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...
fatigue and restlessness from spending too much time digitizing photographs, slides and ephemera on chicago's architectural past has reinvigorated me to resume my work, or rather, photographic studies on the city's architectural ornament through the use of my camera and zoom lenses. the intimacy i feel...
continued digitization of chicago architect john vinci's kodachrome and/or ektachrome archive remains a top priority in 2018. to see the first two installations or galleries of images from this ever-growing collection (over six-hundred completed as of this writing), please click on the links below. the color photographs were taken...
the following images were taken during a recent visit to frank lloyd wright's home and studio (1889). unlike most of my blog entries, i selected a handful of images, focusing on exterior and interior details that appealed to my mind'y eye. ...
i can't reiterate how fulfilling it is to travel back in time and immerse myself in a seemingly endless cache of richard nickel contact prints documenting the death of first chicago school buildings, including many built by the firm of adler & sullivan. as an...
the following john vinci slides paint the demolition of adler & sullivan's schiller building or garrick theater (completed in 1892) in full color, thanks to the use of kodachrome, which was the first commercially successful color film praised since the great depression for its sharpness, archival durability, and...
the following images were pulled from one of my latest photographic archives devoted to the study of ornamental detail found throughout interior spaces within adler & sullivan's 1889 auditorium building. images taken from the building's theater and ganz hall will be addressed in future posts. [caption...
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 35,800 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be)...
the following selection of images were taken during the salvage operation at 170-172 n. halsted. we salvaged anything and everything, including old elevator equipment and a pair of steel elevator doors. our work is done there, but i will likely stick around to document the...
[caption id="attachment_37268" align="alignleft" width="1200"] undated kodachrome slide courtesy of the john vinci collection.[/caption] i recently stumbled across several images taken by an amateur photographer of the reliance building prior to extensive renovations - both inside and out - in preparation for it's new life as a...
john vinci kodachrome images capturing the final moments of adler and sullivan's chicago stock exchange building (1894) in late april of 1972. note the gargantuan main steel trusses (fully exposed) that spanned the elaborately stenciled trading room. the stock exchange was completed in 1894 by the...
a few months ago (see blog entry below) i documented the village theater (built in 1916 as gemania) shortly before the building's auditorium was set to be demolished. as of this afternoon, only the theater's facade is left standing - still concealed in part by...
a renewed and increasingly obsessive interest in painstakingly photographing architectural ornament on downtown chicago's landmarked buildings has been a welcome change from spending hours on end digitizing any and all ephemera and photographic images tied to the first chicago school of architecture - another project...
the following acquisitions (see images below), in the form of architectural building fragments, photographic images, and, miscellaneous ephemera, represent a fraction of historically important materials recently added to the bldg. 51 museum and its newly formed sister organization focusing architectural ornament and ephemera (website for...
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 35,700 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be)...
three 19th century masonry worker cottages located on the north and west side of chicago were issued demolition permits within one week of each other. as of this writing, one has already been reduced to rubble. a red brick two-flat with jeweled and beveled transom windows...
in preparation for my "deconstructing chicago" publication (slated for completion after "unearthing chicago hits circulation), i continue data-gathering by documenting any and all building material used in the construction of the balloon frame, beginning from the 1840's on through the 1880's. all of the material collected thus far...