She never intended to become a photographer but that is what Sandra Steinbrecher is and in her new book “The Salt Shed: The Transformation of a Chicago Landmark,” she shows herself to be an extraordinary one. “There is not a day, not one day over the last three years that I have not thought about this place, whether I was on site or not,” she says. “From the first photo, it seemed momentous to me.
But I never imagined how much work it would be. This is a Chicago story, but I think it could, or should, resonate with other cities, as all communities have to figure out how to manage their empty or abandoned buildings” The Salt Shed, as many of you likely know because millions of you have seen it while driving along the Kennedy Expressway, is the indoor and outdoor music venue and entertainment complex on Elston Avenue north of Division Street along the banks of the Chicago River. It was, for most of the previous century since being built in 1929, the operation of the Morton Salt Company, its charming little girl logo on the rooftop visible for all to see.
That Morton Salt girl, who Steinbrecher refers to as the “beloved Umbrella Girl,” is on the cover of her book, one of the 130-some stunning photos that capture the transformation, the rebirth actually, of this slice of the city. She started coming to the site as soon as she heard about what was taking place there. She was soon granted permission by the folks at Blue Star Properties and 16” on Center, the firms remaking the property, and began to regularly visit.
“I was embedded there, going three or four days a week,” she says. “I did not interfere, the idea was to become invisible. But many of the people seemed eager to talk about their work.
They had never been asked before.” There is an intimacy to her photos, an appreciation of the beauty of the environment and the commitment of the people working there. Her photos provide an intimate and powerful portrait of place.
They grab your eyes, spark your mind. There are some words in the book too and some of the words are hers, as in a snappy introduction, where she writes, in part, about an experience that was “powerful and poignant, seeing something new created out of something old, restored rather than demolished.” Other words come from her throughout and others are in a foreword by my former colleague and syndicated columnist Heidi Stevens, who writes in part, “To love a place fully, to know a place fully, we need to know its past.
” Words come from historian Paul Durica: “Today, the shed is as much a part of the city’s landscape as the Sear Tower. And like the tower, it’s difficult to imagine Chicago without the Morton salt shed.” And some others write, among them Daniel J.
Majerowicz, plumbing foreman; Stephen Felty and Raul Fiero, ironworkers; musician and producer Sima Cunningham. Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, writes in part: “It is remarkable how Chicago transforms and reinvents itself.” Yes it is, but so often the past is obliterated, buildings disappear.
That’s why, Steinbrecher says. “My goal was to make historic preservation come alive.” She is a child of Hyde Park, one of the three children of a mother who worked as an executive secretary and a father who worked as an accountant.
“My father loved music, and he and my mother exposed us to all sorts of music and all sorts of culture,” Steinbrecher tells me. Photographer Sandra Steinbrecher takes a few pictures of the Salt Shed in Chicago on Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024.
(Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) She attended Kenwood High School before the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she “majored in languages — Italian, Spanish, French — with the idea of doing ...
I really had no idea. I just loved languages and loved to travel.” After graduating, she stayed put, working as a waitress and bartender at such bygone places as the Claim Company and Blue Mesa.
Steinbrecher was 25 when she bought her first camera. “I had a friend who took photos and he had a dark room in his apartment. I was captured by the magic and mystery of photography,” she says She started shooting and soon put together a small portfolio that was good enough to get her into advanced photo classes at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she thrived.
She soon began working with the esteemed photographer and preservationist Ron Gordon, becoming a master printer, and working with him on, among many things, the exhibition prints with negatives from a collection of Vivian Maier’s work. And she met an architect named Tom Steinbrecher. They fell in love.
They married. With his encouragement, she began a career as a documentary photographer, her emphasis on, as she puts it, “public education, the arts, and community development.” That has manifested in such things as capturing life at several Chicago public schools; having her work shown at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.
C., and other galleries; being featured in the CNN series “Chicagoland,” and in many publications. "The Salt Shed: The Transformation of a Chicago Landmark" by writer and photographer Sandra Steinbrecher documents the restoration and reconstruction of the Morton Salt Company Warehouse in Chicago's West Town neighborhood.
(Sandra Steinbrecher/Trope Publishing) From "The Salt Shed: The Transformation of a Chicago Landmark" by Sandra Steinbrecher. (Sandra Steinbrecher/Trope Publishing) From "The Salt Shed: The Transformation of a Chicago Landmark" by Sandra Steinbrecher. The 4.
2-acre industrial site alongside the Kennedy Expressway was first built in 1929 and is now a music venue, opening for its first concerts in 2022. (Sandra Steinbrecher/Trope Publishing) A photograph from "The Salt Shed: The Transformation of a Chicago Landmark" by writer and photographer Sandra Steinbrecher. (Sandra Steinbrecher/Trope Publishing) The cover of "The Salt Shed: The Transformation of a Chicago Landmark" by writer and photographer Sandra Steinbrecher.
(Trope Publishing) "The Salt Shed: The Transformation of a Chicago Landmark" by writer and photographer Sandra Steinbrecher documents the restoration and reconstruction of the Morton Salt Company Warehouse in Chicago's West Town neighborhood. (Sandra Steinbrecher/Trope Publishing) She and her husband had two sons and her book is dedicated to those now adult sons, Aaron and Otto, daughter-in-law Bridgett and “the next generation,” who arrived in August in the form of her first grandchild, a baby girl named Simone Grace. Also, to her husband, who died in 2013, for giving her “what’s most important in life: love.
” She mentions Tom elsewhere in the book, writing that during her Salt Shed visits memories of conversations with him “came flooding back. ..
. On bike rides through old cemeteries and walks in abandoned places, we shared our thoughts about buildings and their history, recognizing those who came before us and the value of what they made.” She tells me, “I think it’s important that we nurture or encourage people to have the creative vision for how to preserve and revitalize our buildings and spaces, plus ensure that we have people who have the skills and craftsmanship to do the labor.
” Though she had never set out to make a book, after she had 100,000 photos and began showing them to some friends and colleagues, the idea for a book emerged. This led her to Trope, that admirable local press started by photographer Tom Maday and designer Sam Landers that has produced a steady stream of eye-grabbing, carefully crafted books. “Yes, it was difficult to edit the photos and I will tell you that it broke my heart to leave some out of the book but I am proud of what we have made,” she says.
“This is the story of Chicago, its continuing vitality. It is a happy celebration.” Some of its final pages feature photos of a few of the performers who have performed at the Salt Shed, which had its first outdoor concert in 2022 and indoor show in February 2023.
There have been hundreds since. There will be, it’s nice to think, thousands more. rkogan@chicagotribune.
com.
