1961 photo credit and courtesy of Ryerson and Burnham, Art Institute of Chicago and Urban Remains.

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Uploaded on: November 17, 2020

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1961 photo credit and courtesy of Ryerson and Burnham, Art Institute of Chicago and Urban Remains. Description credit Urban Remains.

“when david norris discovered the two staircase landing mosaic lunettes in adler and sullivan’s schiller building or garrick theater (1893) during its demolition in 1961, richard nickel documented it extensively - from the time norris began scrapping off layers of flooring concealing them, to the time both were jacked up (concrete and all) and hauled out of the building where they were trucked off to navy pier. the effort to extract and transport the massive mosaic lunettes - embedded in concrete - from building to navy pier had to be back-breaking work. can you imagine? i’m truly amazed they managed to pull it off. it’s refreshing to see a detailed image in color showing one of the lunettes in situ, with nickel’s makeshift scaffolding used to photograph it from above, and the rag against the wall used to quickly wipe it down with water to bring out its colors before taking the shot. courtesy of ryerson and burnham, art institute of chicago.”