“For the past four years, this editorial board and other voices around Chicago have argued in favor of saving and renovating downtown’s Century and Consumers buildings rather than wrecking and hauling them away, as proposed under a $52 million plan by the federal government.

“The city’s Commission on Chicago Landmarks has the opportunity Thursday to take a stance against the buildings’ demolition. The commission will vote on a city proposal to preliminarily landmark the two early skyscrapers on the southwest corner of Adams and State streets.

“We strongly encourage the commission to approve the preliminary designation. (Update: The commission approved the designation Thursday.)

“The federal government wants to demolish the Century Building, 202 S. State St., and the neighboring Consumers Building, 220 S. State St. — both vacant — to create a security plaza for the Dirksen Federal Building, located a half-block west of the site. The federal government has owned the Century and Consumers for 20 years.

“Judges at the Dirksen have been championing the building’s demolition, backed by a tightly-held security analysis by federal law enforcement agencies that hints the skyscrapers, if reoccupied, would place jurists in peril. But razing the buildings instead of reusing them would be a major and needless loss for both downtown and the struggling-to-rebound State Street.

“And it also would be a startling blow to the city’s architectural history. The Century, built in 1915, was designed by the famed Chicago architecture firm Holabird & Root. The equally well-noted Jenney Mundie & Jensen designed the Consumers, built in 1913.

“Normally, preliminary landmark status would protect the buildings from being demolished or altered without city approval, and would generally place the site on a pathway toward a permanent designation approved by the City Council. But in this case, city landmark status in any form could be largely symbolic because the federal government has the power to overrule the designation and reduce the buildings to rubble anyway.

“Meanwhile, symbols are important. A yes vote by the landmarks commission is a gauntlet thrown; a line in the sand drawn, telling the feds the city wants the two historic properties saved.

“And designation would also place the building’s owners, the U.S. General Services Administration, in the tough spot of sidestepping the wishes of an architecturally important city and smashing to bits two landmarked vintage skyscrapers in the heart of downtown.

“The landmarks commission has an important decision before it. A vote in favor of the designation for both buildings is the right way to go.” (Chicago Sun-Times Editorial Board, 12/7/23)

Read all seven 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