“The U.S. General Services Administration made the correct choice last week when the agency decided not to demolish downtown’s vacant but historic Century and Consumers buildings.
“The two early Chicago skyscrapers at 202 and 220 S. State St. respectively, had faced an uncertain fate after a federal security assessment recommended wrecking the buildings, claiming reusing and repopulating the towers represented a security risk to the nearby Dirksen federal courthouse.
“The buildings are too important to demolish, even in their dilapidated state under 20 years of federal ownership.
“But the GSA threatens to ruin its good deed by stressing — perhaps over-stressing — the Dirksen security concerns as the agency contemplates the reuse of Century and Consumers.
“The result? A wrongheaded and bewildering reuse provision that would allow the agency to rule out ‘short-term or long-term residential or lodging, places of worship, or medical treatment, services, or research.’
“In other words, virtually every reuse that might be financially feasible and of real merit to State Street. It’s as if the GSA has handed the city a bright balloon, then seeks to jab it with a stickpin.
“The GSA’s decision, contained in the agency’s Final Environmental Impact Statement, came after months of hearings on the buildings. The hearings are required when a potentially historic U.S. government-owned site is being considered for demolition.
“In 2022, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, earmarked $52 million to demolish the buildings and replace them with the landscaped security plaza. Preservationists, downtown advocates, and this editorial board all rightly objected, saying the buildings were too important and too vital to State Street’s future to be razed rather than redeveloped.
“And they are.
“But the buildings and their location are also too important to continue sitting in limbo and deteriorating, which seems a possibility under the GSA’s plan.
“The agency said it will not fund any reuse efforts, even as it sits on the $52 million federal earmark — or what remains of it after 212 S. State St., a small retail building between the Century and Consumers was demolished.
“In addition, anyone or anything entering the reused buildings would be ‘subject to clearance and controls’ required to get inside the actual court building, the GSA says.
“‘We’re a little disappointed the restrictions they’re taking about aren’t going to allow for a creative solution that’s not only good for their campus [but would] add excitement to State Street,’ said Chicago Loop Alliance President and CEO Michael Edwards.” (Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, 8/5/24)
Read the full editorial at the Chicago Sun-Times
Read all eight Chicago Sun-Times Century and Consumers editorials at Chicago Sun-Times
- Landmarks commission must move to protect historic Century and Consumers buildings, A vote in favor of designating both skyscrapers as landmarks is the right way to go. It tells the feds the city wants the two historic properties saved, Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, 12/7/23
- Vox preservare: Landmarks commission hearings are a chance to speak up on saving Century and Consumers buildings; The U.S. General Services Administration and the federal judges pushing for demolition would do well to hear and abide by what could be a flood of testimony next week in favor of saving the buildings, Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, 11/8/23
- Century and Consumers Buildings now on national list of ‘endangered historic places’; The designation by the National Trust for Historic Preservation is more reason for the feds to reconsider their plan to wreck the historic Loop skyscrapers, Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, 5/9/23
- Fight the power: City must move quickly on landmark status for fed-owned Loop skyscrapers; A preliminary designation hopefully would force the Century and Consumers buildings to be redeveloped rather than demolished, Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, 4/13/23
- Downtown’s endangered Century and Consumers buildings deserve landmark status; The city is making the right move by standing up to the feds and formally arguing that the towers are historically and architecturally important, Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, 9/6/22
- Are the endangered Century and Consumer buildings headed toward landmark status? Let’s hope so. It would be a better fate than the federal government’s plan to demolish the structures for a security plaza, Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, 7/23/22
- A federal case: U.S. government shouldn’t wreck two Loop skyscrapers in the name of safety; The buildings’ demolition would create an economic and pedestrian dead zone on State Street. And it would be a shameful waste of some really good Chicago architecture, Lee Bey, Chicago Sun-Times, 4/3/22