18 Feb

Posted at 16:47h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

this week sees the impending demolition of the late 1880's holy bethel or "adams street" church situated at the corner of adams and damen, near the united center on chicago's west side. with the excavator set to arrive on thursday, i have all day wednesday...

17 Feb

Posted at 10:23h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by

the following photo gallery offers a glimpse of the most recent artifacts acquired and listed on the urban remains website (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 of the...

11 Feb

Posted at 11:25h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

this week saw the purchase of a historically important and exquisitely detailed sumac pattern plasterwork frieze fragment from the extant dana-thomas house at 301 e lawrence avenue, in springfield, il. the frank lloyd wright-designed residence was commissioned for susan lawrence dana in 1902, about a...

09 Feb

Posted at 17:21h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

when i arrived at the address late last week, i wasn't exactly sure what to expect. perhaps the wreckers weren't exactly sure either, since the endgame seemed ambiguous. the post-fire brick workers cottage did not land on my radar because there wasn't a demolition permit pulled. instead,...

05 Feb

Posted at 01:22h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

…the “Monadnock” went ahead; an amazing cliff of brickwork, rising sheer and stark, with a subtlety of line and surface, a direct singleness of purpose, that gave one the thrill of romance. It was the first and last work of its kind; a great work...

28 Jan

Posted at 11:38h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

joining a number of other artifacts in the bldg. 51 collection that originated in holabird & root-designed buildings, is an art deco cast bronze lobby elevator grille from the palmolive building, at 919 michigan avenue. the heavy square panel features an elaborate motif that once...

26 Jan

Posted at 00:36h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

in addition to acquiring multiple winslow brothers exterior cast iron stringcourse or frieze panels from the gage building late last year, the bldg. 51 collection has now obtained a rare sullivan-designed terra cotta fragment from the facade of the same extant building, located in downtown...

19 Jan

Posted at 15:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

moving and organizing old inventory this past week, i re-discovered several interesting pieces from a lengthy and tumultuous salvage nearly 7 years ago. the artifacts described in this post had completely slipped from my mind, since i didn't devote much attention or time to removing architectural artifacts from...

15 Jan

Posted at 14:54h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the bldg. 51 building artifact has recently acquired yet another important "gardenesque"  architectural remnant in the form of a massive ornamental cast iron frieze or stringer panel generously donated by chicago's cultural historian, tim samuelson. the 1928 exterior building facade panel fragment was recovered by tim on...

14 Jan

Posted at 15:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

during the first week of january 2016, the bldg. 51 museum received an original and historically-important post-fire window keystone from a lake street loft building (osborne and adams, 1872). this was comprised of a seldom encountered material -- "artificial stone" -- which undoubtedly adds to its importance...

12 Jan

Posted at 23:17h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

early in the morning i arrived onsite with a delivery of boxed donuts (per tim samuelson's suggestion when negotiating with national wrecking). sure enough, mike -- the foreman and son of the company founder butch mandell -- delivered on his promise to set aside a single post-fire osborne and...

08 Jan

Posted at 13:20h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

the following photo gallery offers a glimpse of the most recent artifacts acquired and listed on the urban remains website (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories). approaching the ten year anniversary of urban remains, the goal -- now and since 2006 --...

28 Dec

Posted at 14:11h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

in previous posts (here and here) i've discussed my concern over the number of buildings being demolished that have facades bedecked with glazed white "sullivanesque" terra cotta ornament. this unusual terra cotta, "inspired" by organic design motifs original to louis h. sullivan and his chief draftsman...

21 Dec

Posted at 23:58h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have 26,800+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the...

17 Dec

Posted at 13:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

the "chatter" of several concerned chicagoans with a keen eye on the rapidly diminishing residences and commercial buildings constructed in the 19th century may have been overheard by the developers who brought national wrecking onboard to clear a group of extant buildings/structures located along a strip of lake...

16 Dec

Posted at 11:34h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

in 1912 an apartment complex was built above a small land fill, one that night scavengers (i.e., privy vault cleaners) likely dumped their wagons filled with refuse in, beginning around 1878 up until the 1890's. according to an 1886 sanborn insurance map, this large tract of...

11 Dec

Posted at 15:41h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

for the past ten years, i've invested thousands of dollars in building trade catalogs, with builders' hardware, millwork, architectural house plans, and stained glass window makers comprising the bulk of my research library. in recent years i've eagerly latched onto "google books" as a resource -- as...

08 Dec

Posted at 22:00h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products by

after days of negotiating between multiple parties, the bldg. 51 museum secured an early strongly geometric leaded glass window designed by frank lloyd wright for the queen anne style robert p. parker house completed in 1892. the historically important parker house was one of three "bootleg...

08 Dec

Posted at 11:25h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions by

the photo gallery below offers a glimpse of some of the newest artifacts recently acquired from last week's listings (15 new items are added daily in their respective categories) on the urban remains website. as of this writing, we have 26,800+ meticulously documented and well-organized artifacts in the...

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