Vox preservare: Landmarks commission hearings are a chance to speak up for Century and Consumers buildings

The Consumers Building, 220 S State St., (left), and the Century Building (right), 202 S. State St., are hanging on by the thinnest of threads and must be saved, the Editorial Board writes. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)

The Century and Consumers buildings, those vacant early State Street skyscrapers that the federal government wants to demolish, are hanging on by the thinnest of threads.

As this newspaper and its Editorial Board have reported for the past three years, the feds own the two vintage high-rises at Adams and State streets, but seeks to wreck them, citing fears the structures would present a security risk to the adjacent Dirksen Federal Building and Courthouse, were they ever occupied again.