richard nickel images of adler & sullivan's martin barbe residence (1884) enlarged from multiple contact prints. nickel documented the surrounding neighborhood (the house was located at 3157 south prairie avenue), the interior and exterior before and after the fire, and salvage efforts to remove ornament before...
in the landscape of contemporary chicago, buildings are rarely moved, and transformations are more likely to involve razing old buildings for new development than changing location. a rare example of a move-- just two years ago -- was when the historic c. 1888 harriet f. rees house...
richard nickel images – selected from multiple contact sheets – showing the extraction of louis h. sullivan-designed cast iron spandrel panels from the 5-story rothschild building (1881 ) during its demolition in 1972. additional information and images: albert levy albumen print of d. adler...
ill-prepared immediately comes to mind as i comb through the hundreds of images i took after spending nearly two hours in a small, 19th century chicago cottage that had not been lived in since 1939. sure, the house was looked after, but the homeowner(s) were more...
the following images - digitized, enlarged, and edited from richard nickel contact sheets housed in the richard nickel committee archive at the ryerson and burnham library, art institute of chicago, were taken by richard nickel of the charles p. kimball house during its demolition in...
from the time of its settlement chicago had begun a lumber trade, with a sawmill on the north branch of the river that served the local construction trade, and soon after began sending timber by ox-drawn wagon to settlements along hubbard's trail. sure enough, this...
demolition of eckhart and swan milling company (flanders and zimmerman, architects) is well underway. additional images documenting its destruction will appear in future posts. the architectural firm of flanders and zimmerman (located at 1521 in masonic temple), designed the flour mill, warehouse and stable in 1897...
the excavating machines showed signs of life as they began opening a formerly vacant parcel of ground located just west of ogden slip (a man-made harbor located near the mouth of the chicago river) in preparation for yet another high-rise (the 42-story "optima"). shortly after they...
an original early 20th century granite paver was added to the urban remains collection this week, as a souvenir of the city’s early infrastructure and as an artifact tied to the wells street station that once operated at the site of the merchandise mart. the wells...
the bunte candy factory salvage was a massive undertaking on a multitude of levels. the hulking structure was a 600,00 sq. foot factory, which included an administration building with a soaring water tank tower and its owns power plant building. the factory complex was considered...
milwaukee's venetian theater - an italian renaissance atmospheric movie palace designed by the architectural firm of peacock and frank - was reduced to a pile of rubble when i arrived in march of 2007. two of us spent a cold sunday afternoon pulling out any...
a well maintained three-flat red brick apartment building punctuated with ornamental floral moif anderson pressed brick, fret-sawn painted pine wood window lunettes and original ornamental cast and wrought iron newel, bracket and pipe railings (flanking stoops and front elevation), were demolished and trucked off to...
third and final installment, documenting the death of chicago's second german evangelical zion church, built by chicago architect theodore duesing in 1905. sadly, but not suprisingly, nothing was salvaged and/or saved during its demolition. interestingly, the cornerstone didn't have a time capsule. ...
before its rapid transformation, the “fulton street market” of tech giants and restauranteurs was a quintessential part of chicago’s industrial past, a thriving home to the city’s first century as a gritty, blue collar hub, where food distribution and manufacturing boomed. sadly, as preservation becomes...
before it was demolished nearly 10 years ago, the patton and fisher-designed dana hotel (built as the erie apartment building in 1891) was chicago's oldest continuously-running hotel, and one of the oldest extant hotel structures in the city. it was furthermore, a remarkable queen anne style...
richard nickel images documenting the demolition of adler & sullivan's meyer building or commercial lofts (1892). the 7-story structure was commissioned by the estate of m.a. meyer, a former partner in selz, schwab, & company. the heavily fortified masonry and terra cotta m.a. meyer lofts...
several amazingly intact post-fire chicago soda "blobtop" smooth base bottles were discovered during excavation of a lot where a wood-frame cottage (1873-1876) once stood. the majority of the bottles unearthed, were made for bottler william h. hutchinson (whh). nearly all of the bottles were found...
the felsenthal store, apartment, office and loft building was designed and built by louis h. sullivan in 1906 for eli e. felsenthal (friend and family attorney for sullivan's former partner, dankmar adler). the two-story masonry building was located at 701-709 east 47th street, chicago, ills. the...
erasure of the second german evangelical zion church from chicago's cityscape is happening at a surprisingly ferocious pace, with masonry façade and bell tower (bell removed long ago), the only notable features left standing, despite being covered in a web of scaffolding. the third and...
if a 19th century chicago frame cottage is handed a death sentence, you can rest assured i will be there to document its death. i will pick apart, lightly clean, and photograph any and all relevant building materials in my studio. i do this to...