excuse the half-assed brain dump...
SEVEN FRAGMENTS FROM CHICAGO'S PAST: seven historically important fragments salvaged from chicago buildings designed in the 19th and early 20th century. every building has been demolished and largely forgotten. mosaic tile fragment from one of two interior staircase landings. schiller building (1892), adler and sullivan, architects. the...
the pabst building was a 14-story neo-gothic style commercial building (1891) designed by architect s.s. beman as the headquarters for milwaukee beer baron frederick pabst. it was the city’s first skyscraper and the tallest building prior to the completion of milwaukee’s city hall, completed four...
the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural artifacts added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 70,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 16 years). the newly acquired items for the month of FEBRUARY, 2022, have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if...
examples of early commercial and residential ornamental terra cotta executed by northwestern terra cotta works (true, brunkhorst & co., lake view terra cotta & brick company, and the chicago terra cotta company acquired by urban remains and the bldg. 51 musuem. the majority of the...
the following images and accompanying descriptions highlight the bldg. 51 museum archive's universe of rare out-of-print period architectural and/or building trade catalogs awaiting to be fully scanned and made available on the bldg. 51 website within the next few years. ...
a virtual gallery of carefully sourced and meticulously documented museum-quality 19th and early 20th century ornamental metalwork from historically important american commercial and residential structures housed in the bldg. 51 museum archive. the majority of the ornament, including custom-designed builders' hardware, comes from chicago buildings...
new york, a.j. bicknell & co., architectural book publishers, 1873 full sub-title (set in a dazzling array of different typefaces)! "showing a great variety of designs for cornices, brackets, windows, window caps, doors, piazzas, porches, bay and dormer windows, observatories, towers, chimney tops, balconies, canopies, scrolls, gable...
the following five bottles and/or bottle fragments were culled from the bldg. 51 museum "unearthing chicago" project archive based on their captivating narratives. images of the bottles and the links to their forgotten histories are found below. MID-19TH CENTURY BOTTLES UNEARTHED DURING THE DEMOLITION AND SUBSEQUENT...
the following objects, culled from various ongoing projects, were selected and assembled as a hodgepodge cohered by the single theme of being utilitarian objects from chicago's past. when we can flesh out the context in which these originally existed, they take on a new meaning...
the bldg. 51 museum recently aquired an original buff-colored ornamental and tapered buff-colored terra cotta column from the otto strack-designed pabst beer pavilion built for the world's columbian exposition of 1893. the pavilion was located in central hall of the fair's agricultural building, designed by...
it is well known that louis sullivan spent the last two decades of his life and career mired in dire poverty. the architect responsible for defining chicago's architectural ethos, and for raising some of the most exceptional skyscrapers would find himself in dismal poverty, reliant...
as demolition of the early 20th century building housing the storied pacific garden mission - more commonly known as the "old lighthouse" - was drawing to a close, a battered and broken floor safe was found in the rubble. the diminutive, baked enameled black safe, with...
some of the most unique artifacts in the bldg. 51 collection (and for sale in the urban remains warehouse) are rescued from non-extant theaters hearkening to the early 20th century theater boom. aside from remarkable light fixtures, seating, decorative plaster and exterior elements from these...
the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural artifacts added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 70,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 16 years). the newly acquired items for the month of JANUARY, 2022, have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if...
throughout 2021, the bldg. 51 museum amassed several historically important architectural fragments and objects, in addition to the evolving archive, consisting of period photographs, books, documents, drawings, blueprints, models, and other related materials that will prove invaluable to bolster the narratives of the museum's architectural...
the following digitized and edited photographic images presented below were selected from hundreds of pieces of ephemera housed at ryerson and burnham, art institute of chicago, john vinci collection, and bldg. 51 museum collection. while i've spent several months combing through the richard nickel committee archive,...
late 19th and early 20th century historically important chicago building architectural ornament housed in the bldg. 51 musuem collection. ...
the following image gallery offers some of latest american architectural builders' hardware aquired over the past month. the salvaged chicago residential and commerical hardware dates to the late 19th and early 20th century. ...
i am thrilled to have finally located and authenticated two heavily carved oak wood staircase railings salvaged from the potter palmer mansion or "castle," designed and built by architects henry ives cobb and charles sumner frost between 1883-1885. the railings were acquired by the bldg....