i've devoted several hours each and every week at the ryerson and burnham library where the richard nickel archive is housed. there, i get lost in the past, where i carefully study, select, and digitize/edit thousands of images taken by photographer and salvager richard nickel...
as of late nearly every cottage slated for demolition contains virtually no interior or exterior ornament worth salvaging due to countless renovations, remuddlings that have subsequently stripped those distinctive elements that contribute to a historically specific identity. [gallery columns="4" ids="19560,19561,19562,19563"] i've come to accept this as the norm,...
the following images were taken while chicago architect john vinci and i spent the afternoon on a self-guided tour of st. louis-based city museum's architectural artifact installations scattered on multiple floors of an old colossal warehouse. the majority of the ornament comes from chicago, with large...
yet another early 20th century single-story commercial building accentuated with a white glazed midland terra cotta stock pattern facade - some of the pieces are from the "sullivanesque series - will be demolished next week. ...
after weeks of negotiating, i managed to purchase an original john wellborn root-designed kansas city board of trade building (1888) panel for the bldg. 51 architectural ornament collection. when the combination cast and wrought ornamental iron header panel arrived the other day, i spent nearly...
montgomery ward's mail order house and administration building (1907) undergoing facade restoration. the mammoth 8-story reinforced concrete building accentuated with sullivanesque terra cotta ornament was completed in 1907 by architectural firm schmidt, garden, and martin. the ornament was designed by hugh garden. built as a warehouse...
john vinci and i made the trek to st. louis to visit richard nickel's architectural ornament at southern university edwardsville, the wainwright and union trust buildings, city museum, and the wainwright tomb, located in bellefontaine cemetery. time was very limited, so i didn't get a...
images of richard nickel’s adler & sullivan building ornament collection on display at lovejoy library, southern illinois university edwardsville (siue). nickel sold his architectural artifact collection to the university in 1965 but continued salvaging additional fragments until his untimely death in 1972. ...
richard nickel images of adler & sullivan's solomon blumenfeld building taken during its demolition. the three-story building with limestone facade was built for chicago clothing merchant solomon blumenfeld between 1883-1884. [caption id="attachment_39151" align="alignleft" width="2516"] taken by nickel while still a student at the institute of design....
the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 40,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be)...
reorganizing the bldg. 51 chicago architectural ornament archive has given me incentive to reshoot any and all historically important artifacts previously on loan, display, or in storage. it's immensely gratifying to reacquaint myself with the ornament (and its history) as it makes its way into...
the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 40,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be)...
adler & sullivan’s wainwright tomb - located in bellefontaine cemetery st. louis – was originally constructed for charlotte dickson wainwright, the wife of ellis wainwright, who’s building was designed by the same firm a year before the tomb was completed in 1892. shortly after construction...
if i recall correctly, i salvaged an old pharmacy located in east chicago sometime in 2006. the family-owned business and the 1920's building housing it, shut down after a walgreens moved in around the corner. while salvaging the drugstore - or what was left of it...
in 1951, crombie taylor – then acting director of chicago’s institute of design – worked with newly-appointed photography instructor aaron siskind to develop a photographic study or survey of commercial and residential buildings designed by the firm of dankmar adler and louis sullivan. over...
the uptown theater (1925) is one of the few remaining "roaring twenties" neighborhood movie palaces left standing in chicago. the gargantuan structure is the last of the "big three" theaters (i.e., non-extant tivoli, 1921 and the extant chicago, 1921) designed by the architectural firm of...
although i'm not well-versed in bridge technology - in this case, a pony truss bascule bridge completed in 1914 - i figured it was worth an afternoon to document the historic chicago avenue bridge and operator houses not only to gain an appreciation for its...
the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 40,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be)...
when it came to salvaging architectural ornament, chicago's richard nickel was exacting, tedious, and methodical, both in preparation and execution, on any and all demolition sites. an invaluable example of this approach (rarely seen since) lives on in the form of nickel's "ornament "scrapbook," which...
a found a bag of diminutive stainless steel letters and numbers the other day. completely slipped my mind i salvaged them over 10 years ago from veterans administration lakeside hospital (1950). i believe schmidt, garden, and erickson were the architects. [caption id="attachment_38317" align="alignleft" width="900"] the brushed...