2024 photographic survey of the romanesque style compton hill standpipe water tower designed by architect harvey ellis in 1898. the compton hill water tower is the earliest of three extant stand pipe-water towers located in st. louis. the 179-foot water tower was built to conceal a...
holabird and root's 7-story a.o. smith research and engineering building with distincitve zig-zag-shaped glass and aluminum curtain wall was completed in 1930. located at 3533 n. 27th street in...
late last week the bldg. 51 archive secured what likely is the largest collection of 2d ephemera pertaining to the chicago-based beardslee chandelier manufacturing company, established in 1901 by frank s. beardslee. we begun digitizing some of the collection while attempting to make sense of it...
the following images were taken in the winter of 2023-24 while carefully documenting central building and preservation's efforts to stabalize, restore and/or rebuild the oversized segmented bedford limestone window arches along the north wall of adler and sullivan's kehilath anshe ma'ariv synagogue or pilgrim baptist...
images of john wellborn root-designed combination bower-barff and copper-plated cast iron staircase removed from the adams street entrance of burnham and root's rookery building (1888) in the 1990s (if i recall correctly). the staircase components were executed by the hecla iron works of new york (william...
the exterior buff-colored ornamental terra cotta 1893 world's fair pabst beer pavilion (designed by architect otto strack, who also designed the extant pabst theater) will be shrouded in a steel web in preparation for deconstruction. will it be rebuilt using a hybrid of original and...
iridescent green glaze. february, 2024. the following images were taken earlier this week of of louis h. sullivan's purdue national bank building (1914). the richly colored polychromed terra was modeled by kristian schneider and executed by the american terra cotta company, chicago, ills. with exception to the...
original 1930 american stoveboard company catalog (i've been searching for one for at least 10 years). so now i know without doubt that by 1930, they carried only one louis h. sullivan-designed board in their product catalog. it's a rather unusual one and the size displayed,...
images taken during a 2-3 hour window while traveling through columbus, indiana, the "athens on the prairie," on valentine's day, 2024. the architecture is very much out of my wheelhouse, but wanted to challenge myself. ...
architectural images taken during a brief visit to racine, wisc. during the middle of winter, 2024. buildings documented - mostly in detail - include barry byrne's st. patrick's church and st. catherine's high school (the terra cotta ornament was likely sculpted by edgar j. miller),...
detailed images of american muralist richard haas's "homage to the chicago school," located at 1211 north lasalle, chicago, ills. the mural draws from the chicago board of trade, chicago tribune competition, sullivan banks, adler and sullivan's transportation building, chicago stock exchange, etc. four portraits are...
a partial selection of eric j. nordstrom photographic images of pond and pond's purdue memorial union (1924), located at 101 north grant street, west lafayette, ind. the irving k. pond ornament - both interior and exterior - is both unusual and distinctive, especially if one...
late 2023-early 2024 photographic images from bldg. 51 archive's chicago architectural ornament survey (caos) are provided below. the ever-expanding photo-documentation project focuses on systematically recording any and all architectural ornament located on historically important 19th and early 20th century extant buildings located in downtown chicago...
digitization of a massive mixed bag of chicago architecture images spanning four decades in currently underway. the other night i finally made time to begin scanning what i call the "shoebox collection," which is comprised of thousands of koda and ektachrome slides of chicago dating from...
George A. Fuller (October 21, 1851 – December 14, 1900) was an American architect often credited as being the "inventor" of modern skyscrapers and the modern contracting system. Early life and career: Fuller was born in Templeton, Massachusetts, near Worcester. After graduating from Andover College, he took a course...
latest 2023-2024 photographic images from bldg. 51 archive's architectural ornament survey (aos) are provided below. the ever-expanding photo-documentation project focuses on systematically recording any and all architectural ornament located on historically important 19th and early 20th century extant buildings in cities located across the country....
original 1924 saddle-stitched bell building booklet distributed to prospective building tenants. the profusely illustrated tri-fold booklet contains detailed images and information on the building. the 23-story classical style cream-colored terra cotta office building was designed by the architectural firm of vitzthum, karl, and company in...
the louis h. sullivan and frank l. wright-designed ornamental plaster within the auditorium of adler and sullivan's garrick theater (1892) was painted hideous colors around the time it was converted into a television studio in 1951. one such example - a star-pod panel - from...
stanley tigerman studied at massachusetts institute of technology, but flunked out after one year. after, the dean of architecture at mit helped tigerman get an apprenticeship with chicago architect george fred keck. after a year with keck, he left to start his own practice, which...
a sizable collection of custom-designed commerical door hardware was recently purchased by both the bldg. 51 museum and urbna remains earlier this month. the emblematic and monogrammed cast brass, bronze, and bower-barff iron doorknobs and backplates are from numerous historically important american buildings (many demolished)...