BLDG51. News and Events |

23 Nov nearly complete set of rare late 19th and early 20th century “architects and builders” handbooks added to bld. 51 museum archive

Posted at 22:53h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

my latest project involves scanning seldom seen images of architects, advertisements, and buildings from several late 19th and early 20th century "architects and builders" handbooks i recently acquired over the weekend. the softbound books were published by the chicago architects' business association. the building pictured is...

21 Nov latest architectural artifacts, industrial furniture, and other oddities posted to urban remains virtual catalog

Posted at 06:40h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

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 40,000 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be)...

20 Nov stevens-davis building’s glazed terra cotta ornament destroyed during its demolition

Posted at 21:50h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

yesterday afternoon i watched as the parapet wall with terra cotta name plaque come crashing down. in the process both border sections and rondel were chipped or damaged. the sullivanesque terra cotta is a total loss, but it appears the plaque -...

16 Nov past and present facadectomies in chicago’s rapidly changing fulton market

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

fulton market has been transforming at a dizzying pace, accelerated by the arrival of google in late 2015. since then, several early 20th century structures have either been wiped off the block or remain standing in the form of restored facades with newly-built buildings. HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT...

14 Nov documenting seldom seen upper floors of adler and sullivan’s 1881 s.a. maxwell building

Posted at 23:56h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

i was given a small window of time to document the upper floors (3-5) of adler and sullivan's s.a. maxwell loft building (commonly known as the jewelers' building) by the current owners last week. during that time i focused solely on finding any and all...

13 Nov continued documentation of howells and hood’s chicago tribune tower exterior restoration

Posted at 03:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

the following collection of images (posted in chronological order) of howells and hood's gothic style chicago tribune tower are from multiple visits over the past two months (fall, 2018). the tribune tower is one of many projects i've carved out time to revisit time and again...

07 Nov three historically important chicago building artifacts join bldg. 51 museum collection

Posted at 04:36h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

less than 24 hours after securing three historically important 19th and early 20th century chicago building artifacts, i've researched, photographed, and cataloged them for future exhibit in the bldg. 51 museum. images and brief descriptions below. the early 20th century glazed terra cotta rearing lions were...

02 Nov chicago’s stevens-davis advertising company building faces wrecking ball

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

the stevens-davis advertising company building (completed, 1921) is set to be smashed. i was alerted this morning through cityscape's demo tracker (see link below). the facade is adorned with exquisite polychrome glazed terra cotta ornament executed by the midland terra cotta company. i'm curious whether the...

31 Oct latest architectural artifacts and industrial objects added to urban remains catalog

Posted at 14:28h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

31 Oct louis h. sullivan’s owatonna bank: a building bursting with ornament

Posted at 03:09h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Travel by Eric

documenting louis sullivan's national famers' bank of owatonna (1908) was exhausting. pouring over and carefully selecting hundreds of images cataloging sullivan, millet, and elmslie's ornament has left me with extreme eye fatigue. the ornament's energy was intense, but at the same time, calming. hard to explain,...

30 Oct newly added digitized john vinci slides from chicago’s past

Posted at 04:32h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

the latest efforts to digitize notable chicago architect john vinci's collection of kodachrome and/or ektachrome slides presented below. to see the first installation or gallery of images from this ever-growing collection, please click on the link below. captions will be added to the slides as...

23 Oct ornamental cast iron rookery building pilaster panel joins bld. 51 musuem collection

Posted at 21:54h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

an original and historically important john wellborn root-designed ornamental cast iron pilaster fragment, salvaged during the removal the the building's adams street entrance staircase, is the latest addition to the bldg. 51's every-growing museum architectural ornament collection. construction of the rookery building took place between...

22 Oct additional scaffolding erected along facade of cook county hospital in preparation for extensive restoration work

Posted at 21:12h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

additional scaffolding erected against facade of chicago's cook county hospital (1914) since my last visit a week, possibly two weeks ago. i will continue documenting the facade's transformation, which began with its cleaning, until the final product is delivered. ...

17 Oct newest salvaged chicago architectural artifacts and fixtures added to urban remains online catalog

Posted at 04:46h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

14 Oct scaffolding erected around cook county hospital’s recently scrubbed facade for repair and replacement of damaged terra cotta

Posted at 02:36h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

with cook county hospital's facade - comprised mainly of ornamental terra cotta - now scrubbed clean, scaffolding is being erected to being the arduous task of repairing and replacing the massive facade's damaged elements. in addition to addressing the building's existing terra cotta, the restoration...

08 Oct demolition of 1880’s residence reveals extensive use of sill plate tenons and mortices reinforced with chamfered wood pegs

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

with some "downtime" (whatever that means) this evening, i decided to slowly begin processing the enormous mountain of data generated from the seemingly unending residential demolitions that happened back in april. it should be no surprise that nearly every blog post lately mentions my ongoing battle...

05 Oct stencil recovery from adler & sullivan’s garrick theater through images and faithfully recreated canvas fragment

Posted at 18:45h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

this post briefly touches upon a meticulously recreated adler and sullivan garrick theater (1891) hand-painted stenciled canvas section - mainly through images taken at the time it was discovered and/or recovered when adler and sullivan's garrick theater (1891) was undergoing demolition. during the schiller building's demolition...

03 Oct latest salvaged chicago architectural artifacts and fixtures added to urban remains online catalog

Posted at 14:45h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

02 Oct sizable collection of photographic prints documenting construction of cook county hospital recently unearthed

Posted at 03:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

while working at the ryerson and burnham archives the other day, i stumbled across several folders containing silver gelatin prints documenting the construction of cook county hospital from beginning to end. i quickly realized , this set of prints haven't been circulated in the public domain...

28 Sep a virtual repository of images and artifacts from adler & sullivan’s 1889 auditorium theater and hotel

Posted at 15:00h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

although sullivan and adler's auditorium building (1889) has been documented time and again in previous bldg. 51 blog posts, i have yet to present a collection of historic images and artifacts from the building in a single entry. the following images and artifacts were obtained from...