Richard Nickel - Photography and Historic Preservation

Photography and Historic Preservation

During the urban regeneration of the 1960s and 1970s, scores of 19th century buildings in Chicago were being demolished. Among these were the works of Louis Sullivan and members of the Prairie School. By this time many of the buildings were neglected, with little public interest in their retention. Nickel encountered Sullivan's work while photographing the architect's buildings for a school project at the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago under Aaron Siskind. Studying and photographing Sullivan's buildings quickly became an obsession for him. Ultimately, he devoted much of his life to photographing them, hoping to produce a comprehensive photographic compendium.

Richard Nickel came to believe that such buildings were an important part of the city's architectural and cultural heritage. Realizing that the pace of urban renewal and development seriously threatened many of these historic buildings, Nickel campaigned and lobbied for their preservation. Celebrated buildings such as the Garrick Theater and the Chicago Stock Exchange were torn down despite the best efforts of Nickel and others to preserve them. However, after Nickel's death, his crusade gained momentum and was responsible for many of Sullivan's buildings eventually being spared. Of the ongoing threat to Chicago's buildings Nickel said "Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men."

In the cases where he was unable to protect a building, Nickel extensively photographed both its interior and exterior to archive the craftsmanship and attempt to preserve the buildings' character in his images. He also stripped some of the doomed buildings of their distinctive ornamentation before their destruction. Dozens of such items were sold to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) and are still on display.

Nickel's home at 1810 West Cortland Street in Bucktown served as his base for photography and salvage operations. Infatuated with the building's front elevation, simple floor plan and history, Nickel referred to it as his "Polish Palazzo", a building he worked hard to restore in its own right.

Richard Nickel documented many of the architectural masters of Chicago, photographing the work of Burnham & Root, Holabird & Roche, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, C. F. Murphy Associates, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.