i managed to capture the early stages of fabrication and preparation for installation of the "drooping tip" ceiling panels during my visit last week. production of the intricately detailed and well made faithful reproductions (taken awhile back from a mold of an original surviving panel)...
the urban remains virtual store's engine continuously operates as more and more artifacts, objects and oddities are added on a daily basis. with the recent spike in teardowns around the chicago area, architectural artifacts are finally becoming front and center again. however, cataloged items outside...
i discovered the book "unearthing gotham" in 2002, and have read and later reexamined various chapters of this remarkable and highly informative tomb well into 2014 - especially when we began finding ash pits and privies buried beneath the john kent russell house (1855-56). i can't...
a few photographs taken while examining the interior of this post-fire chicago (1876) commercial building is "gutted" during preparation for a new use as loft apartments. ...
the greater part of sunday was spent gathering wood samples from building sites and digging privy pits. by the time i gathered all of the materials and brought them back to the shop, i should have went home and rested. instead, i pushed on...
after spending weeks sporadically visiting the site where the pre-fire john kent russell frame house once stood, we have collected hundreds of fragments found in privies and ash pits. we have gathered enough material left behind to further understand living conditions of working class families that...
it appears after repeated (failed) attempts to reach out and connect with the contractor, i'm embarrassingly relegated back to the dumpster behind the commercial building constructed in 1876 (see earlier posts on this building). it's abundantly clear that money and/or avoiding crossing paths with the construction...
reese was bitter from the beginning. nearly 30 buildings being vacated, or had been abandoned for years. an awful salvage experience were everything that could go wrong, went wrong. my relationship with the wrecker i had worked with for years grew tumultuous. it was hard to...
i've been watching this post-fire chicago commercial building located on west of downtown chicago for the past few weeks. in fact, i spent an afternoon (with consent from the contractor) photodocmenting the interior from the basement to the top floor. the building is in an ideal...
multiple "ash pits" were recently discovered (in addition to the documented brick-lined privies) on the site of the former john kent russell house as we continue to excavate before the "earth movers" roll in to finally eradicate any and all remains left by the former...
i have been waiting for this day since 1996, when i first laid eyes on these unusual and mysterious iron and glass sidewalk panels found around the cast iron (i.e., soho/noho) district of manhattan. better yet, at night, when wandering the area again, these massive, interlocking...
it has been several weeks since the pre-fire chicago john kent russell frame dwelling was brought down and sent off to a nearby landfill. now, the site of the former house is yet another empty lot containing dirt and residual debris strewn about. i thought for sure...
the historically important 19-story towering beax-arts style lakeshore athletic club building was designed by renowned chicago architect jarvis hunt in 1927. the extant chicago landmark is located on a prominent corner along the shores of lake michigan. the interior boasted a gargantuan marble-clad lobby, with ornamented...
within an hour after arriving home from my buying trip in wisconsin late in the evening, i decided to push ahead and not only completely unload the haul, but proceeded to fire up the studio strobes and begin shooting selected renderings i really felt deserved...
after waiting very patiently for nearly 16 years, the opportunity to secure the odin j. oyen design firm's "collection" of art, artifacts and personal belongings (that were formerly tucked away and undocumented) has become a reality, thanks to thoughtful and sympathetic negotiations. there are several thousand...
This 1868 pocket map of Chicago shows the city in full-blown expansion, a mere 3 years before the infamous blaze By Esri , Natasha Geiling Rufus Blanchard, a Chicago map publisher whose business flourished in the late-18th century, made this 1868 map of Chicago as part of a guidebook called...
slowly but surely, any and all historic or architectural detailing original to the time of the chicago athletic association building's construction (1893), is carefully being reinstalled after a seemingly minor restoration and/or repair was completed months ago. remarkably, the second floor "reading room," with its gargantuan...
i was pleasantly surprised to learn that the original bronze plating was largely intact under a botched restoration or rather, a unsympathetic and careless remuddling applied to the louis h. sulllivan-designed cyrus mccormick radiator grille's surface over 30 years ago. i knew when i purchased the...
urban remains just received several matching original c. 1920's "sani" swing-out factory lunch room table stool brackets with the majority retaining their solid maple wood seats. the swing-out stool components were fabricated for, and heavily advertised by, the sani products company, located in the sani building, chicago,...
two out of state reputable colleagues, who i consider friends that share an equal passion towards appreciating and rescuing ornament from buildings undergoing renovation or demolition, recently brought to my attention the availability of a set of historically important bronze exterior and/or building facade plaques...