“On Dec. 4, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks voted to consider 30 North LaSalle St. — an unassuming International-style office tower designed by Dallas architect Thomas E. Stanley and completed in 1975 — for landmark status as well as Class L property tax incentives for its renovation.
“It is an important conversation, but also an ironic one.
“That building stands on the former site of one of Chicago’s most significant architectural masterpieces: the 1894 Chicago Stock Exchange Building designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan. Despite fierce public opposition, that internationally revered structure was razed in 1972.
“The iconic entrance arch, part of the cornice and interior trading floor survive, salvaged and revered as surviving artifacts of a masterwork. This is entirely due to the personal investment of some intrepid architects and interested citizens.
“Chicago Architecture Center board member and photographer Richard Nickel lost his life in the process of documenting and saving the building remnants. Dedicated young architect John Vinci assembled a small team of like-minded individuals to salvage the historic trading room floor with funding from the Art Institute of Chicago, where it was reassembled and is on display today.
“This moment demands more than a routine landmarks hearing. It requires an honest reckoning with the shortcomings of our existing preservation laws and a commitment to fixing them.
“What’s absent from the proposal before the Commission is any recognition of the surviving pieces of the original Stock Exchange Building.
“If 30 North LaSalle is to be landmarked, then surely the architectural artifacts that once occupied that site deserve a clear and durable designation as historically significant. If they cannot remain where they are, they should be recognized in a multiple resource designation that is non-site-specific — much like the Heald Square Monument — while retaining full protection.
“Chicago’s preservation movement was born from losses exactly like this. The demolition of the Stock Exchange Building happened during a period of notable public protest and activism; architects and citizens organized, interest groups formed and City government was rightly pressed to protect our world-renowned architectural heritage. CAC traces its own roots to this surge of public engagement, led as we were by a faction of outspoken architects and related professionals and their successful efforts to save the Henry Hobson Richardson-designed Glessner House in 1966 and push for the establishment of the Chicago Commission of Landmarks in 1968.
“As CAC approaches its 60th anniversary next year, we find ourselves returning to that foundational energy. The question before us is the same one our progenitors confronted: How do we prevent the destruction of the places that tell Chicago’s story?
“The Stock Exchange Building was demolished because nascent preservation protections at the time were unsolidified. Today, similar vulnerabilities remain.
“Along LaSalle Street, where office vacancy rates threaten the corridor’s vitality, we should be assessing buildings with sober judgment — preserving what deserves protection and repurposing the rest, making incentives available for all building reuse.
“If the Commission is to proceed with landmarking 30 North LaSalle, then let us also honor the architectural treasure that preceded it. Let us refine our laws so that future decisions are clear, consistent and rooted in the public good.
“It was only a few decades ago when Chicagoans stepped forward to safeguard an invaluable facet of our city’s cultural identity and, in so doing, showed our nation what enlightened preservation could achieve. Now is a perfect time to think through logical preservation and incentive reforms that build on our forebears’ legacy.” (Eleanor Gorski is CEO of the Chicago Architecture Center.)
Read the full Op-Ed at Crain’s Chicago Business