A sure-to-be infamous chapter in Chicago architectural history played out in a single surreal afternoon last week, as the Chicago Commission on Public Landmarks awarded and then rescinded landmark status for an important piece of city’s trove of significant 20th-century buildings—Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital.
Once Emanuel had spoken, Prentice magically appeared on the agenda for consideration by the landmarks commission, a feat preservationists had been unable to achieve in almost a decade of lobbying.
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Then the public got its say, in three-minute segments. First up was Northwestern University vice president Eugene Sunshine, who testified that the university, which owns Prentice, sees “no value to us in the existing building.” He also warned that forcing Northwestern (which he said employs 17,000 locals) to retain Prentice “would have a significant detrimental effect on Chicago.”
HED bought into NU’s building-preservation versus cancer-cure-and-jobs argument and recommended that the commission rescind its preliminary designation. This triggered another round of public comment, during which Preservation Chicago head Jonathan Fine said lawyers for his group are looking into whether this “foreshortened procedure” is legal; former alderman Burton Natarus testified that Northwestern hospital brought him back from the dead and the university should be allowed to do whatever it wants; and NU trustee Dennis FitzSimons noted that many in the neighborhood consider the building an “eyesore” and urged demolition in the service of a “greater good.” Former landmarks division deputy Jim Peters opined that Northwestern “appears to be land banking” and warned that rescinding the landmark designation now “would create a terrible precedent.”
