a brief description on the use of wood piles for the foundation supporting adler and sullivan's schiller theater building (1892), along with several images taken by richard nickel in 1961, when the building was demolished and ground excavated exposing the largely intact foundations (including oak...
the following blog post links arranged in chronological order below offer highlights of the work of eric j. nordstrom, urban remains, and the bldg. 51 museum archive in 2019. over the past few years my work towards creating and/or collaborating with people and organizations deeply...
my efforts photo-documenting howells and hood's tribune tower (completed in 1925) transformation and/or restoration in 2019, are summarized in an extensive chronology shown below. the curated exhibit of photos, culled from thousands of images taken of tribune tower for nearly two years now, is presented...
the following collection on posts revolve around architectural salvage operations (big and small) across the city of chicago over the past decade. in time, i hope to revisit dormant images and information waiting to be transformed into posts to shed light on buildings demolished long...
photographic study of h.h. richardson's sever hall (1878-1880) exterior east facade brick ornament adorning east facade. the richly carved brick ornament was likely executed by the peerless brick company, philadelphia, pa. the 3-story building (4th story set within roof) was constructed using nearly 1.3 million...
thankfully, i brought my camera equipment on an afternoon i was given the opportunity to step out onto the swing stage and raised myself up against the louis h. sullivan-designed ohio sandstone panels adorning the upper facade of adler and sullivan's s.a. maxwell five-story loft...
john vinci personal kodachrome slides (digitized by the bldg. 51 archive) chronicling his restoration work on louis h. sullivan's schlesinger and meyer department store (1899) from the late 1970's, shortly after vinci and partner larry kenny rebuilt adler and sullivan's chicago stock exchange trading room...
after several months of an intensive collaboration - between eric j. nordstrom of bldg. 51 and tigerman mccurry art and architecture archivist nathaniel parks of the ryerson and burnham archives - spent gathering ephemera and artifacts chronicling the recovery and reconstruction of adler and sullivan's...
two richly ornamented and historically important architectural fragments from adler and sullivan buildings are the latest additions to the rapidly-expanding bldg. 51 archive and museum. the first piece, executed by james legge and cast in plaster, was salvaged from the 10th floor hotel dining room...
latest photographic images from ongoing restoration of howells and hood's bedford limestone tribune tower (1925) and cornerstone extraction of incised limestone cornerstone with time capsule from jarvis hunt's printing plant (1929). the majority of the images focus on capturing tradesmen restoring the tower's bedford limestone...
a selection of images of 19th and early 20th century exterior residential prairie school architecture located in and around oak park, river forest and riverside. the majority of the images from this ongoing study focus on the ornamentation designed by notable chicago architects william drummond,...
[caption id="attachment_36362" align="alignleft" width="1500"] detail of chicago stock exchange trading room main truss stencil and monogrammed plaster discovered shortly after the false ceilings were removed by john vinci, richard nickel, and others assigned to dismantle ornament from the room. note the dust-covered mazda light bulbs...
looking over newspapers on the guaranty building, i discovered plans that announced (january, 1951) to do away with the original open-cage sullivan-designed elevator enclosures within the guaranty building (adler & sullivan, architects, 1896). the "modernization" would cost 20,000, which included new otis elevator cabs ordered to...
after well over three years, i've finally begun the arduous task of editing hundreds of photographic images documenting the recreation and installation of henry ives cobb's chicago athletic association building's (1893) gothic style cast plaster "drooping tip" illuminated ceiling, located in the building's great dining...
i'll be spending the next several months documenting (off-and-on) 19th century residential structures in and around wicker park with an emphasis on workers cottages. an exhaustive photographic survey of these structures offered in condensed format (e.g., book, archive, etc.) is long overdue, espeically in light...
the following images were selected from hundreds of photographs systemically documenting the long-overlooked a.d. german warehouse designed in 1914 by frank lloyd wright. located in richland center, wisc., the warehouse was the only building wright ever designed in the town he was born. the warehouse...
while making a futile attempt to further organize my photographic images of american architecture taken in 2016, i ran across several folders that were either mislabeled, simply "shelved," or forgotten about. some of the folders had content i found compelling enough to carve out time...
2019 has been an incredibly fruitful year in terms of ephemera, book, and artifact acquisition - based upon what the bldg. 51 museum archive has already secured, along with arrangements in the works or nearing finalization. the ever-growing museum archive has reached a critical mass,...
urban remains and bldg. 51 museum owner eric j. nordstrom featured in october 2019 issue of sophisticated living magazine. magazine link: https://lsc-pagepro.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?i=619240&p=&pn=#{%22issue_id%22:619240,%22page%22:92} further reading: THE URBAN ARCHAEOLOGIST URBAN REMAINS FEATURED IN PLAYBOY MAGAZINE IN 2011...
