Demolition hovers over Reese campus

Preservationists fight 'blank canvas'

10/14/2009 10:00 PM

By MICAH MAIDENBERG
Editor

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The City of Chicago purchased the 37-acre Michael Reese Hospital campus last year for $86 million. Following the collapse of the Olympic bid, the site's future is unknown.
File 2009/Staff

Barring a sudden policy reversal by the city, the Michael Reese Hospital campus in Bronzeville appears set to be cleared of its buildings, despite the results of Chicago’s Olympic bid.

The Reese site, bound by 29th, 31st, Cottage Grove and Metra tracks, was slated to host the Olympic Village. Twenty-one 12-story new structures were planned for the parcel.

Among those slated for demolition are eight structures co-designed by Walter Gropius, one of the founders of the Bauhaus School and a scion of mid-20th century architecture and design, and other buildings inspired by his style.

Ald. Toni Preckwinkle, whose 4th Ward includes Reese, said the city will seek qualified firms and then specific proposals about what to do with the 37-acre site, which it purchased for $86 million last December. That developer will work with an empty parcel, she said.

“My expectation has been we will have a blank canvas for the development team,” Preckwinkle said Friday, a day she spent discussing the site with city staff and members of Chicago 2016, organizers of the defunct Olympic effort.

Following the Games, the city anticipated a new neighborhood mixing market-rate and affordable housing.

A group of historic preservationists organized as the Gropious in Chicago Coalition fought the plan, arguing a series of buildings on Reese designed in part and inspired by Gropious were too important a part of the city’s architectural patrimony to leave to the wrecking ball.

Grahm Balkany, an architect and researcher, compared the Gropious buildings to a “great work of art” — an asset they city would be foolish to throw away.

“Now is the right time for us to step back and take a look at the site, and look at all of its potential,” he said. “We want to encourage the city of Chicago to call off the bulldozers so we don’t squander an opportunity.”

The Gropius in Chicago Coalition is nominating the site to the National Register of Historic Places, pointing out that properties included on that list are eligible for tax credits for rehabilitating certified historic structures.

Some buildings on the site would, probably not be justified for preservation under architectural grounds, Balkany acknowledged. But the eight Gropius buildings must be saved, he said.

Preckwinkle said keeping the Gropius structures wasn’t realistic.

“If we’re going to develop it, we need the land to be cleared,” she said. “Maintaining the structures is a liability.”

The parcel is located south of McCormick Place, making it the logical place for future expansions of the convention center, Preckwinkle said.

Demolition could begin “relatively shortly,” according to the alderman.

Balkany promised a new initiative to save the buildings, the details of which were not available as of Chicago Journal’s deadline Wednesday.

Mayor Richard Daley swatted down the idea of a casino on the Reese campus, floated by Alds. Mell and Cardenas, according to news reports, last week.

Contact: mmaidenberg@chicagojournal.com


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