Brick of Chicago

Brick of Chicago The world is beautiful and made of brick. Brick is everywhere - especially in Chicago.It's everywhere, but it's never the same.

It's so full of detail, pattern, color, and nuance. It's laid very intentionally, it wears down in varied and beautiful ways. There are so many different kinds of brick, so many colors of brick, and so many ways of building with brick. I decided to document the brick as a way to pay more attention to the world around me and encourage others to do the same. And it's been like learning a whole new l

anguage and suddenly discovering great texts hidden in the buildings around me. Mostly I take pictures as I'm walking or commuting. Sometimes I go out specifically looking for brick, but mostly I look for brick as a way to liven up my daily life.This project was also inspired by Alexandra Horowitz's incredible book On Looking. In it, she takes 11 walks around her neighborhood with "expert eyes". An expert in geology, in typography, in sound design, and even her 19-month old. Reading the book opened my eyes to the world around me. I can't recommend it highly enough.

A curved brick window frame with molded brick details to fill out the edges! N Damen Ave. Wicker Park.
08/24/2026

A curved brick window frame with molded brick details to fill out the edges! N Damen Ave. Wicker Park.

The Paulina Mansions were built in 1927, originally facing the railroad tracks of the Chicago Terminal Transfer Co. and ...
08/23/2026

The Paulina Mansions were built in 1927, originally facing the railroad tracks of the Chicago Terminal Transfer Co. and the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad. With the completion of the Congress (now Eisenhower) Expressway in 1960 the north facade was made more visible than ever. I’ve admired this grand Tudor revival complex many times before and was finally in the right place at the right time to take a picture!

It’s covered in rough, warm brown bricks that give it a weathered look. The random blocks of limestone and half timbering complete the historic inspired design.

Wesley Ave and Garfield St. Oak Park, IL.

Looking through the newer section of the Monadnock Building. Built in 1893, it has a metal skeleton rather than the bric...
08/22/2026

Looking through the newer section of the Monadnock Building. Built in 1893, it has a metal skeleton rather than the brick structure of the more famous 1891 portion to the north. The terra cotta detailing was added on for the addition as well.

S Dearborn St. South Loop.

Here’s a rare brick that I got the chance to photograph for the first time! These star faced bricks were produced in the...
08/21/2026

Here’s a rare brick that I got the chance to photograph for the first time! These star faced bricks were produced in the 1920s (but I’m not sure by who) by scratching the face of the wet clay to make it rough and then pushing a roller with small stars over it. The smooth stars then stand out against the rough background.

This brick is maybe the pinnacle of the 1920s obsession with making custom bricks of wild textures. Most textured bricks of this era tried to look somewhat natural, with a bark finish or a rug finish etc that, but this goes for something much more recognizable as man made.

Park Ridge, IL.

A little sliver of the Senator Hotel remains stuck to its neighbor in Garfield Park. The Senator Hotel was built in 1929...
08/19/2026

A little sliver of the Senator Hotel remains stuck to its neighbor in Garfield Park.

The Senator Hotel was built in 1929 and designed by architect Edward Steinberg. A four story apartment hotel, the front facade featured red and black bricks laid in a red-and-black Flemish bond with a couple of terra cotta arches across the bottom story.

It was advertised as being “for people demanding selected neighbors—in addition to the luxury of a new well ventilated bldg.—tasteful appointments, furnishings—the ultimate in daily service...” and changed between $77.50 to $135 a month in rent for one, two, and three bedroom units ($1,515 to $2,636 in today’s money).

Apartment hotels like The Senator featured furnished rooms and were marketed toward young singles. The units often lacked kitchens as the expectation was that residents would eat out or eat at a restaurant in the building (if it had one; many did). The Senator also offered maid service so the young professionals didn’t have to worry about keeping up house either. Apartment hotels were sited next to entertainment hotspots, parks, and transit (the Senator had all three) to attract the flighty young people who were moving all around the city looking for a beautiful building and a good deal.

As the 20s faded, so too did apartment hotels. By the 60s the idea of “hotel living” was now seen as the domain of just the ultra rich (the Plaza) and those who couldn’t afford anything else (the Bowery). The young professionals that would have previously rented the Senator’s rooms were now buying homes in the suburbs. Though it still offered maid service into the 50s, the Senator eventually became just another apartment building, its small rooms without kitchens a liability rather than a draw.

As demand fell, rents fell and owners of the old hotels stopped maintaining their buildings to the point where many became dangers to the occupants public. The Senator seemed to share this same fate. It was torn down by the city in 1999, the remaining bit likely left because it was too close to the neighboring building to remove safely. The city still owns the empty lot.

3845 W Washington Blvd. Garfield Park.

A bit of pastel colored Art Deco terra cotta. N Wood St. West Town.
08/18/2026

A bit of pastel colored Art Deco terra cotta. N Wood St. West Town.

This right here is an incredibly rare experience: this wall is the first and only time I have ever seen this brick textu...
08/17/2026

This right here is an incredibly rare experience: this wall is the first and only time I have ever seen this brick texture. And I’ve seen a lot in the last ten years! But never before this.

It’s a late 1920s or early 1930s brick with a fan texture on it. This would have been produced by having a roller covered in curved fins press into the bricks before firing (picture a donut or biscuit roller if you have experience with that). I don’t know who made them or anything else about them but they’re pretty cool, huh?

Clarence Ave. Oak Park, IL.

Voted Chicago’s second best tours by the Chicago Reader, Brick of Chicago walking tours will change the way you see the ...
08/15/2026

Voted Chicago’s second best tours by the Chicago Reader, Brick of Chicago walking tours will change the way you see the city forever.
Join Brick of Chicago in 12 different neighborhoods to learn about the materials, people, and stories that make up Chicago.

Can you imagine a tour about bricks being not only interesting but EXCITING? Find out for yourself!

A terra cotta torch blazes atop Jonathan Burr Elementary School. W Wabansia Ave. Wicker Park.
08/15/2026

A terra cotta torch blazes atop Jonathan Burr Elementary School. W Wabansia Ave. Wicker Park.

Swipe to see just the plans and just the detail shot. In 1936 George Elmslie designed Thornton Fractional North High Sch...
08/14/2026

Swipe to see just the plans and just the detail shot.

In 1936 George Elmslie designed Thornton Fractional North High School and set out to cover it in his trademark ornament, a skill he learned while working under and with Louis Sullivan. The main entrance to Thornton Fractional North is divided into three piers with these large metal “snowflake” designs hanging in them.

I’ve previously posted an overlay of Elmslie’s design for the terra cotta on Merchant’s National Bank, a design that remained pretty much the same from when the plans were drawn up through ex*****on. Here, the basic idea stayed the same but almost all the smaller details changed.

Elmslie’s original design called rounder details and just a lot more detail in general. The original feels very much like the work he did for Sullivan, while the final is more typical Art Deco. I wonder if it came down to material cost - the drawn design would have required more material and more labor to work that material into detailing.

The original called for three bands to back up the large piece but only two made it to the final. Of all his design, the only one that made it out basically unchanged was the detail work half of these.

What I have are just one set of plans at one part of the process, so none of this is to say that Elmslie did not design what made it onto the building. It’s just very interesting to see where he began and, most interestingly to me, to see how he communicated his ideas to fabricators.

Thornton Fractional North High School. 755 Pulaski Rd. Calumet City, IL.

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