Dilapidated YWCA faces wrecking ball

All sides due in court today, some residents upset

11/11/2009 10:00 PM

By MICAH MAIDENBERG
Editor

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The Young Women’s Christian Association building at 830 S. Michigan may be demolished, leaving a gap in the Michigan Boulevard streetwall, a prominent stretch of buildings between Randolph and 11th the city designated as a landmarked district in 2002.

Michigan 830 LLC, the building owner, has applied to bring down the structure, which has racked up a series of building code violations and has been subject to a court action filed by the city of Chicago. Today, Nov. 12, the city and lawyers representing the building owners will be back in court.

“It’s dangerous … and may have to come down,” said Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd). “We’re looking to see if there’s any way to preserve it.”

Jim Peters, president of Landmarks Illinois, a historic preservation advocacy group, is hoping the building’s façade, at least, can be maintained.

“This is one of the most visible and significant stretches of buildings in the city. Facing Grant Park, it’s an unbroken wall,” Peters said. “The idea that we start creating these gaps would be tremendously unfortunate.”

The YWCA building was built in 1894-95, according to a city report from 2000 that recommended creation of the Historic Michigan Boulevard District. Designed by the architect John Van Osdel II, in its heyday the building was known for its ornate details even though it was built for charitable purposes instead of profit-seeking ones.

“Faced with pressed brick, stone and terra cotta, the façade is an eclectic mix of Italianate and Flemish-derived details,” the 2000 report states. Triangular terra cotta bays prominently jut out of the top two floors.

Some neighbors to the building are disappointed that the building could be demolished.

“I think I and other nearby residents are disappointed this is happening. We moved into the area about 2002, and even before, and we’ve been in contact with the city and the previous alderman’s office. We said, ‘We’re concerned about the status of the building and the safety and health risk it poses,” said Patrick Dorsey, who lives in the building immediately south of the YWCA. “And nothing was done.”

The parcel was owned by Renaissant Development, an Oak Brook-based firm active in the South Loop during the real estate boom, working on, among others, buildings at 1 E. 14th Pl. and 1717 S. Prairie (where it has been embroiled in a lawsuit with the condominium association).

In May 2007, Renaissant floated a plan that called for an 80-story building on S. Wabash with 376 condominiums, with the Y building serving as an entrance on the Michigan side, according to Dorsey.

By the following March, a financer backing that project filed a foreclosure lawsuit against the firm, as the residential housing market began to tank.

On Nov. 12 of last year, Renaissant sold the parcel for more than $17.5 million to Michigan 830 LLC, property records show. The Renaissant-associated LLC were allowed to exit from the city’s suit by paying a $2,000 fine, according to court documents.

The two men listed as managers of the limited liability corporation that now owns the Y, Don Johnson and Steven Strong, share a Crystal Lake, Ill. address with an accounting firm called Scali and Associates. A call to them was not returned.

This summer, the new owners of the Y building commissioned an engineering report of the building, court records show. The report found the structure in poor condition, noting upper floor and roof collapses. “But the building remains structurally stable, primarily due to the masonry bearing walls,” engineers from the firm Thornton Tomasetti write. The façade could be saved if it were braced, the report reads.

Pete Strazzabusco, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Zoning and Land Use Planning, declined to comment on the building. Bill McCaffrey, a Department of Buildings spokesman, referred calls to the Department of Law. Department of Law spokeswoman Jenny Hoyle could not be reached.

The YWCA building is currently vacant.

Contact: mmaidenberg@chicagojournal.com


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