06 Jan

Posted at 16:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

some of the first hidden and/or forgotten remnants recovered in the first part of 2017, came from the ground, discovered in one of the many forgotten city dumps that dot the cityscape. the dump contained piles upon piles of leather shoe soles, caked with a wretched...

04 Jan

Posted at 04:22h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

a blog entry posted two weeks ago provided extensive documentation pertaining to the careful extraction of the former milwaukee avenue motor sales building's (more commonly known as the "mega mall") roofline ornamental terra cotta urns. beginning last last week, demolition was underway - to my...

03 Jan

Posted at 06:15h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

widow and socialite ann halsted commissioned adler & sullivan to build her understated gold coast mansion at 440 w. beldan ave. in 1884.  sullivan’s trademark ornaments are diminished to an elaborate cornice and bay windows. in halsted’s own words, she wanted the house to have...

28 Dec

Posted at 19:45h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

this december the bldg. 51 museum collection received a welcome, but unexpected boost in inventory of historically important chicago building terra cotta. the majority of the exterior ornament salvaged over the years hailed from buildings no longer with us. one particular piece carries great significance for...

27 Dec

Posted at 04:19h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

i was pleasantly surprised and utterly delighted when a good friend of mine gave me an original two-tone mosaic tile floor segment from one of two schiller building (garrick theater) staircase landings, discovered by nickel et al. in may of 1960 - shortly before the building...

23 Dec

Posted at 21:34h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

we have spent most of the week now carefully extracting ornamental terra cotta from the facade of the "mega mall," which was built between 1921-1923 as an automobile showroom or dealership for chevrolet. the unusually colored exterior ornament with mottled finish was fabricated by the american...

22 Dec

Posted at 03:46h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

another physically and emotionally draining  year has drawn to a close, but the ungodly amount of projects have left a heap of photographic images, documents, and artifact extractions waiting to be transformed into blog posts, exhibits, lectures, and narratives, that will carry into 2017 and perhaps...

19 Dec

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

the bldg. 51 american architectural artifact museum recently acquired several r.r. donnelley printing plant (extant) ornamental terra cotta exterior shields featuring richly colored polychromatic finishes. fabricated by the midland terra cotta (chicago, ills.), the shields adorned the exterior facade of the massive printing facility, considered the...

14 Dec

Posted at 20:26h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

in a previous post, the bldg. 51 museum acquired a unique and highly figurative terra cotta rondel that was positioned between the spandrels on the exterior of the sullivan-inspired late 19th century st. boniface school building (demolished in the 1990's). late last week several pallets of...

12 Dec

Posted at 20:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

with the drebohl brothers and zessler "munich" style art glass windows removed from park view lutheran church (see prior posts), my only business being was to document its senseless and destruction, that surprisingly, went largely unnoticed by neighbors and preservationists alike. it was utterly surreal...

09 Dec

Posted at 08:18h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

earlier this month, two nearly identical, museum-quality cast plaster interior residential ceiling medallions salvaged by richard nickel in 1968 were recently added to the bldg. 51 museum collection. the remarkable solid plaster ceiling medallions or rosettes were designed by louis h. sullivan for the louis...

22 Nov

Posted at 20:06h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

after spending the day engaging with people over my pop-up exhibition of "fragments from chicago's past," i brought some of the architectural artifacts to my studio to photograph before they return to the bldg. 51 museum. i cleaned, documented, and photographed each and every fragment, both...

18 Nov

Posted at 16:10h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

after spending an afternoon a few ago photographing the facade of the congress theater, combined with revisiting nortown theater ornament i salvaged in 2007, and researching the architectural firm of rapp and rapp for an upcoming exhibit i'm putting together on "artifacts from atmospheric theaters,"...

16 Nov

Posted at 21:25h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the architectural firm of rapp and rapp, consisting of brothers cornelius ward rapp and george leslie rapp (founded in 1907), was widely considered to be one of the leading designers of the great movie palaces constructed during the early 20th century. the firm designed over 400...

15 Nov

Posted at 14:04h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

i spent the afternoon last week helping my friend tim samuelson transport an ornamental terra cotta figural rondel head salvaged from sullivan & adler's schiller building (garrick theater) to be repaired by another mutual friend, mike gruzca, in preparation for an upcoming exhibit. gruzca is...

11 Nov

Posted at 03:43h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

after keeping a watchful eye on the post-fire richard maurice birdsall cottage since the day it was handed a death sentence earlier this summer, the moment finally arrived when the wrecking machine was delivered to 1241 n. state street. less than 24 hours later, a cottage...

09 Nov

Posted at 06:16h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

when i pulled up to the site, to document and extract park view church's time capsule, all that remained standing of this gargatuan gothic-style bedford limestone church was a portion of the exterior facade. the zettler windows had been carefully removed by us a...

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