07 Aug

Posted at 04:08h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

i set aside time this weekend to resume scanning piles of postcards amassed over the past year.  i’ve included a few real photo post cards (rppc) of early 20th century residential streetscapes, and a seldom seen photographic view of schmidt, garden, and martin's michael reese hospital...

06 Aug

Posted at 05:47h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

    the  guaranty building was completed in 1896 by the architectural firm of adler and sullivan. the following images were taken in the spring of 2017 while visiting boston terra cotta valley in buffalo. i spent several days carefully documenting the building's interior and exterior, but...

04 Aug

Posted at 13:49h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the following image gallery represents a fraction of 19th and early 20th century american builders' hardware recently added to urban remains virtual showroom. several examples salvaged from historically important buildings across the country will be added in the coming months. ...

03 Aug

Posted at 22:04h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

the following images were taken by richard nickel, who was assigned to methodically document holabird and roche's republic building inside and out shortly before its demolition by harvey wrecking in 1961. in addition to providing a visual record of the early 20th century "chicago school"...

28 Jul

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

digitizing the bldg. 51 archive's chicago fire collection of objects and ephemera has resumed, with the most recent seldom seen period stereoviews depicting the conflagration posted below. the images of the "burnt district" taken shortly after the chicago fire of 1871. several images were photographed by...

25 Jul

Posted at 03:17h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

a digital photographic inventory of  louis sullivan-designed architectural ornament from adler and sullivan's chicago stock exchange building (1894) salvaged during its demolition in 1972. significance, description and provenance will be assigned to the ornament (listed below) when time permits. like other collections held in the bldg....

21 Jul

Posted at 14:01h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 65,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 15 years). the newly acquired items for the month of JULY, 2021, have been...

20 Jul

Posted at 07:06h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

a collection of artifacts salvaged from the ywca (1896) hotel. the building was designed by architect was john m. van osdel ii, nephew of prominent chicago architect john mills van osdel. the building was demolished in 2009 after decades of deferred maintenance and abandonment.  looking back,...

13 Jul

Posted at 16:06h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

images of elevator drums (two), foundation grillage, structural riveted joint columns, buff-colored terra cotta (northwestern terra cotta), and floor slabs unearthed during excavation (i.e., potholing) in preparation for new construction erected on site of parking lot that replaced jenney's isabella building (1893).  ABOVE BROUND: ...

13 Jul

Posted at 15:39h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

a detailed photographic documentary on the transformation of adler and sullivan's 5-story s.a. maxwell loft building (also known as jewelers building) facade is presented below as a collection of blog posts chronicling ruination to restoration.  PREVIOUS POSTS (2018-2021): S.A. MAXWELL BUILDING...

10 Jul

Posted at 23:05h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

the schlesinger and meyer building's copper-plated cast iron open cage elevators were ripped out in 1936 when the building underwent major renovations, including installation of escalators, enclosed elevators, and staircase alterations most of the ornament removed was either scrapped or relegated to the basement. shortly...

10 Jul

Posted at 06:36h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

tragedy, or perhaps irony, characterizes many of chicago's largest construction and demolition efforts in recent history. just six years ago, vying to be the next host to the olympics, the city chose to demonstrate its bid by preemptively razing a 130-year old compound of historically...

07 Jul

Posted at 02:27h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

in synchronistic fashion, a rather interesting connection was recently discovered between artifacts that had separately been excavated from two chicago demolition sites. initially seeming like a simple curiosity, a detailed 7.5" tall spelter coin bank representing the first national bank of chicago was unearthed from...

06 Jul

Posted at 19:07h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by

ralph marlowe line (1904-1989) was an associate professor in the department of architecture at the university of illinois champaign-urbana. his early interest in louis Sullivan (he is only one of two known photogrpahers who documented adler and sullivan buildings in the 1940s and early 1950s) is apparent not...

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