i didn't think demolition of these adjoining 19th century rowhouses on webster (documented in an earlier post) would happen so quickly. a bit jarring to say the least. one of the two italianate style houses has been mostly reduced to rubble. the one to the east...
another year has come to a close and looking back, the bldg. 51 museum collection managed to secure several historically important architectural fragments, along with the addition of a rapidly growing archive, consisting of period photographs, books, documents, and other related materials, to compliment the...
two 19th century post fire two-story italianate style brick rowhouses on webster await the wrecking ball. the well-maintained masonry homes are accentuated with seldom seen richly colored enameled minton tiles with visually striking designs. in addition to photographing the facade in great detail, i stepped back...
a trip to milwaukee last weekend led to a much-needed, albeit abbreviated photographic survey of architectural building ornament (primarily terra cotta) adorning three historically significant 19th century buildings i've repeatedly visited for the last 20 years while traveling on my carefully curated "circuit" of structures within the confines of...
as 2018 draws to a close, i culled the urban remains/bldg. 51 blog post archive to create a carefully curated collection of information, images, and acquisitions capping a year of relentless, unforgiving, and exhaustive work. the creation of this ever-expanding american architectural history database - revolving...
highlights: finally, i found an original early 20th century chicago athletic association "cherry circle" profusely illustrated year book, providing seldom seen images of the club's...
photographic survey of interior cast bronze ornament in the lobby of one lasalle street building, completed in 1930. tone lasalle street building was built in 1930 by architects vitzthum & burns – replacing the tacoma building by holabird & roche. the building is located across madison street...
the scope of burnham and root’s 1888 rookery building isn’t something that can be understood in a few visits. with each visit, one leaves with a greater insight, a better understanding and also plagued by a perpetual need to ask for more – more detail,...
i managed to revisit where i left off, documenting the exterior restoration work on the 40-story chicago jewelers building's southwest corner over weekend. i focused on areas where installation of replicated cream-colored glazed terra cotta (executed by boston valley) is underway. a few additional images were taken...
seldom seen 1950s photographic print (not by richard nickel) of adler and sullivan's garrick theater when it was converted from theater to tv studio. there are additional images from this "series," so i will be sure to post them. the ornamental balcony plaster looks polychromed, but...
the latest efforts to digitize notable chicago architect john vinci's collection of kodachrome and/or ektachrome slides presented below. to see previous installations or galleries of images from this ever-growing collection, visit the links below. captions will be added to the slides as time permits. ...
once again, i've revisited richard nickel's archive on adler and sullivan's 1892 schiller building, demolished in 1961. the "salvaging the garrick" book is slowly coming together as i continue to gather archival material, digitize photographic images, and acquire any and all ornament salvaged during its...
during my very brief visit to boston in late november, i took thousands of images of focusing on h.h. richardson's architecture, late 19th century ornament (e.g., carved brick) adorning houses located in the backbay neighborhood, mit chapel, a small selection of building on harvard's campus...
the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the most recent american architectural, medical, and industrial artifacts and/or miscellaneous objects added to our ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 45,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be)...
unfortunately, i haven't had much time to visit neighboring wisconsin this year to photograph architecture in cities and town across the state. i did have a chance to revisit louis h. sullivan's farmers and merchants union bank in columbus (1919) while in madison shooting the...
i've researched ornamental carved brick for sometime now, but lacked any extensive and/or detailed visual documentation of it in situ. fortunately, i ran across a wide array of examples on houses (built between the late 1870's and mid-1880's) located in and around boston's back bay. ...
it’s been awhile since i’ve documented chicago houses faced with death by demolition. with such limited bandwidth as of late, it’s become increasingly hard to document everything i care deeply about. after seeing this 19th century masonry cottage land on the chopping block over the weekend...
the following blog entry was first posted on july 15th, 2015. i spent the greater part of a day documenting and salvaging ornament from the historically-important early 20th century saloon building that has been identified as the only known "tied house" (i.e., exclusively sold and served standard-brand beer bottled and...
images of howells and hood's chicago tribune tower (completed, 1925) restoration taken earlier this week. despite repeatedly shooting the building for months now, i never grow tired gazing at the crown's gothic style carved bedford limestone ornament. ...
my goal is to digitize any and all images taken by richard nickel of the demolition, salvage, and dispersal of ornament from adler and sullivan's garrick theater (1892-1961) by the end of the year. the images will be a primary source used to build upon the...