09 Jun

Posted at 15:40h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

the great majority of extant 19th century chicago commercial building facades have succumbed to those 20th century remuddlings that greatly disfigure or altogether destroy the integrity of a building's original architectural character. the replacement of windows to make them more energy efficient is one thing, but more often than...

09 Jun

Posted at 09:41h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

  when salvaging a house slated for demolition, i first and foremost size up both the interior and exterior elements that need to be removed, documenting the "before and after" as a critical facet of the narrative which i set out to capture on each site....

07 Jun

Posted at 22:36h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

sadly, i missed salvaging and/or documenting the death of this steeply-pitched gabled roof masonry chicago cottage constructed around 1890-1895. when i did make it to the site, all that remained were partially intact brick foundation walls, with the heavily notched interlocking pine wood sill plates...

06 Jun

Posted at 17:26h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

shortly before the last wave of demolition left the original 1865 foundry building standing alone, as the only reminder of crane's bustling fabrication of steam and valve fitters, urban remains was able to salvage and document the event. the crane manufacturing company lasted well into...

31 May

Posted at 15:00h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by

in the aftermath of a partial demolition of chicago's oldest factory building (the c. 1870 addition to the crane manufacturing company), several items have already been unearthed during excavation, with some pre-dating the factory itself. aside from ephemera related to the business (see prior post here), artifacts include a heavily...

31 May

Posted at 13:33h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

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...

30 May

Posted at 10:26h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

having recently witnessed the charles sumner frost-designed public life insurance building being unceremoniously toppled, with no effort toward its salvage, my mind wandered to other sites in the city, both remaining and lost, that were touched by the architects. frost had a fruitful partnership with alfred...

24 May

Posted at 01:50h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the 11-story "moorish gothic" office building was completed in 1899 by architect harry bergen wheelock, originally serving as the offices of the western methodist book exchange, later as the stop and shop warehouse. this week's acquisitions include an additional "sullivanesque" spandrel panel (four sections creates a...

23 May

Posted at 13:36h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

this week the bldg. 51 collection acquired a pair of historically important bronze and pressed two-piece frosted glass elevator indicator light fixtures dating to william drummond's renovation of the rookery building in the 1930's. the super super streamlined elevator fixtures feature centrally located rings flanked on...

17 May

Posted at 23:31h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

just this past week another late nineteenth century church was wrecked in humboldt park. arriving to scope out the recipient of this new demolition sentence, the two-story masonry jehovah's witnesses church held immediate intrigue, a modest structure painted completely gray, but veiling certain architectural features that appeared...

17 May

Posted at 23:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

while the mountainous piles of rubble were being carted off, the last remains of the recently demolished crane brothers mfg. factory building addition (the main building constructed in 1865 still stands), i discovered a small cavity against the foundation wall that yielded a wealth of artifacts. the 19th...

14 May

Posted at 23:46h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

on occasion urban remains ventures to acquire architectural artifacts from outside chicago, and this week brought a fragment from a mid-nineteenth century building in milwaukee that is undergoing redevelopment. the artifact is an original section of allover crazed painted cast iron entryway load-baring column with...

06 May

Posted at 00:08h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

after returning from my week-long trip to new orleans, i revisited the site of the crane brothers manufacturing factory complex (renamed northwestern manufacturing and then crane mfg. co. shortly after the 1871 great chicago fire). the building that most interested me was one of two pre-fire structures, built in...

05 May

Posted at 14:35h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

[caption id="attachment_20372" align="alignleft" width="900"] rose's product was advertised to contain nearly five pounds of fresh, lean beef in the form of a heavy syrup, priced at one dollar per pound. preston b. rose moved to chicago, where he used his chemistry knowledge to concoct a new...

03 May

Posted at 17:12h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

after thoroughly photo-documenting the interior and exterior of the two extant pre-fire crane brothers factory buildings constructed in 1865 and 1870, we were given 1-2 days to extract artifacts that i expressed interest in during a lengthy afternoon of search and discovery. with insurance certificates issued and...

03 May

Posted at 17:11h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

as the early 20th century head (roman goddess diana) of montgomery ward's "spirit of progress" joins an exhibition at the chicago cultural center, a new historically-important (with ties to both st. louis and chicago) and finely executed artifact enters the bldg. 51 collection, thanks to...

03 May

Posted at 16:35h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

an exciting acquisition joining a number of egyptian revival artifacts in the urban remains/ bldg. 51 collection is a brightly colored exterior polychromatic glazed terra cotta window surround cornice segment removed nearly 40 years ago from the historically-important chicago art deco gem known as the reebie storage warehouse,...

20 Apr

Posted at 13:08h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

among the more interesting surprises an old house can hold, insulation is sometimes unearthed during demolition in the form of dated ephemera and materials from a bygone era. the contents found are especially valuable in providing a sturdy timeline during which the house was constructed, especially if found resting on...

20 Apr

Posted at 12:51h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the monumental plaster female statue recently housed in off-site storage, has recently made another move, this time to be in a more secluded, climate-controlled space along with the rest of the bldg. 51 collection. thankfully it is solidly-built, with complete structural integrity to withstand relocation. longtime...

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