my ever-growing collection of antique american soda bottles and my persistent and/or obsessive privy digging engagements are firmly planted (for better or for worse) in the day-to-day living with my significant other. recently she surprised me with an unbelievably thoughtful "couple activity," in which we visited a glassblowing studio...
i was absolutely delighted to begin the week by acquiring an assortment of original early 20th century cast bronze and brass "bare bulb" industrial incandescent light fixtures salvaged from various new york city subway stations. the subway station fixtures are so incredibly simplistic and visually attractive...
when time permits, i'm moving from one excavation site to another to look for pieces of the past before those "time portals" are once again closed when construction begins. i must admit, i have not "scored" any major privy vaults containing a condensed collection of material...
prior to this demolition, a cluster of similarly built late 19th century brick worker's cottages just west of damen avenue had been largely unaltered since they were constructed around 1885-1890. unfortunately, one of the closely-shaped houses was brought down earlier this week, leaving a gaping hole that...
i've managed to gather well over a hundred rare and richly colored soda and/or mineral water bottles dating to the mid-19th century over the past month. since the rapidity of bottle acquisition has made it incredibly difficult to populate the urban remains website with these great finds,...
the assemblage of photographic images shown in the gallery below offer a glimpse of my most recent visit (two consecutive days of shooting) to the notable a. finkl & sons chicago foundry that is rapidly being taken apart and discarded by several on-site excavators operated by...
the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have surpassed the 23, 200 item...
earlier this week urban remains came across a treasure trove of chicago public school science classroom anatomical models, charts and posters, fossils and other interesting specimens. the images below provide a small sampling of the acquisitions that have been photographed and added to the website. the images...
after thoroughly documenting and/or collecting any and all data from wood beam sill plate corners from various 19th century chicago residences, i'm trying to determine what to do with them since i have nearly 100 individual specimens finished in a nearly identical manner to the...
for the past few months i have been exchanging emails with marty uhl, the grandchild of clement uhl, who with his brother joe, founded the toledo metal furniture company in 1903. for the next several decades, their "uhl art steel" furniture would find its way...
i have a feeling oddball movie director david lynch would find inspiration at this overwhelmingly desolate and gloomy demolition job site, that once was home to one of the largest foundries in the chicago area. the thick overcast blanket prevented the sun from making an appearance...
the mounted albumen print features the non-extant telegraph block building, located in thomaston, maine. the 1865 photographic print clearly depicts multiple businesses represented in part, by the variety of exterior hanging trade signs, which took many forms in early america. when education was a privilege and...
the recent removal of a depression era three-phase alternating current gantry crane switchboard, outfitted with an oversized trumball 3-pole knife switch, injected me with newly found inspiration to revisit an otherwise largely dormant interest in acquiring any and all electrical apparatus revolving around building "power plants." i...
the photographic essay below offers a brief glimpse at a day of savaging artifacts during a single afternoon at a chicago area standard oil (of indiana) brick factory building constructed as a distribution and handling center for several decades. the building is set to be demolished...
demolition of the downtown chicago howard johnson inn, constructed in the late 1960's, is nearly complete. in preparation high-rise development that will be constructed on the site (located at the corner of la salle and superior), the wrecker has spent the past few weeks systematically "potholing" the...
last night i finished editing images of two incredible artifacts carefully removed the a. finkl & sons foundry. both depression-era artifacts join the ever-growing number of antique american industrial objects and furniture being salvaged from this notable sprawling chicago industrial complex. before being taken down and brought...
he photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have surpassed the 23, 200 item...
as part of our ongoing salvage efforts at a notable chicago foundry complex, we finally gained access to yet another building on the sprawling industrial campus; the building formerly served as a distribution center for standard oil of indiana. there, we discovered several matching, unusually-shaped dirk saaf-designed...
urban remains has been spending an increasing amount of time salvaging anything and everything of interest as demolition of the a. finkl & sons sprawling foundry complex has intensified over the past two weeks. the next few posts will cover the salvage efforts, along with...
i'm am so utterly exhausted from keeping up with documenting the alarming rate of inner-city demolitions happening week after week, despite redefining my eligibility parameters for seeking study materials from 19th century wood-framed chicago houses within my study period. extracting samples of wood lath, segments of joists and studs,...