out of equal parts curiosity and utter fascination i've chosen to devote a considerable amount of my time away from the business life of urban remains, toward meticulously documenting the death of a logan square church. instead of the usual deconstruction process, in which the...
the following photo gallery offers a glimpse of the most recent artifacts salvaged and/or acquired and posted in the urban remains massive website catalog (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories). this year marks the ten year anniversary of urban remains, and from day one, one...
during this week’s demolition at 2442 w. moffat street, as st. john’s church was painstakingly deconstructed before my eyes, i decided to move forward and secure two matching sets of original c. 1910 gothic style pressed and folded antique copper finials, along with the topmost oversized finial...
the 19th century two-story wood frame victorian style house had already been mowed down by the time i arrived onsite - i was shuttling back and forth between salvaging, digging and documenting other doomed buildings around the city, so i was unable to commit more time to...
in the coming weeks, i will be thoroughly documenting the salvage of a 106 year old church in logan square, whose structure is slowly being dismantled. the life of the building is to live on in scattered fragments and in the bricks which will purportedly...
a permit was issued earlier this week to wreck and remove the terra cotta building at 3228 north clark street which until recently housed “the alley” and long ago held a nickelodeon and neighborhood gathering place called the "clermont". although some tout the current development vision...
[caption id="attachment_23470" align="alignleft" width="1000"] mountains of early 20th century lath waiting to be organized and strapped into bundles for reuse as anything and everything. the building is slowly dying, but its remnants will live on elsewhere.[/caption] the destruction of a building occurs within a finite, and...
this past week demolition of a pre-fire workers cottage (the original cottage dates to the late 1860's, with subsequent additions added over the next 40 years) hit close to home (quite literally), with wrecking machines moving in on a neighboring structure, just adjacent to the rear...
the great majority of the keystones included in this photographic essay were taken from various extant commercial and residential structures built shortly after the great chicago fire of 1871, within what is known as the "burnt district." this area, consisting of downtown and the neighborhoods...
two words: senseless and stupid. post demolition: ...
a demolition that has recently drawn much media attention is underway on the near west side, where harpo studios will be razed to make way for a mcdonald’s corporate headquarters. the studio complex, which is often discussed of late in terms of its occupancy for...
fifty years ago a sunset pink structure with towering stepped profile crumbled to the ground beside lake michigan. under pressure of bankruptcy and the promise of new development, the edgewater beach hotel abruptly closed its doors in the far northern neighborhood of chicago, only to...
as covered in a prior post, last week brought about the salvage of a century-old three-flat commercial masonry structure located near grand and halsted, set to be demolished in the near future. the facade belies somewhat its historic character as residence and production space of the...
[gallery ids="22584,22583"] another historic structure is threatened with impending demolition at the corner of broadway and sheridan, an iconic art deco building with white molded cement eagles protruding from the cornice and lending the building its colloquial namesake, the "eagles building." the early 20th century harry hale...
i revisited st. boniface after spending the afternoon bouncing back and forth between the demolition of harpo studios and of a mid-19th century cottage across the street from my shop. despite the local coverage over st. boniface's fate (with recent developments suggesting demolition is imminent),...
i'm never terribly thrilled when a demolition bleeds into the weekend, especially with family in town, but that's the price you pay if you want to remain committed to documenting the death of 19th century chicago at any and all costs. the house set to...
[caption id="attachment_22931" align="alignleft" width="2048"] hand-painted wood sign with shadowed lettering, jennaro brothers produce, milwaukee, wisc. the vacant building was purchased for redevelopment.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_22932" align="alignleft" width="1492"] dock 4, john pritzlaff hardware company, milwaukee, wisc. founded in 1850, closed in 1958.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_22930" align="alignleft" width="2048"] detail (figural zinc...
near the intersection of grand and halsted, demolition was recently handed to a 19th century building which, until relatively recently, housed chicago’s oldest italian food importer -- a family business that operated from 710 w. grand for over a century. in documenting and salvaging the...
a recent dig site has proven to be a fruitful source for 19th century bottles and artifacts. the site, along the north branch of the chicago river, is unassuming, sitting in a dead space between a glass and steel skyscraper and an industrial warehouse undergoing extensive...
though it isn't the first time they've been threatened with demolition, two late 19th century buildings within chicago's downtown area, at 317 and 321 evergreen street, received a death sentence this month. before they are reduced to rubble, however, i was able to document the exterior...