“Preservation in Chicago has a complicated, multidimensional nature. Preservation is a field of practice, a function of government, and an activist movement. In Chicago, each of these components have come together to determine how the built environment expresses the city’s history, culture, and growth. That history is then used to determine what’s worth saving—and what is not. These components often work imperfectly or unevenly, are deployed differently across individuals and institutions, and have changed in conception over time. Preservation has empowered Chicago to see its unique position within the scope of architecture worldwide, but has also formed the feeling of individual blocks at the neighborhood level.
“While much study has gone into uncovering and interpreting the history of architecture in Chicago, the history of preservation in the third most populated city in the US, and relatively one of the nation’s youngest at just 187 years old, has been given considerably less attention. This is due in part to the fact that preservation is oriented around the development of historical narratives about structures and places as a means to prove that those structures and places are worth preserving. Once that case is made, the need to understand what happens after becomes less urgent.
“In 1960, it was announced that the 1892 Garrick Theatre, designed by Louis Sullivan, was to be sold by its owner, the Balaban & Katz Corporation.14 Citing the building’s uneconomical operating expenses, office tenants were cleared from the building, and it went up for sale for redevelopment. Members of the public and elected officials, including then-5th Ward alderman Leon Despres, voiced their opposition to the demolition of the building, including photographer Richard Nickel, a subject matter expert on the work of Louis Sullivan, who would supply the Commission on Chicago Landmarks with both information and photography for early landmark designations. In June 1960, Atlas Wrecking Company applied for a permit to demolish the building, with the Commission deciding to not intervene. ‘We have found,’ the commission stated, ‘that it is not feasible to press for the retention of the Garrick. The office building has proved to be uneconomical for the owners to operate for some years. The design of the theater is such that it is virtually impossible to adapt it to the present wide screen requirements of a motion picture house.’
“On June 13, a rally was organized by Richard Nickel to draw public attention to the Garrick’s plight. Two days after, on June 15, Mayor Richard M. Daley met with the Commission, the Chicago Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Society of Architectural Historians, and representatives from Balaban & Katz to discuss ways that the building could be saved from demolition. The creation of a committee delayed the demolition of the building, and the owners took the city to court. In November 1960, the court ruled that the city building commissioner acted illegally by not issuing the permit, citing that there was no provision in the law to give the city the power to withhold demolition. Demolition of the Garrick Building began in January 1961 for a five-story parking garage.”