07 Jan We Can’t Get Enough: Vintage Industrial Cabinets
urban remains cabinetry featured in...
03 Jan three movement noel bank building vault door time clock
the extant noel state bank building, located in the wicker park neighborhood of chicago, is an american neoclassical style bank building designed and built by the architectural firm of weary & alford co., chicago, il., for joseph noel, who founded the north west savings bank...
26 Dec frank lloyd wright’s southside chicago “bootleg” homes in need of major restoration.
DEC 25, 2013 Locals hear details on cost to restore two homes at risk By LINDSAY WELBERS Staff Writer To restore the decaying Frank Lloyd Wright houses at the center of a controversy in South Kenwood will take between $4 and $5 million, in addition to their purchase prices. The...
18 Dec Frank Lloyd Wright desk, chair, absent from auction site
By Kristen Zambo NEW YORK — An office desk and chair designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright for SC Johnson’s Racine administration building have been removed from Sotheby’s website ahead of Wednesday’s auction. Both pieces were valued at a combined estimate of $480,000 to $720,000. The two...
11 Dec St. Louis Art Museum to buy $825,000 Frank Lloyd Wright chandelier
ST. LOUIS • The St. Louis Art Museum is buying a Frank Lloyd Wright chandelier to go with its Frank Lloyd Wright chair, aiming to bolster its collection of the renowned Midwestern architect. On Monday, the board approved spending $825,000 on the fixture, its largest purchase this...
10 Dec another afternoon at the chicago athletic club association building.
more and more layers are peeled back - week after week - and i'm there to document it with my cameras. the frequency of extensive "remuddlings" that have occurred over the decades in this building are rather astonishing, yet equally depressing in some ways (at...
04 Dec louis h. sullivan designs transformed into metal.
sullivan's design for the auditorium building stair baluster is transformed into copper-plated cast iron by the winslow brothers foundry of chicago. this early, if not first collaboration between sullivan and winslow would lead to many more notable commissions including, but not limited to, the chicago...
23 Nov revisiting odin j. oyen and his remarkable building in la crosse, wisc.
nearly sixteen years ago, i was attending college during the day and working as an audio engineer at night in a recording studio a friend and i haphazardly piecemealed together in the basement of the historic odin j. oyen building. during the course of organizing the...
18 Nov the chicago athletic association building in greater detail.
here are a few more photographs of the chicago athletic association building (henry ives cobb) taken late last week. more to come. [gallery ids="738,739,740,741,742"]...
12 Nov further documentation of the historic chicago athletic association building undergoing extensive renovations
i managed to get away from the shop this afternoon so i could continue photo-documenting the interior of the athletic club association building while it undergoes its transformation from abandoned club to boutique hotel. although they have an industrial photographer onboard, i told the developers...
10 Nov chicago ahtletic club dining room “drooping tip” cast plaster ceiling finally exposed
after dismantling the false or "drop" ceiling installed during a classic remuddle, the original cast plaster "drooping tip" ceiling was exposed for the first time in decades. unfortunately, the installation of the drop ceiling caused considerable damage to the ornament. i'm glad i was able...
20 Oct chicago athletic club building salvage in progress
Posted at 11:58h
in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages
completely and utterly exhausted. worked 13 hours straight. removed several truckloads of salvaged items from the chicago athletic club. fortunately, nearly all of the historically significant architectural elements from the original 1893 building (henry ives cobb, architect) and the 1907 "michigan building" addition (schmidt, garden...
22 Sep overhaul of urban remains showroom for fall 2013
the urban remains showroom will undergo a mild overhaul during the fall of 2013. additional retired or decommissioned artifacts from my personal collection will be brought over to complement or enhance the existing items already available for sale at the showroom. the core of my...
15 Sep revisiting old cook county hospital.
i was returning from a demolition site the other day when i decided to make a detour to revisit the old abandoned cooky county hospital, which is considered to be one of the best remaining examples of beaux arts-style architecture in the city of chicago....
05 Sep eric j. nordstrom’s photography will be featured in the urban remains showroom this fall
a mostly random assemblage of photographic prints taken by eric j. nordstrom will go on display in the urban remains showroom beginning in fall of 2013. the majority of the prints will be matted and framed. some will be for sale, while others will be...
13 Aug a huge load of c. 1918 towsley factory furniture carts arrived earlier this week
over the past few days urban remains has been consumed in removing a large load of mobile industrial carts or "floor trucks" from the burhop paper company factory complex, located west of downtown chicago. the incredibly robust, shopworn carts were designed and fabricated by the...
07 Aug visit the digital chicago stock exchange website
the 2009-2010 Emerging Media Innovation Grant team Michele Chiuini (architecture) and John Fillwalk (IDIA) launched the Digital Chicago Stock Exchange website, the result of their work to virtually reconstruct portions of the 1894 Chicago Stock Exchange building, designed by the famous duo Adler and Sullivan. The...
04 Aug mastery of organic expression
the long-term collaboration involving the creative brilliance of architect louis h. sullivan (with assistance from chief draftsman george grant elmslie) and execution by the notable winslow brothers ornamental iron foundry culminated in 1899 with the fabrication (and generally well-maintained) enameled ornament adorning the schlesinger &...
28 Jul urban remains prepares for expansion in early 2014.
in other news, i'm dangerously close to pulling the trigger on securing the lease for this 38,000 square-foot factory building that would house the new urban remains warehouse, showroom and museum. urban remains outgrew the existing warehouse two years ago, so this seems to be...
02 Jul Salvaged Chicago by Eric J. Nordstrom
urban remains is currently in the early stages of self-publishing a limited edition, hardbound photo-book entitled “salvaged chicago.” the book will consist of a curated collection of photography offering a glimpse into urban remains owner eric j. nordstrom’s experiences pertaining to the exploration and deconstruction...