in the upcoming year, i will be revisiting the sites of once notable buildings now reduced to rubble and trucked off to the landfill. before their demolition, i documented and rescued artifacts from these pre and post-fire buildings, most of which were commercial, all located...
the time spent recording the demolition of chicago’s historic graystones, workers cottages, two-flats, and commercial buddings has been a personal hell i’ve forced myself to grapple with again and again from the moment i arrive at these sites with camera and tools to salvage and/or...
as a semi-retired architectural "salvager," i find this collection of images taken by r. nickel of the chicago stock building's terra cotta cornice being dismantled and trucked offsite riveting. the work is brutal and unforgiving. after looking closely at nickel's...
from a previous post dated april 25th, 2016: a gargantuan early twentieth century neoclassical style commercial building, originally built for the public life insurance company and last occupied by the plumbing council of chicagoland,...
fragments of chicago's past from the collections of eric j. nordstrom and the bldg. 51 archive. objects of interest: -granite paver unearthed near the site of the 1886 haymarket riot. the massive pavers were used to support the weight of crane company carts loaded with brass, bronze,...
by the time i arrived in the summer of 2007, the nortown theater was already dead. stripped of its utilities, burnt by fire, and extensively damaged by prolonged neglect. note: salvaging/documenting the nortown theater's facade and its ornamental terra cotta was addressed in a previous blog entry,...
urban remains and bldg. 51 recently acquired several sections of historically important egyptian revival style spray-glazed terra cotta ornament from the non-extant walter bailey-designed knights of pythias building (1928), also referred to as the "skyscraper" of bronzeville. the building's architect, walter thomas bailey, was an american...
photographic survey of lakeview state bank building's demise. the restrained neoclassical style bank building was built around 1921. the exact architect is not known. none of the existing ornament was saved, including vast mounts of dressed limestone furnished by the indiana limestone company, bedford, ind. ...
bernie sahlins (one of the founders of second city) secured terra cotta ornament from adler and sullivan's schiller/garrick building (1892) during its demolition in 1961. the ornament - salvaged from the second floor balcony - was incorporated into the facade of their...
the three structures have been completely destroyed since the time i documented them last week. chicago workers cottage: sullivanesque commercial building: neoclassical limestone corner bank: images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom and the...
a virtual gallery consisting of hundreds of architectural artifacts (several being historically important) and miscellaneous objects discovered and documented by eric j. nordstrom during the past 15 years salvaging residential and commercial structures faced with demolition or senseless disfigurement. when time permits, i will be assigning...
a collection of artifacts salvaged from the ywca (1896) hotel. the building was designed by architect was john m. van osdel ii, nephew of prominent chicago architect john mills van osdel. the building was demolished in 2009 after decades of deferred maintenance and abandonment. looking back,...
images of elevator drums (two), foundation grillage, structural riveted joint columns, buff-colored terra cotta (northwestern terra cotta), and floor slabs unearthed during excavation (i.e., potholing) in preparation for new construction erected on site of parking lot that replaced jenney's isabella building (1893). ABOVE BROUND: ...
a detailed photographic documentary on the transformation of adler and sullivan's 5-story s.a. maxwell loft building (also known as jewelers building) facade is presented below as a collection of blog posts chronicling ruination to restoration. PREVIOUS POSTS (2018-2021): S.A. MAXWELL BUILDING...
tragedy, or perhaps irony, characterizes many of chicago's largest construction and demolition efforts in recent history. just six years ago, vying to be the next host to the olympics, the city chose to demonstrate its bid by preemptively razing a 130-year old compound of historically...
in synchronistic fashion, a rather interesting connection was recently discovered between artifacts that had separately been excavated from two chicago demolition sites. initially seeming like a simple curiosity, a detailed 7.5" tall spelter coin bank representing the first national bank of chicago was unearthed from...
demolition permit issued for a chicago two-story 19tcentury masonry cottage or "boarding house" with completely intact fret-sawn pine wood bracketed cornice, oculus, and diminutive lemont limestone window hoods accentuated with deeply incised simple scroll motifs flanked by centrally located floral rosettes. ...
richard nickel photos of adler and sullivan's hammond library (1882-1883) undergoing demolition in 1963. thankfully, most of the terra cotta ornament was saved. the terra cotta was fabricated by the northwestern terra cotta works, chicago, ills. a single smokestack with simple sandstone rondels remains standing against...
an uncanny find this week arrived in the form of a hefty, solid block of stone recovered from the basement of a wood frame cottage undergoing demolition near downtown chicago. the mottled, pink and gray rectangular block is a granite brick laid in 1883 at...
i was given unfettered access to carefully document and subsequently salvage the 19th century young women's christian association hotel building (later known as 830 s. michigan avenue hotel) shortly before it was demolished in the winter of 2009. the seven-story combination red brick and terra cotta hotel located...