BLDG51. News and Events |

02 Mar deeply incised dated cornerstone recovered during last days of holy bethel church demolition

Posted at 11:09h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

several days after salvaging the late 19th century west side chicago holy bethel or "adams street" church's interior, which involved extracting its painted tin time capsule filled with an assortment of ephemera pertaining to the congregation that built it in 1888, i made one final trip...

26 Feb demolition of the daniel a. jones hospital building (1888) well underway

Posted at 19:02h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

rush hospital awarded heneghan wrecking the task to bring down its older buildings as part of its decade-long campus transformation. for months now, their excavators have been tearing away at the daniel a. jones hospital building, constructed in 1888. the entrance and other elements, including an unopened time...

25 Feb salvaged 19th century stained glass windows, vintage seating, bronze hardware and terra cotta join the ever-expanding online catalog

Posted at 16:57h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by Eric

the following photo gallery offers a glimpse of the most recent artifacts acquired and listed on the urban remains website (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories). this year marks the ten year anniversary of urban remains, and from day one, one of the...

24 Feb an afternoon documenting turn of the century trash found beneath a demolished cottages

Posted at 08:58h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

this week three lots located on west ohio street were in the beginning phase of being dug by workers from one of many demolition companies i work with. the lot being excavated once contained a small workers cottage that i missed the chance to document during its...

19 Feb holy bethel church (1888) time capsule successfully extracted from cornerstone shortly before demolition

Posted at 14:59h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

with the combination salvage and photo-documentation phase of the c. 1888 west side chicago holy bethel church (more often referred to as the adams street church) nearly completed, i'm now prepared to witness its heartbreaking death when the excavator begins demolition on monday. originally the demolition date...

18 Feb 19th century chicago west side holy bethel church building begins shortly after demolition permit issued

Posted at 16:47h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

this week sees the impending demolition of the late 1880's holy bethel or "adams street" church situated at the corner of adams and damen, near the united center on chicago's west side. with the excavator set to arrive on thursday, i have all day wednesday...

17 Feb an elevator grille from the oldest surviving commercial building of skeletal construction in chicago

Posted at 10:24h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions by Eric

in the bldg. 51 collection is a stunning ornamental cast iron elevator grille fabricated by the winslow brothers for the interior of the manhattan building. the single-sided copper-plated panel features very unique organic motifs throughout. the detailed vertical panel is a historically important remnant of...

17 Feb new chicago stained glass windows, historic building hardware, signage and bottles

Posted at 10:23h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by Eric

12 Feb wrecking permits seal fate for group of post fire houses along huron street

Posted at 11:18h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

wrecking permits were issued for 4 and 8 east huron on 2-9-2016. there are not many houses left downtown, as one can imagine, and these two were slated for demo back in 2008. the owners (a law firm i believe) first auctioned off the interior...

11 Feb bldg. 51 acquires historically important museum quality fragment of sumac pattern plaster frieze from frank lloyd wright designed residence

Posted at 11:25h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

this week saw the purchase of a historically important and exquisitely detailed sumac pattern plasterwork frieze fragment from the extant dana-thomas house at 301 e lawrence avenue, in springfield, il. the frank lloyd wright-designed residence was commissioned for susan lawrence dana in 1902, about a...

09 Feb post-demolition investigation of wabansia street workers cottage and a history of its structural characteristics

Posted at 17:21h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

when i arrived at the address late last week, i wasn't exactly sure what to expect. perhaps the wreckers weren't exactly sure either, since the endgame seemed ambiguous. the post-fire brick workers cottage did not land on my radar because there wasn't a demolition permit pulled. instead,...

09 Feb several newly acquired artifacts added to urban remains’ catalog over past month

Posted at 14:42h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

07 Feb a rare glimpse of the downtown chicago’s vacant old central post office

Posted at 14:04h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

in 2011 i was given the green light to briefly explore the vacant "old main" or former central post office at 433 w. van buren with a few building contractors who were assigned the task of gutting the interior - minus the grand lobby - for future development. it...

05 Feb well-executed monadnock building solid aluminum staircase baluster panel recast joins bldg. 51 museum

Posted at 01:22h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

…the “Monadnock” went ahead; an amazing cliff of brickwork, rising sheer and stark, with a subtlety of line and surface, a direct singleness of purpose, that gave one the thrill of romance. It was the first and last work of its kind; a great work...

02 Feb a decade documenting the death of buildings: a personal journey through 10 years of salvaging

Posted at 18:38h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

going into 2016 marks an important milestone for urban remains, a milestone representing a sometimes arduous, surprising and notably transformative journey full of wonder, beauty and not a few dangerous exploits. i have now spent over a decade salvaging, archiving and compiling an enormous repository...

02 Feb in the wake of the osborne & adams demolition, historical significance of the building illuminated by its architect

Posted at 01:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

a development in the afterlife of the non-extant osborne & adams commercial loft arrived recently via an email from my good friend, tim samuelson while we were discussing the use and/or abundance of both sandstone and limestone as building materials used in post fire chicago...

29 Jan excavated 19th century soda bottles greatly assist in dating a non-extant chicago cottage and its privy pit

Posted at 15:05h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by Eric

exactly a year ago i was spending a great deal of time excavating a site in west chicago, at the corner of paulina and wood, that i deemed the "big dig." over the course of several days , despite the temperature hovering around zero degrees and the earth being incredibly...

28 Jan acquisition of a stunning ornamental art deco elevator door grille from the interior lobby of the extant palmolive building

Posted at 11:38h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

joining a number of other artifacts in the bldg. 51 collection that originated in holabird & root-designed buildings, is an art deco cast bronze lobby elevator grille from the palmolive building, at 919 michigan avenue. the heavy square panel features an elaborate motif that once...

26 Jan bldg. 51 museum secures original louis sullivan-designed gage building terra cotta facade fragment

Posted at 00:36h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

in addition to acquiring multiple winslow brothers exterior cast iron stringcourse or frieze panels from the gage building late last year, the bldg. 51 collection has now obtained a rare sullivan-designed terra cotta fragment from the facade of the same extant building, located in downtown...

25 Jan with keystones and now ironwork rescued from landfill, not all is lost at the former voltz hall building

Posted at 14:18h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by Eric

following up on the recent demolition at the corner of wells and chicago, of the former "voltz hall" -- i cannot help but return time and again to sites that peak my interest. over the weekend, i identified one of the limestone window headers laying...