for over a year, perhaps longer, i've made several visits to adler and sullivan's historic 1881 s.a. maxwell & company five-story lift building to document the installation of "period appropriate" exterior windows in addition recording the transformation of the upper floors (3-5) into rental units....
images documenting 19th and early 20th century architectural buildings and ornament during first of many trips to milwaukee in 2020. my truncated visit prevented me from exploring my areas of interest in a more in-depth and methodical manner, but i can always pick up where...
a demolition permit was issued for jefferson park hospital (1922) late last week. according to building records, the architect was f.o. demoney, who designed a three-story addition made of brick and limestone. the existing building replaced an impressive 19th century victorian mansion, where the hospital was...
1870s two-story red brick chicago workers cottage with distinctive frear's patent "artificial stone" window hoods or headers, accentuated with deeply incised abstract floral motifs, is set to be demolished in the coming weeks. sadly, it's just another reminder that 19th and early 20th century chicago...
unlike last year, where i focused heavily on digitizing and disseminating images and ephemera on a wide range of topics revolving around chicago architecture, i feel reinvigorated to carve out more time to revisit past efforts photographing pockets of well-maintained 19th and early 20th century...
another year has drawn to a close and looking back, the bldg. 51 museum collection managed to secure several historically important architectural fragments, in addition to the evolving archive, consisting of period photographs, books, documents, drawings, blueprints, models, and other related materials that will prove...
for richard nickel, ruth moore, joe benson, john vinci, and david norris. the schiller building virtual archive's images and artifacts courtesy of ryerson and burnham, art institute of chicago, john vinci collection and the bldg. 51 archive. EXCAVATION OF ADLER AND SULLIVAN'S SCHILLER BUILDING WOOD PILE FOUNDATION...
the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 50,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 15 years). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if...
beginning in the summer of 2019, i began documenting the exterior of howells and hood's tribune tower (1925), shortly after it was announced that the building's bedford limestone exterior would receive extensive restoration, while the interior (with the exception of the ground floor lobby) would...
images of sullivan-designed exterior s.a. maxwell building (1881) cast iron mullions and surrounding spandrels with emphasis on protruding bases accentuated with deeply recessed ferns and leaf spirals. the five-story building's exterior ironwork was likely fabricated by snead or possibly union foundry works. i would really like...
unfortunately, i didn't have the bandwidth to continually document von holst's 40th street commonwealth edison substation, including its demolition, which is all but complete. when i arrived yesterday afternoon, all that remained were slabs of concrete and a partially exposed basement. i was told...
whether being plagued with perpetual burnout or battling time constraints - or both, i was only able to capture a small fraction of 19th and early 20th century chicago cottages destroyed in 2019. i'm posting whatever's easily accessible before i feel the urge to toss...
images of two troubled late 19th century chicago two-story brick houses located on the west side of chicago. the first appears doomed, and the other will be demolished in the coming weeks. amazingly, both buildings retain their well-maintained bracketed cornices comprised of sheet metal (zinc). the...
a brief description on the use of wood piles for the foundation supporting adler and sullivan's schiller theater building (1892), along with several images taken by richard nickel in 1961, when the building was demolished and ground excavated exposing the largely intact foundations (including oak...
the following blog post links arranged in chronological order below offer highlights of the work of eric j. nordstrom, urban remains, and the bldg. 51 museum archive in 2019. over the past few years my work towards creating and/or collaborating with people and organizations deeply...
my efforts photo-documenting howells and hood's tribune tower (completed in 1925) transformation and/or restoration in 2019, are summarized in an extensive chronology shown below. the curated exhibit of photos, culled from thousands of images taken of tribune tower for nearly two years now, is presented...
the following collection on posts revolve around architectural salvage operations (big and small) across the city of chicago over the past decade. in time, i hope to revisit dormant images and information waiting to be transformed into posts to shed light on buildings demolished long...
photographic study of h.h. richardson's sever hall (1878-1880) exterior east facade brick ornament adorning east facade. the richly carved brick ornament was likely executed by the peerless brick company, philadelphia, pa. the 3-story building (4th story set within roof) was constructed using nearly 1.3 million...
thankfully, i brought my camera equipment on an afternoon i was given the opportunity to step out onto the swing stage and raised myself up against the louis h. sullivan-designed ohio sandstone panels adorning the upper facade of adler and sullivan's s.a. maxwell five-story loft...
john vinci personal kodachrome slides (digitized by the bldg. 51 archive) chronicling his restoration work on louis h. sullivan's schlesinger and meyer department store (1899) from the late 1970's, shortly after vinci and partner larry kenny rebuilt adler and sullivan's chicago stock exchange trading room...