Landmarks Commission Unanimously Votes Itself Completely Useless

from left: Rafael Leon, Ernest Wong, Andrew Mooney, James Houlihan

Thursday's monthly meeting of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, dominated by the battle to save Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital,  was an shared exercise in the theater of the absurd.  Across nearly four hours of testimony from dozens of speakers on both sides, Commissioners pretended to be considering the testimony of the preservationists, and the preservationists pretended to believe that the commissioners might actually be listening.

Commissioner Andrew Mooney acknowledged that Northwestern University, which owns and seeks to destroy Prentice, has no plans to break ground for new construction on the site until 2015, at the earliest.  Commissioner James Houlihan was one several commissioners who seemed to suspect that the biggest snow job of the day wasn't the one that had just started to fall outside the County Building, where the meeting was held, but the dishonest and evasive campaign Northwestern waged to gut Prentice's landmark protection.  “I have this suspicion,” said Houlihan, “that  Northwestern has placed before us a false question.”

No matter.   You dance with the guy who brung you, and for the landmarks commissioners, that guy was Mayor Rahm Emanuel, to whom they all owed their appointment.  And Rahm's intentions were never a secret.  He was working with Northwestern to evade landmark designation for Prentice almost from the moment he took office.  Last October he went public with the imperial thumbs-down.

 “Will no one rid me of this troublesome building?” Rahm asked, almost off-handedly, to no one in particular. But the commissioners heard.  They bellied up to the barre, and danced the dance that was expected.  They first voted, unanimously, to accept an economic development report that called for  allowing Northwestern to demolish Prentice, and then, for good measure, voted unanimously to rescind the preliminary landmark designation that they had voted for, also unanimously, just last November.

Northwestern Senior VP of Business
and Finance Eugene Sunshine

The intended audience for this charade was not even in the room.  The object of this afternoon's performance was to persuade Cook County Circuit Court Judge Neil Cohen that his concerns about the perversion of due process in the November meeting, when the Commission first voted for designation and then rescinded it only minutes later, has now been made all better, so can he can finally lift the stay he put into effect last December and let demolition proceed.

The Save Prentice coalition issue a quick response:

We are disappointed that the Commission on Chicago Landmarks voted to again reject its unanimous preliminary landmark recommendation for Prentice. By the standard of Chicago’s Landmarks Ordinance, the Commission made its decision based on improper considerations in an improper forum.

Jim Peters

The Coalition's attorney Michael Rachlis indicated in his testimony that the validity of the Commission's actions will continue to be contested in court.  Former Chicago Director of Central Area Planning and preservationist Jim Peters - who had authored dozens of the same kind of  “HED” reports himself - testified that the economic development report submitted to the Landmarks Commission inaccurately addressed the key questions of Prentice's relation to the city's Comprehensive Plan, as well as Prentice's effect on its surrounding neighborhood.

If Judge Cohen lifts his stay, all indications are that Northwestern will proceed swiftly to smashing Prentice into dust.  The result will not be their much heralded new billion-dollar research lab, but a vacant lot, right across the street from two huge blocks that have also been vacant for over five years, with no definite plan for construction yet in sight.  In a burned-out neighborhood, vacant block after vacant block would be considered a major planning failure.  On the empty wastelands of the Northwestern campus, where the very gravel is marbled with insider clout, it's just business.

Another dismissal, another brief reprieve, another day in court for Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice

 Lizzie Schiffman of DNAinfo.comChicago is reporting that Cook County Circuit Judge Neil Cohen has dismissed Landmarks Illinois' lawsuit  against the Commission on Chicago Landmarks for revoking preliminary landmarks status for Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital only minutes after it unanimously voted for it.  Micah Maidenberg reports in Crain's Chicago Business that Cohen cited a previous Supreme Court decision as stopping him from overruling actions of the Commission.  Cohen left her current stay against the issuance of a demolition permit in place for another 30 days to allow the National Trust for Historic Preservation to amend its complaint in a way that would supposedly make it acceptable to the court.

The Save Prentice coalition issued a press release which includes this response:

We welcome the outcome of today's hearing, which keeps in place a stay preventing harm to historic Prentice Women's Hospital and provides an opportunity to amend our pleadings within 30 days. We appreciate the care with which Judge Cohen is considering this case.

Read:  Striking new images of Save Prentice's new proposals

Stay against demolition of Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital remains, for now

click images for larger view

Bertrand Goldberg's Prentice Hospital will stand, at least through next January 11th.

That's the date set by Cook County Circuit Court Judge Neil Cohen for oral arguments on a City of Chicago motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Landmarks Illinois and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  That lawsuit challenged actions taken by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks on November 1st when the body first voted unanimously to grant preliminary landmark designation to Prentice Hospital, only to rescind designation little more than an hour later.  On November 15th, Judge Cohen ruled that preliminary landmark status will remain in effect until a ruling is made on the lawsuit.

The Chicago Architecture Foundation is currently hosting an exhibition, Reconsidering an Icon: Creative Conversations about Prentice Women's Hospital, that showcases the results of a competition in which 71 architects from 13 countries presented alternative proposals for retaining the Goldberg-designed structure.  Northwestern University is seeking to demolish the building to create a vacant lot for a new research lab to be built at a later date