Richard Nickel

Richard Stanley Nickel (May 31, 1928 – April 13, 1972) was a Polish American architectural photographer and historical preservationist, who was based in Chicago, Illinois.

[3] Richard's father, Stanley, a driver for the Polish Daily News, Americanized the surname to Nickel in the face of Anti-Polish sentiment.

"[2] The family moved to a second floor apartment at 2457 N. Rockwell in the Logan Square community, while Nickel was in fifth grade and enrolled at St. John Berchman's School.

[5] The family lived near Logan Boulevard, an area lined with historic mansions and wide parkways that would later become recognized as a Chicago Landmark.

[6] Nickel married a young Polish American girl named Adrienne Dembo at St. Wenceslaus Church, noted for its Art Deco design, on June 10, 1950.

Nickel encountered Sullivan's work while photographing the architect's buildings for a school project at the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago under Aaron Siskind.

Richard Nickel documented many of the architectural masters of Chicago, photographing the work of Burnham & Root, Holabird & Roche, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, C. F. Murphy Associates, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Infatuated with the brick building's front elevation, simple floor plan, and history, Nickel referred to it as his "Polish Palazzo".

Richard Nickel was killed on April 13, 1972, while attempting to salvage more architectural items when a portion of the old Chicago Stock Exchange building collapsed on him.

Photographs of the Garrick Theatre were donated by the Richard Nickel Committee to the collection of the Polish Museum of America in Chicago.