26 Jan adler and sullivan’s revell building lives on through richard nickel images and the ornament he saved in 1968

for such a historically important early adler and sullivan loft building – built around the same time as the jewelers building – richard nickel didn’t take many images (a few contact sheets) of a.s. gage & company store – later known as the revell building, which was one of the firm’s largest commissions prior to the auditorium.

nickel shot the façade and heavy limestone ornament salvaged for siue during its demolition in 1968. his methodical or exhaustive approach to documenting buildings was clearly absent, and perhaps for good reason. he was so defeated from all the flak he caught from harvey wrecking while salvaging adler and sullivan’s 1892 meyer lofts building earlier that year that he just fed up, defeated and done with it all.

further reading on meyer lofts salvage:

DEMOLITION OF ADLER & SULLIVAN’S 1892 MEYER LOFTS BUILDING DOCUMENTED AND SALVAGED BY RICHARD NICKEL

while the images are still beautiful, they are a bit sporadic and clearly rushed. you can tell he did not want to be there – that his mind’s eye was elsewhere. but still, he managed to show up to document and salvage ornament -perhaps driven by that inner-voice repeating “revell-revell” like a broken record or montra.

images courtesy of ryerson and burnham, art institute of chicago and eric j. nordstrom