“Governor Pritzker has the opportunity, after years of neglect by his predecessors, to lead through the sale of the Thompson Center by giving it new life.
“Repurposing the building the right way could go beyond what the building ever was, making it better, more public, and a place where you want to work, stay overnight, live or just visit and feel good.
“Miracles and dreams can become real.”
— Helmut Jahn during 2020 interview
“Is there any hope for those who want to preserve the James R. Thompson Center in the Loop?
“We might have a sense of this in a few weeks. Aug. 16 is the deadline the state has set for proposals to acquire the building and its full-block site. The state then wants time for review, to interview the proposers and let them submit revisions, with a goal of picking a winner in November.
“Another important deadline is today July 19, 5 p.m. to be exact. It’s when submissions are due for a competition the Chicago Architecture Club is running for proposals to reuse the property. The club’s contest was an incentive for architects, engineers and anybody else with an interest in design to put on their thinking caps.
“The goal here is not a transaction but preservation. What are the best ideas for reusing a building that for its flaws and flourishes was a 1980s attempt to redefine civic space and traditional government architecture? With its atrium that lets the sun pour in, the building stands in contrast to those that worship rentable square feet. It is defiantly inefficient.
“So two processes are underway, but the power lies with the state. It’s the owner, and it has made clear its desire to maximize the sale price. In contrast, nobody has to listen to what the architecture club comes up with, even if the death in May of the Thompson Center’s renowned architect, Helmut Jahn, has given the whole matter poignance.
“Yet the Thompson Center, 100 W. Randolph St., is hardly an easy case study, and it’s quite possible the state will be disappointed with the responses. It can be a teardown, but it’s also the CTA’s busiest hub, and service to six L lines has to be maintained. A developer who wants to go big on the site has to decide what they are building for. An office market in work-from-home transition? High-rise housing with so much competition? And who really needs another hotel?
“The Thompson Center is a quandary that has intrigued the dean of Chicago developers, John Buck. ‘I have looked at that building, either to repurpose it or even building a tower on part of the property. None of these exercises approached anything that made sense to me,” Buck said. Yet he said the building is of ‘landmark quality’ and should be preserved for public use.
“Maybe there will be a great idea, or the combined weight of several ideas, to induce Gov. J.B. Pritzker to opt for preservation. ‘It seems like the most sustainable building you can create is the one that already exists,’ Chicago architect Lamar Johnson said.
“It won’t be easy, and many will argue that it’s irresponsible not to sell it for top dollar and bring it on the tax rolls in a big way. But wrong moves can create a downtown drag similar to the old Block 37.
“Thinking ‘outside the box’ made Jahn world famous. The same is needed now from those who would save his Thompson Center and make it shine in the Loop. (Roeder, Chicago Sun-Times, 7/19/21)
Time for a fresh look at plans to sell the Thompson Center; The state must face that it may not get $200 million for the building. And to increase its redevelopment possibilities, reusing the building — not tearing it down — should remain an option, Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, 4/12/21