28 Sep

Posted at 04:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

by the time i arrived in the summer of 2007, the nortown theater was already dead. stripped of its utilities, burnt by fire, and extensively damaged by prolonged neglect. note: salvaging/documenting the nortown theater's facade and its ornamental terra cotta was addressed in a previous blog entry,...

27 Sep

Posted at 21:22h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

after reading several letters between architectural historian and john root's biographer donald hoffman and richard nickel, i felt compelled to revisit nickel's documentation of burnham and root's kansas city board of trade building (1888) before it was set to be demolished in 1968.  the images take...

27 Sep

Posted at 06:51h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

john vinci images of burnham and root’s first regiment armory building (1891) during its demolition in 1967. when time permits, i will include all of vinci’s kodachrome slides, which were taken around the same time when both vinci and richard nickel were documenting the armory’s...

22 Sep

Posted at 01:01h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

urban remains and bldg. 51 recently acquired several sections of historically important egyptian revival style spray-glazed terra cotta ornament from the non-extant walter bailey-designed knights of pythias building (1928), also referred to as the "skyscraper" of bronzeville.  the building's architect, walter thomas bailey, was an american...

21 Sep

Posted at 13:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

'Romanticism to Ruin: Two Lost Works of Sullivan and Wright' revisits razed icons STIR speaks with the curators of the exhibition at Wrightwood 659 in Chicago, centered on two lost masterworks - Louis Sullivan’s Garrick Theatre and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Larkin Building. by Nitija Immanuel, Jerry ElengicalPublished on :...

16 Sep

Posted at 14:45h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the bldg. 51 museum recently acquired two unusual chicago fire books (published, 1872) featuring a collection of gruesome accounts collected by writer and publisher george l. barclay. graphic lithographs including children being burned alive, criminals hung and "brained," and buildings being purposely detonated (often still...

14 Sep

Posted at 02:44h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

photographic survey of lakeview state bank building's demise. the restrained neoclassical style bank building was built around 1921. the exact architect is not known. none of the existing ornament was saved, including vast mounts of dressed limestone furnished by the indiana limestone company, bedford, ind.  ...

08 Sep

Posted at 02:02h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the following images represent a well rounded cross section of historically important architectural materials added to the bldg. 51 archive in 2019. a more focused and in-depth blog post, will touch upon some of the more notable and historically important architectural artifacts acquired for the...

03 Sep

Posted at 03:15h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

[caption id="attachment_34568" align="alignleft" width="1200"] new york-based harper's weekly covers opening of chicago stock exchange building designed by adler and sullivan in 1894.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_34569" align="alignleft" width="970"] chicago stock exchange building (1894) as it appeared in the 1920's.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_34141" align="alignleft" width="1200"] the trading room as it appeared...

01 Sep

Posted at 14:31h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the st. louis-based winkle terra cotta co., with offices in the century bldg. at 9th and olive sts., and works at 5739 manchester ave., was established as the joseph winkle terra cotta works in 1883, located in cheltenham, a suburb of st. louis. in 1889...

01 Sep

Posted at 02:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Travel by

photographic study of adler and sullivan’s dessenberg & company building (1885) located in kalamazoo, mich. the three-story commercial brick building with basement, was erected for grocer bernhard dessenberg by bush and patterson (76 north burdick street), a local construction firm. the exterior features unglazed reddish-orange terra...

28 Aug

Posted at 09:02h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by

a virtual gallery consisting of hundreds of architectural artifacts (several being historically important) and miscellaneous objects discovered and documented by eric j. nordstrom during the past 15 years salvaging residential and commercial structures faced with demolition or senseless disfigurement. when time permits, i will be assigning...

25 Aug

Posted at 13:48h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

photographic study meticulously documenting the sad state of j.l. silsbee's largely forgotten bandstand (1897) located in garfield park. the images provide visually compelling evidence of its decay and defacement through deferred maintenance.  [caption id="attachment_70709" align="alignleft" width="1841"] image courtesy of chris ware.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_70708" align="alignleft" width="2048"] images courtesy...

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