i've had the privilege to carefully pour over and digitize several original kodachrome slides - documenting the death of dankmar adler and louis sullivan buildings - taken at the height of urban renewal and/or slum clearance by chicago photographer richard nickel in the 1960's. when...
five distinct, historically important pieces of ornament, salvaged from buildings no longer with us, or senselessly altered. the following captions identify the ornament. the images were shot with the aid of natural light. only one image captures the object in its entirety while the others...
two early 20th century chicago two-flats were issued demolition permits on march 6th. the buildings are located at 1346 and 1350 north claremont avenue respectively. the green fence has not been erected, nor has the wrecker delivered their excavators, but within the next week or...
the following 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 35,500 catalog listings to date). the newly acquired items have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need be) and...
burnham, root, and atwoood's reliance building (1890-1895) as it looked in 1987. the mood of this tired building (since restored) is overpowering, so i chose to intervene as little as possible. the kodachrome slides were taken by john vinci. i wish i could've spent a...
work has begun on village theater (built as the germania in 1916). concealing the facade by stacking three 53' foot containers is interesting. the auditorium will be demolished, but the facade will remain intact. will have to keep a close on eye on this one. ...
2018 looks to be a very promising year in terms of ephemera, book, and artifact acquisition - based upon what the bldg. 51 museum archive has already secured, along with arrangements in the works or nearing finalization. the ever-growing museum archive has reached a critical...
i finally had a chance to leave my shop and shoot architectural ornament this afternoon. while driving around old town i recalled a demo permit issued for a structure on orchard. i had to triple-check the address (2252 n. orchard) when i pulled up...
a green fence was wrapped around a southside chicago comed substation named the gaitan building (1924) - located at 6141 s. prairie ave a few days ago. this is yet another building from the chicago landmarks historic survey that may be wiped from memory. i...
[caption id="attachment_35297" align="alignleft" width="1200"] chicago stock exchange trading room blueprint, 1977.[/caption] i've spent the last several months digitizing hundreds of kodachrome slides taken by john vinci beginning in the late 1950's and ending in 1990's when he retired his hasselblad 500c camera (kodachrome film was discontinued in...
by eric j. nordstrom and ornament chicago [caption id="attachment_35763" align="alignleft" width="1200"] the last series of images chronicling the demolition of clarence hatzfeld's south side masonic temple (1921).[/caption] [caption id="attachment_35766" align="alignleft" width="1200"] south entrance partially covered in snow.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_35765" align="alignleft" width="1200"] machines at rest after chicago snowstorm.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_35764"...
spending countless hours over the past several months digitizing and disseminating john vinci and tim samuelson's historically important chicago architectural objects and ephemera, along with restructuring my architectural fragment museum in preparation for moving it to a storefront accessible to the public, has been immensely...
i was honored that students and faculty from the illinois institute of technology's school of architecture phd program chose to visit the bldg. 51 museum for their field trip in january of 2018. the extensive tour was a great opportunity to view and discuss historically...
[caption id="attachment_35691" align="alignleft" width="917"] photo courtesy of the richard nickel archive and chicago art institute.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_35692" align="alignleft" width="1767"] photo courtesy of the richard nickel archive and chicago art institute.[/caption] one of the most important objectives this year is to begin the arduous process of navigating...
i have tens of thousands of images taken from dig sites across the city of chicago. sadly, only a few hundred have been edited and added to blog posts over the years. the "unearthing chicago" book will remain in suspended animation until the day i...
by eric j. nordstrom & ornament chicago very little remains of south side masonic temple (1921). a few riveted joint steel trusses and columns, partially covered with chunks of dangling concrete, will be pulled apart with the wrecker's long reach excavator this week. remnants of a grand...
i finally had time to shoot these two artifacts unearthed from a downtown chicago dump a while back. the 1860's hutchinson "ring top" bottle was found 15 feet below grade. the single-sided porcelain enameled depression era chicago sign, dug from the same location, was found...
i've devoted a few hours nearly every evening (beginning in late fall) digitizing the archives of both john vinci and tim samuelson as a countermeasure to battle the onset of burnout from non-stop documentation of architectural ornament adorning historically important buildings across the city. viewing chicago's...
by eric j. nordstrom and ornament chicago built as the bethel norwegian danish methodist episcopal church in 1905, the ingleside community church of the nazarene was demolished this week by heneghan wrecking. through a collective effort yesterday afternoon, the dated bedford limestone cornerstone and diminutive lithographed...
the following images are part of my ongoing efforts to digitize what i've dubbed "the john vinci artifact and photographic archive." given my limited bandwidth, i'm posting images now with the hopes of returning to fill in badly needed contextual information to offer greater insight and/or...