BLDG51. News and Events |

13 Sep 19th and early 20th century american builders hardware added daily to urban remains website

Posted at 14:44h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by Eric

several lots of antique american builders hardware will be listed at a feverish pace on the UR website in coming weeks. more to follow. ...

07 Sep 2023 west erie street 1860’s workers cottage demolished

Posted at 15:56h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

[caption id="attachment_32559" align="alignleft" width="4130"] stripped down to an early pine wood clapboard - likely added during the late 19th century - the modest two-story wood frame cottage awaits its demise. the chicago workers cottage was moved around some, with the last being at the rear...

07 Sep installation of gage building’s recreated terra cotta cartouche underway

Posted at 04:47h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

for the first time in several months, i looked up at the gage building's brick cavity - where one of the two louis h. sullivan-designed terra cotta cartouches had resided since 1901 - to see a single piece (identified as "ct5l" on the graphic below)...

01 Sep photographic study of buried remnants from 19th and early 20th century chicago

Posted at 22:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts by Eric

excavations across the city of chicago have led to the discovery of thousands of artifacts; remnants left behind and forgotten by people living here in the late 19th and early 20th century. from completely intact and brightly colored bottles, to the well-preserved wood floors of residential...

30 Aug an afternoon at chicago’s cemetery of architects

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

i spent a few hours wandering around graceland cemetery (est. 1860) the other weekend. i briefly visited several grave sites, seeking out the stones denoting where notable persons from chicago's past were laid to rest. special attention was given to a few of the architects whose...

30 Aug recreated pieces of louis h. sullivan gage building’s cartouche arrive in chicago

Posted at 19:39h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

i was recently notified that recreated gage building (1899) terra cotta sections have made their way to chicago, were they await installation below the building's roofline. this brick-exposed cavity once contained one of two of sullivan-designed cartouches; the original, removed during extensive rehabilitation of the...

30 Aug boston valley terra cotta factory visit

Posted at 17:40h in Bldg. 51, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Press, Travel by Eric

Boston Valley Terra Cotta’s Master Sculptors Restoring Chicago’s Gage Building June 22, 2017|Blog, Gage Building, News/Events Boston Valley Terra Cotta has been making progress on the very detailed, ornamental terra cotta facade restoration of the Gage Building in Chicago. Designed by architect Louis Sullivan in 1899, the Gage Building’s Art Nouveau...

30 Aug two-story victorian era chicago brick boarding house on marshfield reduced to rubble in a matter of hours

Posted at 04:22h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

1035 north marshfield (the street was known as rumsey at the time of construction), a two-story victorian era brick boarding house with decorative lemont limestone trim above the windows and entrance, was demolished in a matter of hours late last week. the following images and...

24 Aug 2017: the year of documenting downtown chicago’s 19th & early 20th century architectural ornament at feverish pace

Posted at 22:55h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

this year's season of teardowns hasn't been anywhere near as bad as last year, when one demolition alert after another brought me closer and closer to a breaking point, and where seemingly inescapable mental exhaustion was always looming over me. i need serious "down time"...

24 Aug remnants of a newly discovered garrick theater graveyard on display

Posted at 20:22h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions by Eric

a friend invited me over to a warehouse where crates of terra cotta from the garrick theater, scoville factory, and rosenfeld flats have been in storage for several years. when i arrived, all of of the ornament was on display on the floor, arranged as...

24 Aug showcasing ornament through a northwestern terra cotta company executive’s residence

Posted at 18:24h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

the northwestern terra cotta company was founded in chicago in 1877 by a group of investors that included john r. true. the company became a major producer of terra cotta trimmings used by the construction industry. by the beginning of the 20th century, architectural terra...

17 Aug returning to avalon to further record theater’s moorish style polychromed ornament

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

during my second visit to chicago's atmospheric avalon theater, i spent the first few hours documenting any and all of the exterior terra cotta, primarily from the rooftop. the images below provide the viewer with the multitude of design motifs employed by eberson, along the...

17 Aug visiting merchants national bank, foshay tower, masonic temple, grain exchange, and purcell-cutts house during single day road trip

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

the following images were taken during a recent road trip where i manged to briefly stop in winona, red wing, and minneapolis over the course of an afternoon. a sizable chunk of tiime was devoted to photodocumeting the interior and exterior ornament of purcell, feick,...

17 Aug nearly year later, west side chicago italianate style lemont limestone flats succumb to wrecking ball

Posted at 15:11h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

last week, a group of post-fire three-story italianate style flats finally surrendered to the wrecking ball. a blog post from late last year sounded the alarm, triggered by a proposal to replace the 1870's lemont limestone flats with more of the same dull, bland, and...

16 Aug documenting chicago movie palaces remains a top priority for 2017

Posted at 04:42h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

for several years now, i've wanted to document chicago's congress theater (1927). the opportunity finally arrived at the beginning of 2017, when a production company and the theater's developers signed off on a contract, allowing me unabridged access to explore both the interior and exterior,...

16 Aug highlights from the soon-to-be published “unearthing chicago” bldg. 51 museum book

Posted at 03:24h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Sales and Promotions by Eric

the following photographs (and collages) were taken from more than 546 folders containing over 9,800 images of jobsites and salvage work "in the field," as well as unearthed artifacts cleaned and assembled in my studio afterward. all of my urban excavation began two years ago,...

11 Aug rare albumen print captures adler & sullivan’s auditorium building with iconic tower under construction

Posted at 21:02h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

[caption id="attachment_32052" align="alignleft" width="1500"] dated (february 2, 1889) albumen photographic print of adler and sullivan's auditorium building under construction. note the tower beginning to rise, along with the piles of common building brick in the foreground. the building was competed the same year. adler and...

10 Aug daniel h. burnham’s fisher building interior lobby original elevator doors executed by winslow brothers

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

"to appreciate the fisher building one has to see it in the late afternoon of a winter day. the fading daylight softens the redundant ornament detail; the lighting within transforms the wall into a glittering and transparent sheath crossed by thin horizontal and vertical lines"...

09 Aug art deco slip shade fixtures, vintage examination room furniture, palmolive building elevator indicators, majolica tiles, and figural brownstone rondels

Posted at 05:01h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Sales and Promotions 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 26,500 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and...

05 Aug ornamental terra cotta panel from rapp & rapp’s southtown non-extant theater joins bldg. 51 museum american building artifact collection

Posted at 21:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the building 51 museum and archive recently acquired an all original and historically important heavily ornamented terra cotta panel rescued from rapp and rapp's southtown theater during its unfortunate demolition in 1991. the single-sided polychromed exterior theater panel features foliated scrollwork with centrually located petalled...