A city panel unanimously recommended landmark designation Thursday for two early 20th century skyscrapers on State Street, potentially setting up a showdown with a federal agency that wants them torn down.
The Commission on Chicago Landmarks urged landmark status for buildings at 202 and 220 S. State St. to the applause of audience members who supported their preservation. The vote sends the matter to the City Council for a final decision.
The federal government owns the buildings and would not be bound by the city’s landmarks ordinance. However, the panel’s vote could increase pressure on federal officials to save them, even though Congress has appropriated $52 million for their demolition.
Federal officials have argued the two buildings, which back up against the Dirksen Federal Building on Dearborn Street, pose a security risk for U.S. courts. The federal government owns the buildings, which have been vacant for years.
The commission’s vote is “positive optics if we do find a successful reuse for these two seminal Chicago buildings,” said Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago. His group has advanced a plan to turn the buildings into an archive center shared by several organizations.
Miller contends such a plan would satisfy security concerns while still putting the buildings back into use. He gave the landmarks commission 23,000 signatures from an online petition supporting the buildings.
The General Services Administration owns the buildings and has been accused of letting them deteriorate after deciding years ago they weren’t needed for an expanded center of federal offices. The agency had no immediate comment.
It has been holding public hearings on alternatives for the buildings because they are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Court officials here have stuck to their argument that they pose a security threat, even though wrecking them would expose Dirksen to sight lines as a greater distance.
The properties are the Century Building at 202 S. State and the Consumers Building at 220 S. State, slender towers clad in terra cotta with suggestions of Art Deco trends to come.
A city staff report said they merit landmark designation because they are exemplary works by architectural firms that defined the Chicago School of the era.
The 16-story Century opened in 1915 and was designed by Holabird & Roche. The 22-story Consumers opened in 1913 and was the work of Jenney, Mundie & Jensen.
The business-backed Chicago Loop Alliance has sided with the preservationists, saying that destroying the properties would just leave an empty lot on Chicago’s storied retail thoroughfare.
Rebecca Pallmeyer, chief judge of the Northern District of Illinois, previously told the landmarks panel, “We note suggestions that the Court should consider security enhancements that may be adequate to address the Court’s safety concerns. Media reports have suggested that those concerns are limited to sight lines into the Courthouse from the buildings at issue. We can assure you that while sight lines are significant, law enforcement experts have identified several additional concerns.” She did not go into detail.
The federal government this year wrecked a vacant three-story building between the towers because it posed a safety hazard for pedestrians. The smaller building was at 208-212 S. State.
