WIN: Chicago Daily News Building Sold to Developer with Extensive Historic Preservation Experience (Chicago 7 2008)

Chicago Daily News Building, 1929, Holabird & Root, 2 North Riverside Plaza, a 2008 Chicago 7 Most Endangered. Image credit: Preservation Chicago Postcard Collection
“Gathering the News,” “Printing the News,” and “Transporting the News”, Murals by John Warner Norton, at the Chicago Daily News Building / Riverside Plaza from 1928. Photo credit: Ryerson and Burnham Archive
Gathering the News,” “Printing the News,” and “Transporting the News”, Murals by John Warner Norton, at the Chicago Daily News Building / Riverside Plaza from 1928. Photo credit: Ryerson and Burnham Archive

“A Chicago real estate firm known for redeveloping historic properties plans to buy the historic former home of the Chicago Daily News from the estate of late billionaire Sam Zell, paving the way for the first change in ownership in half a century.

“Blue Star Properties has a contract to buy the 26-story office building at 2 N. Riverside Plaza along the Chicago River in the Loop business district, Blue Star President Craig Golden told CoStar News. He said the firm is still performing due diligence before closing on the purchase.

“The Art Deco building, whose namesake newspaper shut down in 1978, had been owned by Zell for about 50 years when the Chicago billionaire died in 2023. Zell had his office in the tower starting in 1982, leading several real estate investment trusts from his office in the building that extended to an outdoor terrace and garden that Zell had built overlooking the river.

“During his decades of ownership, Zell explored redevelopment scenarios for the property, including potentially tearing down the building or adding another tower on the property’s large riverfront plaza.

“The riverside tower is known as the first in the city built over train tracks using air rights and the first office property built alongside a large plaza, leading to two common trends in the city. Construction was completed in 1929, just before the start of the Great Depression. (Ori, CoStar News, 4/21/25)

“The former Chicago Daily News Building is among the city’s best examples of Art Deco architecture, a big beautiful sculpted slab of limestone that has been a superlative study in detail, material, function and form for almost 100 years. The building is a city landmark in every sense of the word.

“The historic Daily News Building is not a protected city landmark. That means it — along with its remarkable river edge plaza and its still-intact Art Deco lobby — are not safe from being razed and replaced.

“But if demolition seems improbable, think again. Zell himself also wanted to replace the Daily News Building with a new tower back in 2000 until Mayor Richard M. Daley put the kibosh on the plan. Zell came back in 2008 with a bid to shoehorn a new skyscraper next to the historic building, obliterating that marvelous and historic plaza.

“The groups Preservation Chicago and Landmarks Illinois have pushed for landmark designation for the Daily News Building since 2008. (Bey, Chicago Sun-Times, 11/29/24)

“The piece in question is the monumental mural about the gathering, printing and delivery of the news that once adorned the vaulted ceiling of the concourse in the old Chicago Daily News Building at 400 W. Madison St. Its crisscrossing geometric forms perfectly captured the energy of Chicago’s Front Page newspaper era in the Roaring ’20s.

“For 64 years, following the completion of the Daily News Building in 1929, the 180-foot-long by 18-foot-wide canvas delighted discerning commuters who craned their necks to see it as they passed through the concourse on the way into and out of the Chicago & Northwestern railway station.

“Then, in the fall of 1993, after a panel of the mural had come loose because of a leaky roof, the entire canvas was stripped off the ceiling and taken to a Milwaukee-area company, Conrad Schmitt Studios Inc., that restores the interiors of historic buildings. Several art restorers and conservators objected, saying the Schmitt firm lacked experience in renovating historic murals and that the mural should have been kept in place because removal typically causes additional damage.

“But Sam Zell, who controls a partnership that owns the old Daily News Building (now known as Two North Riverside Plaza), defended the move. ‘We hired [the Schmitt firm] to restore it, and we want them to put it back up into the building,’ he told Tribune reporter William Mullen. ‘We think it’s a treasure and a very valuable part of the building.’

“Here’s what happened (or, more accurately, what hasn’t happened ) since then: The Milwaukee-area firm never restored the mural, reportedly because Zell’s firm considered its bid too high. The artwork sits in a Near Northwest Side art storage warehouse. It’s been nearly 11 years since the mural was removed. [written in 2004]

“Obviously, the mural should go back where it was. But what kind of shape is it in? And how much would it cost to restore it?” (Kamin, Chicago Tribune, 8/15/04)

Ward Miller has been in active communication with Blue Star Properties to encourage historic preservation, Chicago Landmark Designation, and a returning the monumental ceiling murals “Gathering the News,” “Printing the News,” and “Transporting the News” by John Warner Norton. Blue Star Properties was open to the conversation and interested in learning more about the history and significance of the Chicago Daily News Building.

Preservation Chicago will formally suggest Chicago Landmark Designation for the Chicago Daily News Building to the City of Chicago Landmark Commission on May 16, 2025. This is non-binding, but also an important first step towards an eventual Chicago Landmark Designation.

Read the full story at CoStar News and Chicago Sun-Times

 

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