less than a week ago i posted images and a brief commentary about two adjoining 1870's italianate "athen's marble" fronted residential buildings on monroe street, which were vacated in preparation for a demolition that i suspected to be only weeks away. i'm constantly surprised how quickly...
the architectural firm of rapp and rapp, consisting of brothers cornelius ward rapp and george leslie rapp (founded in 1907), was widely considered to be one of the leading designers of the great movie palaces constructed during the early 20th century. the firm designed over 400...
i spent the afternoon last week helping my friend tim samuelson transport an ornamental terra cotta figural rondel head salvaged from sullivan & adler's schiller building (garrick theater) to be repaired by another mutual friend, mike gruzca, in preparation for an upcoming exhibit. gruzca is...
several 1870's-era joilet limestone commercial and residential structures have been wiped away from chicago's ciyscape this year. i find this deeply disconcerting. could you imagine buildings in soho, fronted with cast iron facades, being broken apart and scrapped? just as with the buildings in soho's cast...
as i stood across the street from the congress theater's facade, i was reminded of my good fortune, to at one time have had intimate, unabridged access to the chicago athletic association's intricately ornamented building facade. the athletic club had a similar scaffolding configuration as...
after keeping a watchful eye on the post-fire richard maurice birdsall cottage since the day it was handed a death sentence earlier this summer, the moment finally arrived when the wrecking machine was delivered to 1241 n. state street. less than 24 hours later, a cottage...
when i pulled up to the site, to document and extract park view church's time capsule, all that remained standing of this gargatuan gothic-style bedford limestone church was a portion of the exterior facade. the zettler windows had been carefully removed by us a...
nearly a week after spending several consecutive days devoted to carefully and painstakingly extracting "munich style" art glass windows executed by f.x. zettler and drehobl brothers, i'm still incredibly exhausted and applying copious amount of tiger balm to my arms to ease the pain and...
more to follow. ...
once again i took the time to carefully extract, thoroughly clean, and reassemble the floor boards of an 1860's-era chicago cottage privy vault. the sanitary pit was covered over long ago, as indoor plumbing was becoming more readily available during the late 19th century. the house's...
i was already stressed and exhausted from pulling the last of the zettler-signed "munich" style windows from the park view lutheran church's interior (1929) , when i was forced to pause for an hour as a wrecking machine nearby began pulling down the facade of the...
previous posts have covered this historically significant 1870's-era cottage and the "death sentence" it was handed way back in summer 2016. however, the post i have been dreading all along is finally here. the wheels are now in motion, and the "kiss of death," in...
spending an afternoon in the small and amazingly eccentric town of jerome, az., is an unforgettable experience, where portals to the past exist in an oddly suspended state, immune to change or significant alteration. this glorified "ghost town" was an ideal location for me to practice...
for the past two weeks i've devoted nearly every afternoon methodically and painstakingly extracting any and all art glass windows from the soon-to-be-demolished gothic style park view lutheran church featuring an indiana blue limestone facade and single bell tower topped by a an unusual oversized...
the imagery in this photo-essay offers a detailed look at the heavily ornamented exterior terra cotta and ironwork adorning william le baron jenney's 1888 manhattan building - known as the oldest surviving skyscraper utilizing steel skeleton frame construction. the collections of photographs might appear redundant at...
driving down orchard street today i discovered an amazingly intact 19th century clapboard workers cottage surrounded by several monstrous mcmansions so ridiculously huge and devoid of character i felt equally nauseous and claustrophobic. only by focusing on the well-preserved architectural characteristics of the warm and inviting pre-fire 1860's era cottage (which...
below, are just a few examples of hundreds of fireplace mantels, coal baskets, gas inserts, and summer covers available for sale through the end of this week. any and all category items have been discounted. click here to be redirected to the sale category. ...
the following photo gallery offers a glimpse of the most recent artifacts salvaged and/or acquired and posted in the urban remains massive website catalog (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories). this year marks the ten year anniversary of urban remains, and from day one, one...
i was called to examine a desolate triangular-shaped parcel of land being excavated on the near north side shortly after i completed documenting the soon-to-be demolished art deco style 1930's ornamental limestone facade concealing "buddy's parking garage" on clark street (images highlighting the exterior decorative elements will be...
