01 Jul

Posted at 14:38h in Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Sales and Promotions, Salvages by

as of this morning (june 1, 2016) urban remains finally launched its new website, a more elegantly designed and technologically advanced platform, utilizing the latest ecommerce software available today. if you have any questions, concerns, or comments please feel free to contact a sales associate by...

30 Jun

Posted at 13:16h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by

a pre-fire building that has stood on chicago avenue for 149 years is now undergoing a partial demolition and redevelopment, bringing changes which have already significantly altered the existing building. the 3-story red brick facade has been shuttered for some time and notably suffered the...

29 Jun

Posted at 14:13h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

the following sequence of images - with the exception of lintel ornament, and a deeply incised keystone recovered from the dumpster - capture the long and painful facadectomy of a milwaukee avenue commercial building (1875). its face had been adorned with the distinctive yellow-hued joliet limestone that...

29 Jun

Posted at 08:28h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

  across the alley, jst a stone's throw from the john kent russell house (1855) stood two houses facing aberdeen street, or curtiss street at the time of their construction and/or move to the block. when these side-by-side houses landed in my daily demolition notifications,...

22 Jun

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

unearthing detritus from the lives of 19th century chicagoans often means coming across mundane fragments of glass, bone and broken bottles. sometimes, though, even a shard of glass or a broken object can prove to be an exceptional oddity- evidence of victorian customs or a...

21 Jun

Posted at 10:34h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

when i got wind that a late 19th century two-story brick commercial building was set to be demolished, i modified my schedule immediately to allow for a visit to the building. sadly, the structure waiting to be wiped away from van buren street sat abandoned, exhibiting a high degree of...

12 Jun

Posted at 12:37h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

when i arrived at the partially demolished house, i felt relaxed and more than prepared to get lost in "the zone" of traveling back in time, carefully analyzing and deconstructing - at least in my head - the fully exposed 19th century wood-framed cottage. since i was the...

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...

03 Jun

Posted at 16:59h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

with so many demolished chicago wood-framed worker's cottages, there are a slew of recently documented buildings that await an assigned narrative around their histories, as well as documentation of the accompanying destruction and loss. the "old world" craftsmanship used to erect these simple, yet elegant cottages...

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...

30 May

Posted at 22:17h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

Time Capsule From 1889 Discovered In Demolished Humboldt Park Church By Paul Biasco | May 18, 2016 5:51am | Updated on May 18, 2016 12:43pm @Paul_Biasco TwitterFacebookEmailMore Humboldt Park Time Capsule HUMBOLDT PARK — Eric Nordstrom has discovered two time capsules in the past two months, each dating back more than 100 years. Both...

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...

29 May

Posted at 23:04h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

on a calm afternoon, only myself and the wreckers were present as the humongous carved limestone columns proudly gracing the facade of the charles sumner frost-designed public life insurance building (1921) were quickly turned to a crumbling heap. the clunky, menacing clam bucket attached to the boom...

19 May

Posted at 16:25h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

following the revelation of a time capsule, or foundation deposit, in the cornerstone of humboldt park's former st. paul's ev. lutheran church, it seems appropriate to elaborate the twentieth century history of the building. as dnainfo covered, the most recent iteration of the building was as a d.i.y....

error: Content is protected !!