18 Nov

Posted at 04:34h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

eric j. nordstrom, through his bldg. 51 archive and museum, has been consumed with a project attempting to bridge various local archives in a unified manner, that for the time-being, is translated in the following images accompanied with brief descriptions or narratives identifying the historical...

15 Nov

Posted at 18:06h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, New Acquisitions, New Products by

urban remains and the bldg. 51 musuem are pleased to offer full-scale frank lloyd wright and alfonso iannelli-designed "sprite" or "spindle" heads that were cast from a mold made from a documented original fragmented full-figured sprite undergoing restoration. the limited edition "spindle" head sculptures were...

13 Nov

Posted at 16:46h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

early photographic print (note hand-applied retouching) made from william shaw's original glass negative of w.d. kerfoot realty company building (october 1871-june 1872), located at 89 west washington street, chicago, il. the 12 by 16 foot "shanty of boards" was said to be the first "building" erected...

24 Sep

Posted at 16:41h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

a rare and historically important skidmore, owings, and merrill-designed stainless steel chicago architectural landmarks building plaque fabricated for william le baron jenney's non-extant leiter building joined the bldg. 51 museum collection late last week. there are now over 20 landmark plaques from buildings across the...

23 Sep

Posted at 14:40h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

henry fuermann photographic images (scanned from a collection of negatives of original prints) of frank lloyd wright's midway gardens (1914-1929), located at cottage grove at 60th street, chicago, il. the images were taken shortly after midway gardens was completed in 1914. several architectural elements (e.g., concrete...

03 Sep

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

original dedication booklet (fully scanned for your viewing pleasure) of giaver and dinkelberg's jewelers building (1927), located at 35 east wacker drive, chicago, il. the 40-story cream-colored terra cotta building (renamed the pure oil building in 1928) was erected by the starrett-dilks company of chicago. ...

20 Aug

Posted at 17:40h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

an original marquette building (holabird and roche, 1895) ornamental cast iron interior staircase baluster with bower-barff finish amazingly intact and exterior reddish-brown terra cotta ornament (fabricated by the boston valley terra cotta company), join the ever-growing bldg. 51 museum collection. the custom  (i.e., william roche-designed)...

12 Aug

Posted at 14:23h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

interesting 1896 cosmopolitan article on the "dangers of high buildings," by ernest flagg (perhaps best known as architect of new york city's 41-story singer building (1897-1968). the last page features a seldom seen halftone image of burnham, root, and atwood's reliance building under construction. images...

11 Jun

Posted at 16:40h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Press, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

the urban remains showroom and bldg. 51 museum (housed and periodically on display in river north, west town, and fulton market) will continue calling 1820 west grand avenue home for the forseeable future. the number of acquisitions in 2024 has grown considerably in 2024 -...

30 May

Posted at 13:44h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

two original red slip glazed terra cotta grotesque face exterior corbels salvaged from charles sumner frost's chicago and north western railway train station or lake dront depot (1889-1890). the romanesque style station - located in milwaukee, wisc. - closed in 1966 and demolished...

19 May

Posted at 16:02h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the following image gallery offers a glimpse at the latest american architectural artifacts added to the ever-expanding urban remains virtual catalog (over 125,000 items digitized/cataloged over the past 20 years). the newly acquired items for the early months of 2024 have been documented, cleaned/refinished (if need...

07 Mar

Posted at 15:58h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions by

late last week the bldg. 51 archive secured what likely is the largest collection of 2d ephemera pertaining to the chicago-based beardslee chandelier manufacturing company, established in 1901 by frank s. beardslee. we begun digitizing some of the collection while attempting to make sense of it...

23 Feb

Posted at 16:19h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

original 1930 american stoveboard company catalog (i've been searching for one for at least 10 years). so now i know without doubt that by 1930, they carried only one louis h. sullivan-designed board in their product catalog. it's a rather unusual one and the size displayed,...

04 Feb

Posted at 17:05h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

digitization of a massive mixed bag of chicago architecture images spanning four decades in currently underway. the other night i finally made time to begin scanning what i call the "shoebox collection," which is comprised of thousands of koda and ektachrome slides of chicago dating from...

26 Jan

Posted at 15:53h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

original 1924 saddle-stitched bell building booklet distributed to prospective building tenants. the profusely illustrated tri-fold booklet contains detailed images and information on the building. the 23-story classical style cream-colored terra cotta office building was designed by the architectural firm of vitzthum, karl, and company in...

25 Jan

Posted at 16:23h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the louis h. sullivan and frank l. wright-designed ornamental plaster within the auditorium of adler and sullivan's garrick theater (1892) was painted hideous colors around the time it was converted into a television studio in 1951. one such example - a star-pod panel - from...

20 Jan

Posted at 15:31h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

stanley tigerman studied at massachusetts institute of technology, but flunked out after one year. after, the dean of architecture at mit helped tigerman get an apprenticeship with chicago architect george fred keck. after a year with keck, he left to start his own practice, which...

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