BLDG51. News and Events |

02 Dec flizikowski and kaiser’s german evangelical lutheran church (1896) demolition well underway

Posted at 17:35h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by Eric

the destruction of german evangelical lutheran church (1896), located at 2028 north richmond street, chicago, il., is moving at a swift pace, with facade and opposing towers (the north houses the church bell) still standing, but not for long. thankfully,...

30 Nov john kent russell house ornament salvaged by eric j. nordstrom of urban remains on display at art institute of chicago

Posted at 23:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Press by Eric

it was nice to see architectural ornament salvaged by me land at the art institute. the majority of the images however, doument the reconfigured "fragments of chicago's past exhibit," mounted opposite the hartwell memorial tiffany window (1917) within the skylit henry crown gallery. ...

26 Nov a rare opportunity to carefully document helmet jahn’s postmodern spacetime gridded conference room on top floor of giaver and dinkelberg’s 40-story jewelers building

Posted at 16:03h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Press by Eric

spacetime curvature grid. recent photographic survey of helmet jahn's 40th floor conference room, located on the top floor of giaver and dinkelberg's 40-story jewelers building (1927), located at 35 east wacker drive, chicago, il. a future post will feature images and video of the fully functional original...

25 Nov urban remains joins forces with logan square preservation to salvage architectural elements from german evangelical lutheran church (1896) during its demolition

Posted at 16:50h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

salvage operation in progress. updates with information on church history to follow. image gallery below includes documentation of time capsule eextraction along with exterior and interior images of church during beginning phase of demolition (i.e., the church building itself as adjoining school was demolished last week). the...

21 Nov giaver and dinkelberg-designed jewelers building (1927) lobby ornament detail

Posted at 19:29h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

detailed photographic survey of giaver and dinkelberg's 1927-28 jewelers building lobby ornament as documented by eric j. nordstrom for building owner prime group. ...

21 Nov 2016 eric j. nordstrom photographic images of building parts in burnham and root’s rookery building “vault”

Posted at 15:29h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

raw and unedited 2016 images of "the vault" in the basement of burnham and root's rookery building, located at 209 south lasalle street, chicago, il. i can't recall if this was a public exhibit or perhaps a feature of open house chicago. the vault contained bits...

20 Nov as 2025 draws to a close, urban remains remains the last standing “salvage” shop in the chicagoland area

Posted at 17:58h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Press by Eric

over the past twenty years i've seen one architectural salvage store after another close for one reason or another. each and every time i receive word that a shop folds, i'm both angry and sad, with the worst being jan's antiques in fulton market....

20 Nov data dump: raw and unedited images of urban remains salvaging d. h. burnham’s 21-story continental and commercial national bank building in 2008

Posted at 17:24h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

unedited 2008 interior salvage images of d.h. burnham and company's 21-story continental and commercial national bank building (1914), located at 208 south lasalle street, chicago, il. as i continue to stitch together bits and pieces of prior salvage experiences i often fall victim to a dense...

19 Nov data dump: raw and unedited images of congress theater’s 1926 attic as it appeared in winter of 2017

Posted at 19:01h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

raw and unedited images of congress theater's attic, taken in the winter of 2017. the shuttered 2900-seat fridstein and company theater building (1926) is located at 2135 north milwaukee avenue, chicago, il. ...

19 Nov still there, but mostly forgotten: 2025 exterior images of walter burley griffin’s 1908 cornell store and flats

Posted at 18:25h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

exterior images of walter burley griffin's prairie style limestone and brick cornell store and flats (1908), located at 1230-32 e. 75th street, chicago, il. the cornell store and flats was designed by architect walter burley griffin, that has been vacant since 2014 and is considered an...

18 Nov revisting william phillip doerr’s jeffery theater (1923) lobby as it appeared in 2014

Posted at 19:56h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

revisting william phillip doerr's jeffery theater (1923) lobby as it appeared in 2014: Historical analysis: AI has likely been used to research and summarize information about the theater's history, architecture, and its impact on the South Shore neighborhood. Entertainment industry analysis: AI is fundamentally changing the live...

18 Nov historically important glass negatives of kristian schneider’s sculpted clay building ornament models for northwestern and american terra cotta companies now digitzed

Posted at 16:12h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

a collection of original and historially important late 19th and early 20th century 8 x 10 glass plate negatives of seldom seen interior views of both northwestern terra cotta company and the american terra cotta company modeling rooms featuring sullivanesque style building ornament - both...

17 Nov ten years later, i’m still holding the torch: wrecking on wells street in 2015

Posted at 18:20h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

note: any and all images in this post are raw and unedited and will be left that way. posted on december 14, 2015: as the year comes to a close i look back in amazement at the amount of disruption and damage done by demolitions of late...

17 Nov data dump: raw and mostly unedited images of the john voltz hall demolition and salvage in 2018

Posted at 16:20h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages, Travel by Eric

raw and unedited demolition images of john voltz hall (1881), located at 800 north wells street, chicago, il. john voltz came to chicago with a wave of germanic immigrants during the 1850's and 1860's. voltz was an entrepreneur and nearly a decade after the great fire...

17 Nov “phoenix rises.” rare photographic prints of downtown chicago’s “burnt district” taken after the great chicago fire of 1871. courtesy of bld. 51 archive.

Posted at 14:46h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

"phoenix rises." rare photographic prints of downtown chicago's "burnt district" taken after the great chicago fire of 1871. the albumen prints demonstrate how quickly chicago began to rebuild itself after the great conflagration fueled by the extensive use of salvaged building materials (i.e., brick, iron, etc.) ...

14 Nov massive library of rare and out-of-print frank lloyd wright-related books formerly owned by taliesan architect aquired by bld. 51 archive

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

massive library of rare and out-of-print frank lloyd wright-related books formerly owned by taliesan architect aquired by bld. 51 archive. ...

13 Nov bldg. 51 museum and archive’s image and ephemera collection on graven and mayger’s mayan revival style 3500-seat fisher theater

Posted at 15:09h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

original linen-backed period photographic images of graven and mayger’s mayan revival style 3500-seat fisher theater in albert kahn’s fisher building (1928), located at 3011 west grand blvd., detroit, mi. the theater was completely gutted in 1961 - replacing the...

11 Nov data dump: interior and exterior images of otto strack’s 1890-91 pabst tavern or metropolitan hall

Posted at 23:22h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages, Travel by Eric

raw, unedited interior and exterior images of otto strack's 1890-91 pabst tavern (later known as metropolitan hall), located at 537-541 west clarke street, milwaukee, wisc. the images were taken shortly before and during the building's demolition in 2006. the three salvaged cathedral roll solid colored...

11 Nov latest historically imporant building artifacts and related ephemera to added to bldg. 51 museum and archive in fall of 2025

Posted at 18:10h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the following images represent a well-rounded cross section of historically important architectural ornament, artifacts, objects and ephemera recently added and/or digitized to the bldg. 51 museum archive in the fall of 2025. the image gallery below offers a preview of bldg. 51's latest acquisitions: ...

10 Nov photographic survey of charles b. atwood-designed reliance building bower-barff-plated interior cast iron staircase

Posted at 19:20h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

recent photographic survey of the nicely worn reliance building (atwood, burnham and root, 1895) interior gothic style staircase, fabricated in cast iron with bower-barff "rust-proof" finish largely intact by william winslow's chicago-based winslow brothers foundry. steel-frame construction: the reliance building was one...