Over 100 supporters of the Archive Project filled the Manhattan Penthouse for the annual Bard Birthday Breakfast Benefit, marking what would have been preservationist Albert Bard’s 145^th birthday. As the audience enjoyed their breakfast high above New York City, Ward Miller, executive director of the Richard Nickel Committee & Archive, transported attendees to the Chicago of architectural genius Louis Sullivan and preservation martyr Richard Nickel. Miller discussed the oeuvre of Nickel, a photographer and preservationist who lost his life in his quest to document and protect Sullivan’s Chicago buildings as they were quickly disappearing in the wake of mid-twentieth-century urban renewal. When a stairwell collapsed on Nickel in the Chicago Stock Exchange building, killing him at the age of 43, he had yet to complete his monumental catalogue documenting the entirety of Sullivan’s work. Fortunately, Ward Miller and the Richard Nickel Committee & Archive took on the unfinished project, and Miller described with great enthusiasm the series of challenges and joys which culminated in the highly anticipated publication of The Complete Architecture of Adler & Sullivan in 2010. The fascinating story of Richard Nickel and the completion, after almost 60 years, of his unfinished tome inspired appreciation for the dedication of these figures and for the value of archives in reconstructing the lives and work of both Nickel and Sullivan. The Archive Project thanks everyone who helped to make this year’s Bard Birthday Breakfast Benefit a success. Proceeds from this event help to fund the Archive Project’s operations.

Location:
Manhattan Penthouse
80 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10011
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