19 Feb

Posted at 14:59h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, New Products, Salvages by

with the combination salvage and photo-documentation phase of the c. 1888 west side chicago holy bethel church (more often referred to as the adams street church) nearly completed, i'm now prepared to witness its heartbreaking death when the excavator begins demolition on monday. originally the demolition date...

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...

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,...

02 Feb

Posted at 18:38h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

going into 2016 marks an important milestone for urban remains, a milestone representing a sometimes arduous, surprising and notably transformative journey full of wonder, beauty and not a few dangerous exploits. i have now spent over a decade salvaging, archiving and compiling an enormous repository...

02 Feb

Posted at 01:30h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

a development in the afterlife of the non-extant osborne & adams commercial loft arrived recently via an email from my good friend, tim samuelson while we were discussing the use and/or abundance of both sandstone and limestone as building materials used in post fire chicago...

29 Jan

Posted at 15:05h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by

exactly a year ago i was spending a great deal of time excavating a site in west chicago, at the corner of paulina and wood, that i deemed the "big dig." over the course of several days , despite the temperature hovering around zero degrees and the earth being incredibly...

25 Jan

Posted at 14:18h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by

following up on the recent demolition at the corner of wells and chicago, of the former "voltz hall" -- i cannot help but return time and again to sites that peak my interest. over the weekend, i identified one of the limestone window headers laying...

21 Jan

Posted at 15:07h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

regardless of season or day of the week, i remain busier then ever -- devoted to delivering meaningful posts and revising the pile of projects that were set on the back-burner when multiple demolitions were taking place each week. i spend every night reviewing photo-documentation,...

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...

18 Jan

Posted at 12:45h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

last month, chicago architecture reported the "demolition derby" on wells street, with two sites making way for a 39-story apartment block and 22-story residential tower. the wreckage continues this month at 800 n. wells street. joining the graveyard of century-old buildings turned into high rises,...

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 --...

01 Jan

Posted at 18:25h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, New Acquisitions, Salvages by

just before christmas i had spoken to mike, son of national wrecking's head honcho, to determine whether the historically important "artificial stone" facade of this post-fire building was going to be saved.  i was taken aback when he responded with a "yes", but only two complete...

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...

20 Dec

Posted at 22:48h in Bldg. 51, Events & Announcements, Featured Posts, Miscellaneous, Salvages by

finally, with time to spare, i wanted to tie up loose ends on some of the demolitions projects that were sitting restlessly on my back burner and/or not completely documented to my satisfaction. these "projects," now in the form of a growing number of digital folders containing imagery...

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