Architecture Critics Sound Off On Reese Demolition

CHICAGO (CBS) - Chicago's leading architecture critics are voicing disappointment at the city's decision to demolish the 103-year-old main building at Michael Reese Hospital.

Going back on a promise to preservation groups, city officials announced Wednesday that the building at 2929 S. Ellis Ave. will be torn down. The main hospital building was one of only four structures spared from demolition last year as the city went forward with plans to transform the site into a mixed-income community.

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The decision has drawn the ire of Chicago's top architecture critics.

"This was the hospital's undisputed flagship — a symbol of strength and succor, and the locus of memories that were held dear by thousands of doctors, nurses and patients. The birth of a child. The death of a loved one," wrote Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin in his Cityscapes blog. "And now? Kaput!"

Kamin took the city to task for "flip-flopping." When preservationists complained about the demolition of seven clean-lined, modernist buildings designed by renowned architect Walter Gropius, the city assured them that the main building would be saved.

But in announcing plans earlier this week to demolish it, along with the Reese administration building and parking structure, the Public Building Commission said it was too expensive to maintain the buildings.

The commission also said the buildings have suffered from years of neglect, and the main building has been overrun by squatters. The main building's roof has begun to cave in, allowing rain to leak into the building, creating mold and other unsafe conditions, according to the commission.

But Kamin argued that the building had been neglected, possibly deliberately, after the city bought it in 2009.

"Every homeowner knows that you do a 'due diligence' inspection before you sign on the dotted line," Kamin wrote. "More and more, the city's lack of action on Reese looks like a cynical, self-fulfilling prophecy: The building is crumbling (because the city let it crumble), so now the city has to tear it down."

WBEZ.org architecture critic Lee Bey also weighed in on the decision to demolish the main building, calling the city's change of position "astounding." His latest blog posting included a sampling of the other structures on the Michael Reese campus that have already been torn down.

The city says it might still spare one building on the campus.

City officials say a final decision has yet to be made on whether to keep the Gropius-designed Singer Pavilion. The decision will be determined through the request for proposal process to insure the city can recoup its $91 million purchase price, officials said.

The pavilion is a stand-alone structure which adjacent demolition would not leave vulnerable to the elements and other risks, according to a release. Its physical layout, coupled with a design that allows for natural light to spill into each wing, make it attractive for reuse.

The Michael Reese campus was originally targeted as an Olympic Village when Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Games, but the Daley administration later decided to create a mixed-use community when Chicago lost the 2016 bid to Rio de Janeiro.

City officials now plan to transform the site into a mixed-use development, including mixed-income housing, as well as retail and open space that is easily integrated into the neighborhood.