Illinois, USA - Stuart Grannen has developed a sort of tempered idealism. "If it's a good example of a Victorian building, it should be saved. If it's a good example of an art deco building, it should be saved. But the buildings have to have a purpose too. They have to make sense in today's marketplace and in reality. Goldblatt's, to me, is not a very interesting building. It's in the middle of the block--there's just not that much interesting about it. But you know, good for the community."
The salvaging of architectural ornament in Chicago developed more or less in tandem with the rise of the preservation movement. Richard Nickel, the Chicago-born photographer who campaigned to save Adler and Sullivan's Garrick Theater and other important structures, had begun rescuing terra-cotta from Sullivan buildings in the late 50s. Having lost the fight to save the Garrick in 1960, he orchestrated the sale of its ornament to museums around the country, contracting to remove it himself. Part of his legend derives from his willingness to flout the law to save fragments from ignorant wrecking crews: in 1963, for example, he was arrested for removing some Frank Lloyd Wright windows from the Oscar Steffens house, on Sheridan Road (the charges were dropped). By the early 70s he was salvaging artifacts from Sullivan's Stock Exchange Building, at the southwest corner of LaSalle and Washington, routing the fragments to the Art Institute and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and sneaking out as much as he could for his own collection. In 1972 he was killed while scavenging for artifacts in the half-demolished building.
That same year Stuart Grannen was a high school student in Lake Dalhalla, New Jersey. The youngest child of a wealthy executive in the chemicals industry, he'd already been exposed to the world's great art and architecture. "My parents collected period American furniture," he explains, "so for our family outings and holidays we would just scour the country. Their idea of a good time was going to the Met in New York and the great museums of the east coast, and that's what we did for fun instead of Disney World." He'd started collecting stained-glass windows when he was ten, buying them from antique shops and striking deals with wrecking crews--already exercising the energy and aggressiveness that would later characterize him as a buyer.
From a long article entitled 'Salvage Love. Is Stuart Grannen (owner of Architectural Artifacts, Chicago) a preservationist or just a ruthless scavenger?' by J. R. Jones.
Chicago Reader : Salvage Love by J R Jones
Story Type: News
ID: 53754
