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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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"...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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,...
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,...
[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...
"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"...
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...
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...
the bldg. 51 museum recently secured another important archive, containing previously undocumented materials belonging to the short-lived notable chicago-based architectural firm of graven and mayger. the drawings, ledgers, blueprints, photographs, and paperwork last belonged to edward rupinksi, who worked as a draftsman for the firm....
i made a point to stop by the gage building the other day, while i was in the neighborhood doing a systematic photo shoot of the s.a. maxwell lofts building's exterior ornament from sidewalk to roofline (1881, dankmark adler & louis h. sullivan, architects). when...
i began documenting john eberson's atmospheric avalon theater (1927) early last week, and many additional visits lie on the horizon. aside from embarking on the creation of a visual record of the theater's interior and exterior ornament, i managed to spend time in the attic....