Richard Nickel Dangerous Years

"Selections from the Richard Nickel Archive at the Ryerson and Burnham Archives of The Art Institute of Chicago. Mary K. Woolever, Art and Architecture Archivist; Joe Tallarico, Digital Imaging Photographer. With contributions from the personal collections of Tim Samuelson, Susan Nickel Brunson, Nancy Nickel, Donald and Harriet Nickel, Emily Eads"--Page 264.

"Richard Nickel, whom I had the delight of knowing during hisall too brief life, is one of the unsung heroes of Chicagoarchitecture. He was not an architect himself, nor a designer. Hesimply took pictures, but what pictures! He was, for want of abetter description, one of the most sensitive of architecturalphotographers. More than that, his life--and ironically,tragically and poetically, his death--were fused to Chicagoarchitecture. How he died tells us how he lived: for the beauty inthe works of Sullivan, Wright and the others. His story is one thatmust be told." --Studs Terkel, author "He was completely understanding of architecture and genius andof the quality of the work he was dealing with. He wassingle-minded in his pursuit and dedication to quality in history,art and architecture. That is an increasingly rare quality." --Ada Louise Huxtable, former New York Timesarchitecture critic "Richard was an excellent photographer--sensitive andintelligent, and a very good craftsman". --John Szarkowski, former Director, Photography, Museumof Modern Art, New York "Richard Nickel was one of those who saw architecture, and whopassionately and skillfully pursued its portrayal. He was one of avery small number, and to make his work known would be afundamental service to architects, students, and teachers as wellas to the art of architecture." --Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., architectural historian

Richard Nickel is an urban legend of sorts. He is remembered for his brave and lonely stand to protect Chicago's great architecture, and for his dramatic death in the rubble of the Stock Exchange Building. He is remembered, too, for the photographs he left behind. This is a book about one man's relationship with his city, a remarkably personal story told through compelling photographs. Richard Nickel's Chicago is for people who love the city, and for people all over the world who value city life.

"Michael Abramson took these photographs with the full knowledge and consent of patrons in and outside five nightclubs on Chicago's South Side during the mid-1970s. Patricia Smith used these photographs four decades later as an inspiration for her poetry"--T.p. verso.

"Introductory essays [by John Vinci] about the firm's work are followed by a catalogue raisonne of Adler & Sullivan's projects, with historical photographs and images by Nickel and his contemporaries. ... The catalogue raisonne ... contains essays about each building accompanied by historical images and plans when available."--P. 3.

A beautifully designed and lavishly illustrated biography of one of Chicago's greatest lost buildings For six months in 1961, Richard Nickel, John Vinci, and David Norris salvaged the interior and exterior ornamentation of the Garrick Theater, Adler & Sullivan's magnificent architectural masterpiece in Chicago's theater district. The building was replaced by a parking garage, and its demolition ignited the historic preservation movement in Chicago. The Garrick (originally the Schiller Building) was built in 1892 and featured elaborate embellishments, especially in its theater and exterior, including the ornamentation and colorful decorative stenciling that would become hallmarks of Louis Sullivan's career. Reconstructing the Garrick documents the enormous salvaging job undertaken to preserve elements of the building's design, but also presents the full life story of the Garrick, featuring historic and architectural photographs, essays by prominent architectural and art historians, interviews, drawings, ephemera from throughout its lively history and details of its remarkable ornamentation--a significant resource and compelling tribute to one of Chicago's finest lost buildings. A seventy-two-page facsimile of Richard Nickel's salvage workbook is tipped into the binding.

Between Parker’s 1961 debut and his return in the late 1990s, the whole world of crime changed. Now fake IDs and credit cards had to be purchased from specialists; increasingly sophisticated policing made escape and evasion tougher; and, worst of all, money had gone digital—the days of cash-stuffed payroll trucks were long gone. But cash isn’t everything: Flashfire and Firebreak find Parker going after, respectively, a fortune in jewels and a collection of priceless paintings. In Flashfire, Parker’s in West Palm Beach, competing with a crew that has an unhealthy love of explosions. When things go sour, Parker finds himself shot and trapped—and forced to rely on a civilian to survive. Firebreak takes Parker to a palatial Montana "hunting lodge" where a dot-com millionaire hides a gallery of stolen old masters—which will fetch Parker a pretty penny if his team can just get it past the mansion’s tight security. The forests of Montana are an inhospitable place for a heister when well-laid plans fall apart, but no matter how untamed the wilderness, Parker’s guaranteed to be the most dangerous predator around.

A revealing look at Chicago through iconic newspaper photographs and words from varied and vital voices that bring them alive.