If I had to sum up the restoration in two words I would say breathtakingly meticulous. Equal attention was paid to the large and small issues from laser cleaning to what type of screw head should be used. I will never forget the pleasure and satisfaction I had working with such consummate professionals whose only thought, every day, was to do the very best and then some. Read more.

In June 2003, I had lunch with Mr. Driehaus in St. Petersburg, Russia, during which he told me about his recent decision to establish a museum in the Samuel Mayo Nickerson Mansion in Chicago. As our conversation proceeded I became increasingly fascinated by what he told me about the house and its remarkable interiors. It was his intent to have the building immaculately restored and adapted for use as a museum. While the preliminary work of preparing for the restoration was already underway, no definite plans had yet been drawn up defining what type of museum was to be created. At the end of the lunch Mr. Driehaus invited me to come to Chicago in the fall to see the mansion. After my first walk-through of the house with flashlights, I knew I wanted to participate in what I could see was going to be an extremely unique project. I was invited to submit a proposal outlining how I saw my role and two weeks later I was hired as Founding Director, Director of the Restoration and Interior Designer. In early December 2003, I started work in Chicago.

The first thing that had to be decided was exactly what type of museum this was going to become. A passionate collector of the decorative arts of the late 19th- and early 20th- Centuries, Mr. Driehaus wanted his museum to be devoted to the display of such works and then in the context of the building. The building is in and of itself a unique work of art. Each room is individual, a personality unto itself. Prior to my arrival, some discussion had taken place about creating a house museum, but not enough of the original furnishings had come down with the mansion to make that a viable option. Remarkably, some of the finest furnishings from both the Nickerson and Fisher periods managed to survive in the house. After examining the original pieces and going through the extensive holdings of the Driehaus Collection and making selections that were appropriate to the mansion, I submitted a proposal for a decorative arts museum that would achieve a balance between the interiors of the house, the surviving original furnishings, and the objects I selected from the Driehaus Collection.

My aim was to present the rooms in such a manner that an accurate idea could be given of late 19th- and early 20th-century American interior decoration. The Nickerson and Fisher furnishings were obviously used and supplemented with complimentary objects from the Driehaus Collection. Placement of objects was greatly facilitated by the historical photographs taken during both the Nickerson and Fisher occupancies. The style of the curtains throughout the house was copied from these photographs. Much information on fabric designs was also provided by these photographs. In some rooms very small fragments of wall coverings were found that gave an indication of color. Whenever such information was available the color was used. Since all of the rooms are such strong entities, I proposed to Mr. Driehaus that we keep the furnishings and/or installations restrained in order to maintain a balance between the interiors, all of which have truly exceptional wood paneling, and their contents. He agreed. In order to “dress” some of the rooms, I had a Louis XIII-style chair, designed by Christian Herter for William Henry Vanderbilt’s mansion at 640 Fifth Avenue in New York, contemporary to the Nickerson Mansion, adapted and made for use throughout the house. I also had adapted copies made of two Herter Bros. pedestals, manufactured for the Mark Hopkins Mansion in San Francisco, for use in the Drawing Room.

Mercifully, no invasive changes had been made to the Nickerson with the exception of the unfortunate loss of part of the East facade at the time the Murphy Auditorium was constructed. The interiors had, for the most part, been respected and there were few significant losses. Perhaps the two most regrettable interventions were the over-paintings done to the hand-painted decorative ceiling panels in the Library and Mr. Nickerson’s Bedroom. It was prohibitively expensive to clean and in-paint all of these panels so I resorted to having sections of all relevant ceiling panels “opened up” by cleaning. These “windows” were then in-painted and subsequently photographed. The next step was to have trial samples printed out on canvas. Working with these “mock-ups,” I adjusted the palettes of both ceilings. Once this lengthy process was completed both ceilings were printed out on canvas panels. These panels were tacked down over the original ceiling panels still on their original stretchers. Everything original is back in place and the copied ceilings look like they have always been in place as they now are. Should some technique be discovered in the future that will allow an easy and affordable solution to removing the over-painting on these panels, they are in place awaiting treatment.

Even though most of the historical interiors of the house were still intact, extensive and very careful cleaning of the marble and wooden paneling was necessary due to the accumulation of dirt and dust from the Nickerson period up to the commencement of the restoration. This was a very time-consuming process due to the care required and to the intricacy of the carving of the paneling. In four rooms — the large Gallery on the first floor, Mrs. Nickerson’s Sitting Room and the NE Bedroom on the second floor, and the NW Bedroom on the third floor — the original finish on the wood paneling had so deteriorated that it became necessary to strip the finish and put on a new one. In each of these rooms there were sections of the original finish still intact. This made it possible to duplicate the original process and to achieve an accurate recreation of the original finish. Work in the Gallery took more than eight months to finish. Approximately half of this time was devoted to hand-polishing.

While all of this work was being done, the furniture, both original to the house and from the Driehaus Collection, was restored. All objects selected for display were cleaned by conservators. If further treatment was required it was implemented. The stunning stained glass dome and lay-lights in the Gallery on the first floor were removed for a much-needed total conservation treatment. Chandeliers from the Driehaus Collection were used in rooms where required and all of them were carefully restored and retrofitted. Two torchères now in the Dining Room no longer had their candle clusters. Using a candelabrum in an Amsterdam collection that more or less duplicated the torchères in miniature, I was able to have the candle clusters copied and cast in Chicago.

The painted canvas ceiling panels in the Front Parlor and Drawing Room had fortunately not been painted over, but were in a very delicate state. Paint was flaking off and all of the panels were dirty, their backs filthy with accumulated grit and grim. All of these panels were cleaned, the paint consolidated, and one missing panel was copied. The Lincrusta wall coverings in the Dining Room and Smoking Room required cleaning by paintings conservators and missing areas of Lincrusta in the Dining room were duplicated by using molds and in-painted to match the surrounding areas. In the Smoking Room the limestone panels in the ceiling had been over-painted during Mr. Fisher’s occupancy to match the marble panels. It was decided to leave this change in place and the ceiling was simply cleaned. I selected fabrics for each room and for any furniture requiring them. Three selections for the wall fabric and curtains for each room, plus any fabrics for furniture, were presented to Mr. Driehaus in situ for his consideration and final approval.

One of the crucial decisions that had to be taken shortly after I started work in December of 2003 was choosing a method to use to clean the facade. It turned black from pollution within a few years of the building’s completion as can be seen in the historical photographs. Many tests — sandblasting, poultice and chemical cleaning — had been carried out by various firms on a section of the E facade left exposed when the Murphy Auditorium was built. A fourth technique had also been tested — laser cleaning. At this time no entire building had ever been cleaned in the United States by using a laser. I drew the architect’s and contractor’s attention to the fact that problems had occurred with the laser cleaning of sandstone statues on the facade of the Hôtel de Ville in Brussels. Soon after the cleaning was completed they turned orange. Sandstone can react in such a way if treated with laser. However, sandstones vary and there was no indication on the tests made that the Nickerson sandstone would have any tendency to change color after laser cleaning. Therefore, laser cleaning was chosen and it took some two years to clean the facade. The results are more than worth such effort.

If I had to sum up the restoration in two words I would say breathtakingly meticulous. Equal attention was paid to the large and small issues from laser cleaning to what type of screw head should be used. I will never forget the pleasure and satisfaction I had working with such consummate professionals whose only thought, every day, was to do the very best and then some.

Thanks to Mr. Driehaus one of the truly unique landmark monuments of American 19th-century grand domestic architecture has been saved for future generations. Close.

The project represents a successful collaboration between Antunovich Associates, Richard H. Driehaus, and M. Kirby Talley, Jr., the Director of the Nickerson Restoration, to execute the demanding programmatic needs for environmentally controlled museum galleries while respecting the Landmark building’s character-defining features and finishes. Read more.

Antunovich Associates over the years has enjoyed a long collaboration with Richard H. Driehaus. The firm completed the restoration of the Ransom R. Cable House in 1994, converting this Chicago Landmark, at 25 East Erie Street in Chicago into offices for Driehaus Capital Management. After the completion of this project, Antunovich Associates expanded and renovated a historic townhouse at 17 E. Erie, integrating this property into the Driehaus office campus. In 2002 the firm conducted a walk-through of the historic Nickerson Mansion and the adjacent John B. Murphy Memorial Auditorium with Mr. Driehaus. The American College of Surgeons, the owner of both buildings located across Erie Street from Driehaus Capital Management, was interested in a sale and partnership that would result in the restoration of these historic Chicago buildings. That initial walk-through has led to a spectacular renovation and restoration of both the Murphy Auditorium and the Nickerson Mansion. For Antunovich Associates this project is the culmination of a cherished partnership with Mr. Driehaus — and a team of incredibly dedicated Chicago craftsmen and artisans — to restore two of the City’s architectural treasures.

Mr. Driehaus commissioned Antunovich Associates to convert the Nickerson Mansion into the Driehaus Museum, a public museum and art gallery for the display of decorative and fine arts from the Driehaus Collection, and to renovate the Murphy Auditorium on behalf of the American College of Surgeons. The project represents a successful collaboration between Antunovich Associates, Richard H. Driehaus, and M. Kirby Talley, Jr., the Director of the Nickerson Restoration, to execute the demanding programmatic needs for environmentally-controlled museum galleries while respecting the Landmark building’s character-defining features and finishes. The complexity of the overall restoration project required intense architect-client-contractor interaction and collaboration to ensure that the general contractor, The Meyne Company, a division of Bulley & Andrews, LLC, executed the project to exacting standards. The restoration project began in 2003; the work was completed by spring 2008.

The restoration of the Nickerson Mansion touches all aspects of the building fabric. A laser cleaning methodology removed decades of pollution from the masonry façade revealing the true colors and textures of the original sandstone and limestone façade. Masons followed up on this cleaning by restoring missing and deteriorated elements of the masonry façade and a carved stone fence at the sidewalk’s edge. State-of-the-art mechanical, electrical, and HVAC building systems were installed to provide an interior environment to house the museum objects. The building upgrades include all new mechanical systems, new electrical distribution, a new service elevator, together with fire and life safety upgrades. The new building systems were carefully planned and executed to provide discreet installations with minimal impact on the lavish historic interiors. Craftsmen painstakingly restored interior finishes to reveal the original splendor of the carved marble and stonework. Millworkers labored for three years to uncover and restore the intricate woodwork floors, wall and ceiling trim, fireplaces, and doors. These finishes are complemented by re-created and restored lighting fixtures, mosaics, and ornate stained glass work throughout this historic house.

For Antunovich Associates this collaboration has been a labor of love, as we have directed the restoration of these two magnificent Chicago architectural treasures that have been returned to the public domain. This meticulous restoration is brought full-circle with the installation of objects and artwork from the Driehaus Collection of Fine and Decorative Arts into the galleries of The Driehaus Museum. Close.