BLDG51. News and Events |

08 Feb artifacts dating from the 1860s recently unearthed from downtown chicago excavation site

Posted at 01:50h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions by Eric

i finally had time to shoot these two artifacts unearthed from a downtown chicago dump a while back. the 1860's hutchinson "ring top" bottle was found 15 feet below grade. the single-sided porcelain enameled depression era chicago sign, dug from the same location, was found...

06 Feb a relentless focus on digitizing images of chicago’s past a welcome change from documenting building ornament

Posted at 23:06h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

i've devoted a few hours nearly every evening (beginning in late fall) digitizing the archives of both john vinci and tim samuelson as a countermeasure to battle the onset of burnout from non-stop documentation of architectural ornament adorning historically important buildings across the city. viewing chicago's...

02 Feb unusual time capsule extracted from bethel church (1905) during building’s demolition

Posted at 16:43h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

by eric j. nordstrom and ornament chicago built as the bethel norwegian danish methodist episcopal church in 1905, the ingleside community church of the nazarene was demolished this week by heneghan wrecking. through a collective effort yesterday afternoon, the dated bedford limestone cornerstone and diminutive lithographed...

01 Feb newly discovered images offer a closer look at richard nickel salvaging garrick theater

Posted at 20:44h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

the following images are part of my ongoing efforts to digitize what i've dubbed "the john vinci artifact and photographic archive." given my limited bandwidth, i'm posting images now with the hopes of returning to fill in badly needed contextual information to offer greater insight and/or...

31 Jan DOCUMENTATION OF SOUTH MASONIC TEMPLE BUILDING (1921) DEMOLITION CONTINUED, PART 6

Posted at 22:15h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

by eric j. nordstrom and ornament chicago images of the south side masonic temple building (1921) taken this morning. a single bedford limestone fluted column with ionic capital remains standing. the majority of clarence hatzfeld's ornament is on the ground in ruin or buried in a...

29 Jan contents from humboldt garage & auto service building walk-in vault saved shortly before its demolition

Posted at 22:44h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by Eric

the former humboldt garage & auto service company building (1911) had a walk-in vault. shortly before that section of the building was demolished, the wreckers managed to open the door, where they discovered several ledgers, signs, salesman samples, blueprints, and other odds and ends left...

25 Jan DOCUMENTATION OF SOUTH MASONIC TEMPLE BUILDING (1921) DEMOLITION CONTINUED, PART 5

Posted at 22:36h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

by eric j. nordstrom & ornament chicago with all the wrecking machines working in unison now, the south side masonic temple's east and north facades are fading fast. thankfully, some ornament has been carefully removed and awaits a new home - wherever that may be. sadly, the...

25 Jan DOCUMENTATION OF SOUTH MASONIC TEMPLE BUILDING (1921) DEMOLITION CONTINUED, PART 4

Posted at 15:53h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

by eric j. nordstrom & ornament chicago ongoing destruction of the south side masonic temple (1921) has greatly disfigured the building. it's mesmerizing to watch the wrecking ball repeatedly being dropped on the indiana limestone along the north facade, while at the same, bearing witness to...

25 Jan d.h. burnham’s chicago machinery exchange warehouse handed death sentence

Posted at 04:57h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

the 3-story 1910 chicago machinery exchange warehouse - designed by d.h. burnham & company - will be demolished in the coming weeks. the warehouse with basement (100x200) is located at 1217 w. washington blvd. at first i thought the ornament, including the eagles were comprised of terra...

24 Jan latest salvaged objects and artifacts recently added to our virtual online catalog and store

Posted at 15:23h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the following 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 35,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and...

22 Jan documentation of south masonic temple building (1921) demolition continued, part 3

Posted at 16:59h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

by eric j. nordstrom and ornament chicago here are the latest images from clarence hatzfeld's south side masonic temple demolition. the high reach hasn't been brought to life yet, but the ball has been swinging against the northeast corner of the building. not sure if the...

18 Jan louis h. sullivan-designed gage building ornamental iron storefront scrapped during the 1950’s

Posted at 21:19h in Bldg. 51, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

after spending nearly a year researching and documenting the restoration of l.h. sullivan's gage building (1899) terra cotta exterior, i began looking through and scanning any and all images of the visually stunning ornamental cast iron storefront executed by the winslow brothers foundry, chicago, ills....

17 Jan detailed look at chicago stock exchange building’s 1894 terra cotta rebuilt cornice section at st. ignatius

Posted at 16:52h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

between 1881 and 1895 louis henry sullivan and engineer dankmar adler designed a series of office towers, including the chicago stock exchange building (extant from 1894 to 1972), their largest building and perhaps most important commission. noteworthy for the firm's inspired solution to...

15 Jan documentation of south masonic temple building (1921) demolition continued, part 2

Posted at 03:48h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

by eric j. nordstrom and ornament chicago i finally made time to edit more images of chicago's south side masonic temple (1921) demolition. the six-story structural steel and reinforced concrete frame structure with red face brick and carved bedford limestone facade was designed by chicago architect...

12 Jan cast plaster cove molding from louis sullivan-designed albert sullivan residence joins bldg. 51 museum collection

Posted at 23:04h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

three sections of cove molding were salvaged from albert sullivan's residence (1891) shortly before or during the house was deconstructed/demolished in 1970 (portions of the facade were removed by richard nickel and his brother donald for southern illinois university with the hope that the facade...

11 Jan clarence hatzfeld’s south side masonic temple (1921) undergoing demolition, part 1

Posted at 17:23h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

by eric j. nordstrom and ornament chicago the south side masonic temple (1921) is presently under demolition. it has been less than six months since I documented the demolition of the logan square masonic temple, also by clarence hatzfeld, architect, and more can be read about...

10 Jan former humboldt garage & auto service company building (1911) undergoing demolition

Posted at 17:29h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

the humboldt garage & auto service company building, erected in 1911 by f.w. ries, is undergoing demolition. i'm sure i will be back to document its final moments. ...

05 Jan demolition of south side chicago church rings in the new year

Posted at 22:06h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

by eric j. nordstrom and ornament chicago i was notified the other day that the ingleside community church of the nazarene (1905) located at the corner of 72nd and ingleside will be wrecked in the coming weeks. naturally, i struggled with internal resistance since i had...

03 Jan bldg. 51 museum 2017 acquisition highlights

Posted at 21:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the following images (see below) represent a small selection of bldg. 51 museum architectural fragments acquired during 2017. the museum collection continues to revolve around chicago artifacts, with a greater emphasis placed on commercial buildings designed by notable architectural firms (e.g., burnham & root, jenney...

03 Jan rapp & rapp oriental auditorium theater seat ends with detachable light grilles join bldg. 51 museum collection

Posted at 19:41h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

all original c. 1920's antique american ornamental cast iron interior oriental theater auditorium chair or seat end, fabricated by the heywood-wakefield company, menominee, mich. the highly ornamented single-sided cast iron figural cover seat end was salvaged from the auditorium when the seating arrangement was reconfigured...