11 Sep

Posted at 02:59h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

  a number of mid-19th century bottles were recently unearthed deep below the site of chicago’s former grand central station, with the four richly colored iron and smooth base soda bottles serving as the inspiration to further investigate the slew of structures that were built above...

08 Sep

Posted at 15:41h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

for the past several years now, i've assembled a sizeable photographic database of ornamental red body terra cotta found on 19th century (1880-1899) residential and commerical buildings within chicago's city limits. brief descriptions, including addresses, year constructed, architect (if known) and building status, will be...

07 Sep

Posted at 01:40h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the following images represent carefully curated online collection of exterior ornamental terra cotta salvaged from historically important chicago commerical building. the ornament is housed in the bldg. 51 museum, located in downtown chicago.  ...

06 Sep

Posted at 10:34h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

as more and more 19th century cottages succumbed to the wrecking ball over the course of the past year, i could not help but entertain the idea of salvaging bigger and more visually-striking house "systems," whose parts alone are powerful in size and scale.   [gallery ids="22908,22910,22909"] in...

03 Sep

Posted at 20:00h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

  after mecca, before crown. great collection of images (possibly taken by nickel) of excavation work for mies's crown hall (1956) at iit. the images - scanned this afternoon from contact sheets - offer a great visual record of the surrounding area, including long-gone buildings along...

02 Sep

Posted at 14:58h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

Wainwright Building (1891): original copper-plated ornamental cast iron newel post salvaged from adler and sullivan's wainwright building (1891) during extensive interior renovations that virtually gutted the building of its original sullivan-designed ornament - including staircases, elevators, woodwork, door hardware, etc. the newel was likely executed by the...

31 Aug

Posted at 15:27h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by

  in preparation for publishing "unearthing chicago" in 2022, i've pulled some images capturing 19th and early 20th century bottles at excavation sites around chicago. shortly after being discovered, these remnants of victorian-era rubbish were carefully exposed by removing surrounding dirt and debris to reveal a...

31 Aug

Posted at 14:06h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

Capturing Louis Sullivan: What Richard Nickel Saw August 26, 2022 -February 19, 2023 Richard Nickel (1928-1972) was a Polish-American architectural photographer and preservationist. Nickel first encountered the work of Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) as a student, when photographing the architect’s buildings for a project at the IIT Institute...

31 Aug

Posted at 02:18h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

adler and sullivan's loeb apartments (1891-92) as they appeared in 1964 (photographed by richard nickel) compared to the present, with only the south entrance and two-story staircase left standing. sadly, the frank lloyd wright-designed bedford limestone entrance was heavily damaged from falling debris when the majority...

30 Aug

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

latest photographic images from bldg. 51 archive's chicago architectural ornament survey (caos) are provided below. the ever-expanding photo-documentation project focuses on systematically recording any and all architectural ornament located on historically important 19th and early 20th century extant buildings located in downtown chicago and surrounding...

24 Aug

Posted at 11:07h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

anticipating another year of lost buildings through demolition, i've already prepared additional storage space for the ever-growing collection of lost or discarded objects found under attic floorboards, ledger and sill plates, foundation walls, and stud cavities within those 19th century chicago cottages that are faced with...

22 Aug

Posted at 15:26h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

bldg. 51 museum's collection of early electric sockets and fixtures. morris selz house (1883): this unrestored morris selz house (1883) three-arm tubular brass wall sconce is quite possibly the earliest known surviving light fixture from an adler and sullivan commission. remarkably, two of the three edison sockets...

22 Aug

Posted at 01:52h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

several important and seldom found building trade product catalogs, ranging from the late 19th century to the early 20th, have been painstakingly digitized and added to the bldg. 51 architectural artifact archive over the first half of 2022. the majority of the catalogs, brochures, building...

10 Aug

Posted at 15:06h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

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)...

08 Aug

Posted at 18:38h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the bldg. 51 museum archive has finally begun the long and arduous process of digitizing any and all blueprints, photographic images, contracts, and shop drawings of the noel state bank (1919) designed by the architectural firm of weary and alford.  the largely intact archive was salvaged...

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