. 51 building artifact has recently acquired yet another important "gardenesque"  architectural remnant in the form of a massive ornamental cast iron frieze or stringer panel generously donated by chicago's cultural historian, tim samuelson. the 1928 exterior building facade panel fragment was recovered by tim on...

14 Jan

Posted at 15:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

during the first week of january 2016, the bldg. 51 museum received an original and historically-important post-fire window keystone from a lake street loft building (osborne and adams, 1872). this was comprised of a seldom encountered material -- "artificial stone" -- which undoubtedly adds to its importance...

12 Jan

Posted at 23:17h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

early in the morning i arrived onsite with a delivery of boxed donuts (per tim samuelson's suggestion when negotiating with national wrecking). sure enough, mike -- the foreman and son of the company founder butch mandell -- delivered on his promise to set aside a single post-fire osborne and...

08 Jan

Posted at 13:20h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

the following photo gallery offers a glimpse of the most recent artifacts acquired and listed on the urban remains website (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories). approaching the ten year anniversary of urban remains, the goal -- now and since 2006 --...

05 Jan

Posted at 15:47h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

i often refer to living a dichotomous lifestyle when telling people how i went from molecular geneticist to the urban "archaeologist" at demolition and excavation sites. back then, at moment's notice i would leave the laboratory a little early if an impending demolition was on the horizon near...

01 Jan

Posted at 18:25h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by

just before christmas i had spoken to mike, son of national wrecking's head honcho, to determine whether the historically important "artificial stone" facade of this post-fire building was going to be saved.  i was taken aback when he responded with a "yes", but only two complete...

28 Dec

Posted at 14:11h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

in previous posts (here and here) i've discussed my concern over the number of buildings being demolished that have facades bedecked with glazed white "sullivanesque" terra cotta ornament. this unusual terra cotta, "inspired" by organic design motifs original to louis h. sullivan and his chief draftsman...

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