BLDG51. News and Events |

25 Jan with keystones and now ironwork rescued from landfill, not all is lost at the former voltz hall building

Posted at 14:18h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by Eric

following up on the recent demolition at the corner of wells and chicago, of the former "voltz hall" -- i cannot help but return time and again to sites that peak my interest. over the weekend, i identified one of the limestone window headers laying...

24 Jan the bldg. 51 museum architectural building artifact book is featured in architectural salvage news

Posted at 18:54h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous by Eric

i would like to thank rich ellis for featuring the bldg. 51 museum historic artifact book in his latest Architectural Salvage & Antique Lumber News email and the homepage of his newly revamped website, which pertaining to the architectural antique and/or salvage industry. according to rich's publication, his...

21 Jan documenting the anatomy of balloon frame houses remains strong despite seasonal drop in residential demolitions

Posted at 15:07h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

regardless of season or day of the week, i remain busier then ever -- devoted to delivering meaningful posts and revising the pile of projects that were set on the back-burner when multiple demolitions were taking place each week. i spend every night reviewing photo-documentation,...

20 Jan visiting milwaukee’s pabst mansion and its 1893 world’s fair pavilion over the weekend

Posted at 22:49h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Travel by Eric

on a recent weekend trip to milwaukee, i revisited and toured the famous pabst mansion, a monumental limestone and terra cotta residence that sits on wisconsin avenue. the house is an anomaly, set back from the street and situated between non-descript university buildings. though hard...

19 Jan simon wexler psychiatric research pavilion artifacts rediscovered seven years after building demolished

Posted at 15:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

moving and organizing old inventory this past week, i re-discovered several interesting pieces from a lengthy and tumultuous salvage nearly 7 years ago. the artifacts described in this post had completely slipped from my mind, since i didn't devote much attention or time to removing architectural artifacts from...

18 Jan more wrecking on wells street: john voltz hall demolished over the weekend

Posted at 12:45h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

last month, chicago architecture reported the "demolition derby" on wells street, with two sites making way for a 39-story apartment block and 22-story residential tower. the wreckage continues this month at 800 n. wells street. joining the graveyard of century-old buildings turned into high rises,...

18 Jan early 20th century water tank plucked off goldblatt building to make way for replica in 2018

Posted at 11:45h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

like new york city, chicago's landscape is riddled with rooftop wooden water towers, often abandoned due to impracticality. in the early to mid-twentieth century, major cities often passed ordinances that required buildings of 6 or more stories to be equipped with towers as a cost...

15 Jan “gardenesque” stop and shop ornamental cast iron stringer fragment donated to bldg. 51 museum

Posted at 14:54h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the bldg. 51 building artifact has recently acquired yet another important "gardenesque" architectural remnant in the form of a massive ornamental cast iron frieze or stringer panel generously donated by chicago's cultural historian, tim samuelson. the 1928 exterior building facade panel fragment was recovered by tim on...

14 Jan bldg. 51 museum kicks off the new year with a remarkable acquisition: sullivan-designed chicago stock exchange trading room electroliers

Posted at 15:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

during the first week of january 2016, the bldg. 51 museum received an original and historically-important post-fire window keystone from a lake street loft building (osborne and adams, 1872). this was comprised of a seldom encountered material -- "artificial stone" -- which undoubtedly adds to its importance...

12 Jan bldg. 51 museum acquires an intact post fire “artificial stone” window keystone from the osborne and adams building

Posted at 23:17h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

early in the morning i arrived onsite with a delivery of boxed donuts (per tim samuelson's suggestion when negotiating with national wrecking). sure enough, mike -- the foreman and son of the company founder butch mandell -- delivered on his promise to set aside a single post-fire osborne and...

08 Jan urban remains returns to its roots of salvaging architectural artifacts as the new year kicks off

Posted at 13:20h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by Eric

the following photo gallery offers a glimpse of the most recent artifacts acquired and listed on the urban remains website (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories). approaching the ten year anniversary of urban remains, the goal -- now and since 2006 --...

05 Jan the remarkably intact and largely unaltered hardware of the alexander ramsey mansion

Posted at 15:47h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

i often refer to living a dichotomous lifestyle when telling people how i went from molecular geneticist to the urban "archaeologist" at demolition and excavation sites. back then, at moment's notice i would leave the laboratory a little early if an impending demolition was on the horizon near...

05 Jan with signs and facade removed, 1928 cedar hotel cleared for demolition

Posted at 13:59h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

only a few short months ago wreckers stripped the facade and courtyard neon signs from the cedar hotel. being at the right place at the right time, we managed to secure the signs and prevent them being scrapped in a nearby dumpster. weeks later, the ornamental...

04 Jan albert f. madlener house and its intricately designed “gardenesque” limestone ornament

Posted at 02:13h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

the early 20th century prairie school style madlener residence was completed in 1902 by architect richard e. scmidt and design collaborator hugh garden. the chicago mansion was built for brewery owner albert fridolin madlener and his wife, elsa seipp madlener, who was the daughter of...

01 Jan post-fire osborne & adams commerical loft building coming down – facade and all

Posted at 18:25h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by Eric

just before christmas i had spoken to mike, son of national wrecking's head honcho, to determine whether the historically important "artificial stone" facade of this post-fire building was going to be saved. i was taken aback when he responded with a "yes", but only two complete...

29 Dec a retrospective of demolitions, salvages, excavations and, museum acquisitions in 2015

Posted at 16:04h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by Eric

with 500 blog posts written this year alone, i have carefully assembled just under 200 posts that truly represent what stokes the fire or fuels my passion to document, salvage and be a caretaker. wearing multiple hats can be very overwhelming, and there have been times i...

28 Dec two matching midland terra cotta “sullivanesque” rooftop finials added to the bldg. 51 museum

Posted at 14:11h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by Eric

in previous posts (here and here) i've discussed my concern over the number of buildings being demolished that have facades bedecked with glazed white "sullivanesque" terra cotta ornament. this unusual terra cotta, "inspired" by organic design motifs original to louis h. sullivan and his chief draftsman...

22 Dec a closer look at the chicago art institute’s collection of displayed building ornament

Posted at 17:23h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

i spent a few hours over the weekend at the chicago art institute photographing their collection of architectural artifacts on display along the outer walls of the light court or atrium. nearly a year has passed since i finally had time to carefully document both...

21 Dec factory lunchroom tables, ruby red exit lights, repurposed furniture, signage, and chicago tribune building doorknobs

Posted at 23:58h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by Eric

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have 26,800+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the...

21 Dec historic palmolive building storefront “replacement” fails to recapture the spirit of its original ornament

Posted at 13:27h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous by Eric

i was informed earlier in the week that the art deco style palmolive building's new two-story storefront was nearing completion, with the west facade (facing michigan avenue) outfitted with cast aluminum ornament (mimicking a bronze finish) in place with light treatment added to accentuate the "details" of the pilasters,...