BLDG51. News and Events |

12 Oct photographic study of late 19th and early 20th century chicago commerical building hardware housed in the bldg. 51 archive.

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

the image gallery offers a somewhat comprehensive visual representation of ornamental builders' hardware found in chicago's commerical buildings built between the 1880s to the depression. the majority of the hardware is custom-designed, often by the hand of the leading architect or architectural firm tied to...

11 Oct bldg. 51 musuem archive aquires sizable collection of seldom found great chicago fire stereoview cards

Posted at 14:54h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the bldg. 51 museum archive recently acquired a large collection of rare and seldom found great chicago fire stereoview cards made and distributed shortly after the fire was extinguished in early october, 1871. several photographers are represented, with hand-written notations on verso. the following gallery...

11 Oct deconstructing sullivan-designed chicago stock exchange terra cotta entrance arch during building’s demolition in 1972

Posted at 04:38h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

richard nickel images chronicling the systematic deconstruction of adler and sullivan's terra cotta chicago stock exchange entrance arch during the early stages of the building's demolition in 1972. the louis sullivan-designed buff-colored terra cotta arch was the building's primary entrance facing la salle street. the...

10 Oct five historically important pre-and-post great chicago fire building keystones

Posted at 19:32h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

five historically important commercial and residential keystones from the bldg. 51 museum collection. [caption id="attachment_34712" align="alignleft" width="2216"] one of a kind original and intact museum-quality and historically important single ornamental hand carved exterior solid keystone salvaged from a pre-fire chicago german school (later known as the gethsemane...

04 Oct rare majolica tiles, john wellborn root-designed ornament, chicago fire stereoviews, and faries lighting added in october

Posted at 19:12h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural artifacts added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 75,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 16 years). the newly acquired items for the month of october, 2022, have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need...

04 Oct albert sullivan house (1892): from beginning to end.

Posted at 15:40h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

adler and sullivan's albert sullivan residence (1892) as it appeared in 1890's, 1956, and 1969. sullivan himself lived there from 1892-1896, followed by his brother albert, who resided there with his family from 1896 to 1905. the house was meticulously deconstructed in 1970 with the intention...

04 Oct a photographic survey of adler and sullivan’s auditorium building tower from top to bottom

Posted at 15:28h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

the following images offer a detailed visual documentation of adler and sullivan's auditorium tower (1889). the base is comprised of granite provided by the minnesota granite company (quarried in the vermillion iron ore mines of st. louis county minnesota). additional granite was provided...

04 Oct representative collection of 19th and early 20th american architectural figural building artifacts

Posted at 03:58h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions by Eric

the following images represents a small, but representative collection of figural and/or emblematic american architectural artifacts housed in the bldg. 51 musuem. the majority of the architectural elements are comprised of terra cotta and were salvaged in and around chicago. ...

03 Oct documenting and deconstructing the 19th century chicago workers cottage

Posted at 02:05h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

for nearly two decades - if not longer - i've witnessed countless irreplaceable mid-to-late 19th century wood-framed worker cottages targeted for rapid removal and erasure. for the most part every site is the same, where i must carefully and methodically parse through each and every...

28 Sep chicago skyline in terra cotta: a closer look at the unusual facade of the kirchbaum building (1922)

Posted at 14:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

terra cotta skyline. the kirchbaum building, located at 6560 n. sheridan rd., was designed in 1922 by the architectural firm of ronneberg, pierce and hauber. the terra cotta city skyline mural is comprised of three recessed panels, beginning with fort dearborn and ending with the wrigley building. ...

27 Sep images of adler and sullivan’s kehilath ma’arav synagogue (1890) taken in 1965 and again in 1973

Posted at 18:43h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

the first group of images, taken by richard nickel and harold allen, date to 1965. timothy j. samuelson's kodachromes show the interior as it appeared in 1973. a disastrous fire gutted the building in 2006, leaving the outer bedford limestone walls, supported by steel skeletal...

27 Sep urban remains showroom and bldg. 51 musem: staging progress through pictures in summer of 2022

Posted at 02:31h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

formal grand opening of the urbans remains showroom and bldg. 51 musuem and archive will likely be pushed back to late october, when tranfer of any and all museum and/or historically important building artifacts are removed from crates and installed. in the meantime, i'm posting...

24 Sep reconstructing the garrick, adler and sullivan’s lost masterpiece, featured in fine books magazine

Posted at 13:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Press by Eric

NEWS | SEPTEMBER 21, 2022 2022 Alice Award for Illustrated Books Winner Announced COURTESY OF FURTHERMORE GRANTS IN PUBLISHING Hudson, NY — Furthermore grants in publishing, a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund, is pleased to announce the 2022 Alice is awarded to Alphawood Foundation, Chicago, IL for its publication, Reconstructing the...

20 Sep over 15 years of urban remains, eric j. nordstrom and bldg. 51 musuem in photos

Posted at 16:26h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

over 22 years and hundreds of thousands of images later, urban remains et al. trudges on (let's hope). ...

20 Sep Reconstructing the Garrick: Adler & Sullivan’s Lost Masterpiece wins prestigious 2022 Alice Award

Posted at 15:07h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Press by Eric

Chirag G. Badlani, Executive Director of Alphawood Foundation Chicago, is pleased to announce that the Foundation has won the 2022 Alice Award for its publication, Reconstructing the Garrick: Adler & Sullivan’s Lost Masterpiece (Alphawood Foundation Chicago, 2021). The lavishly illustrated, 352-page book was edited by...

19 Sep adler and sullivan’s 1889 walker warehouse from construction to destruction

Posted at 06:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

a collection of images chronicling adler and sullivan's walker warehouse from the time it was completed in 1889 to its eventual destruction in 1953. the images were taken by a number of photographers beginning with taylor in 1889 and ending with id students in 1953. i've...

15 Sep revisiting lumber exchange building’s largely forgotten subterranean open-faced electric switch board

Posted at 14:41h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

images (taken nearly a decade ago) of the original open-ended switch board (removed from service during the 1940s) housed in the basement of the lumber exchange (later known as the roanoke building). the interconnected slate panels, once illuminated by i.p. frinke mirrored reflectors, are adorned...

13 Sep important trade catalogs, bruce goff, auditorium building hardware, majolica tiles, and zero marx signage added in september 2022

Posted at 15:28h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural artifacts added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 75,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 16 years). the newly acquired items for the month of JUly, 2022, have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be)...

12 Sep edward uihlein’s schiltz-tied queen anne style commerical building and flats threatened (again) from deferred maintenance and abandonment

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

before and after: disgraced and disfigured through intentional negclect and abandonment. two years after awarded preliminary landmark status, edward uihlein’s schiltz-tied commercial building and flats was largely forgotten and left abandoned. consequently, the building’s exterior ornament (e.g., stamped or pressed ornamental copper) has been defaced, stripped...

12 Sep hy biermann store and flats building’s exterior terra cotta and stone ornament senselessly painted

Posted at 14:16h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

defaced. for years i've admired and repeatedly documented the ornament on hy biermann's store and flats (1887). the red slip is so delicate...