15 Mar

Posted at 21:58h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the bldg. 51 museum recently acquired yet another, well-executed full-scale alfonso iannelli-designed midway gardens figural head - cast from a plaster mold taken directly off the only known surviving fragment rescued from the massive "cube" fountain housed within frank lloyd wrights 1914 midway garden's indoor entertainment complex (demolished...

15 Mar

Posted at 14:46h in Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

the following images represent a small sampling of artifacts and/or objects added to the urban remains catalog within recent weeks. in addition, we have discounted several items within the collection, so please revisit your "wishlists" and/or search the catalog for sale items. ...

14 Mar

Posted at 03:56h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

after nearly ten years, i was delighted to finally come across a catalog that definitively identifies the fabricator behind a small collection of stamped steel or tin "sullivanesque" style ceiling panels i've had in my possession all these years. this was one of the more substantial discoveries of the week, so...

03 Mar

Posted at 16:55h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

  once again i managed to reserve some time for congress's theaters dark, cavernous attic space when i revisited the theater last week to resume documenting the interior and exterior before its its extensive overhaul gets underway. almost immediately after entering the attic, i discovered a heavily-used...

03 Mar

Posted at 05:00h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

last year i devoted a great deal of my time documenting 19th chicago workers cottages built before and after the great chicago fire of 1871. thankfully, the majority of the houses i photographically surveyed were not threatened with demolition, espeically on the north side of chicago, just...

02 Mar

Posted at 03:08h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

the full-figured terra cotta eagles (american terra cotta company) and the largely unornamented shields they're perched on, were carefully removed from the towering gothic style arched buick automobile showroom's main entrance, designed by notable chicago architect clarence hatzfeld in 1921. the tan-colored, mottled glazed terra...

24 Feb

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

shortly before the michael brand brewery complex was slated for demolition, i made my way over there with the hopes of documenting the few buildings left standing. after speaking with, and later earning the trust of the owner (his family's rubber works business had been...

14 Feb

Posted at 19:29h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

i've noticed more and more cold-rolled steel or iron porcelain enameled advertising signs being dug from both commercial and residential excavation sites across chicago over the past few months. nearly all of the signs unearthed are heavily corroded with the polychromed enameled finish faded, but...

12 Feb

Posted at 06:36h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

a sizable collection of all original illuminated interior wall-mount lobby bronze meta elevator "signal lanterns" or indicators were salvaged from the historically important, towering 38-story graham, anderson, probst, white-designed foreman-national bank building during a nearly completed overhaul of the "lasalle canyon" skyscraper's interior. the extant foreman...

09 Feb

Posted at 20:12h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

with "unearthing chicago" (a bldg. 51 publication) off to the printers, i'm eager to revisit a book project i've had on the back-burner for far too long. after nearly 5 years spent intermittently documenting the henry ives cobb-designed chicago athletic association building (1893), during its remarkable...

05 Feb

Posted at 01:19h in Bldg. 51, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

most of the images, at least the ones taken with my zoom lenses, portray the perforated polychromatic terra cotta panel detail outlining the facade of rapp & rapp's mission revival style central park theater. the linear bands of cream and green-colored terra cotta crisscrossing the...

03 Feb

Posted at 20:05h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

a little over a month into the new year, the bldg. 51 museum has been busy acquiring and cataloging several historically important architectural fragments from chicago's past - salvaged from buildings demolished long ago. perhaps the most important acquisition is a rare cast aluminum elevator...

27 Jan

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

this stereoview captures both a chaotic and energized street scene deep within the former "burnt district" along lasalle street, less than 2 years after the great fire of 1871. the stereoview (which enhanced the illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis, or...

24 Jan

Posted at 18:40h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

the bldg. 51 museum, comprised of fragments from chicago's past, continues to acquire historically important architectural artifacts from the non-extant granada theater, a once a grand movie palace constructed for the marks brothers in 1926. levy and klein were architects of this building, now lost...

23 Jan

Posted at 03:08h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

earlier this week a 19th century residential privy pit or "vault" was discovered during the excavation of a west town neighborhood lot, where a single story framed-wood cottage once stood. just one year ago that residence succumbed to the wrecking ball. the demolition is sharp...

18 Jan

Posted at 15:47h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

when i visited the congress theater last week, i began by carefully navigating and methodically photo-documenting several deep, dark and dirty plaster and steel-framed cavities and coves high above the theater's cavernous auditorium ceiling. while zigzagging across the original, wobbly wood board catwalks, i distinctly recall being taken...

13 Jan

Posted at 22:47h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

long after the collection of historically-important buildings belonging to rush's hospital campus were reduced to rubble, we received a call from a woman assigned the task of selling and/or discarding the piles of building remnants that had been dropped at a desolate storage yard shortly...

12 Jan

Posted at 21:19h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by

with so many architectural artifacts, medical and industrial objects, signage and everything else in between, it's becoming increasingly difficult to continue listing new items on a daily basis. in 2017 however, we have brought onboard additional staff to ensure  at least ten new items are...

12 Jan

Posted at 10:23h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

an incredible discovery, documented shortly after demolition work was finished for the day. the oculus was found intact behind the bricked-in wall. the unusual number of muntins (and "hub") suggests an automobile wheel, which was a popular motif was used in other buildings along logan...

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...

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