CHICAGO: Old Prentice Hospital - a Goldberg masterpiece being shamefully demolished

Nowhereman1280 · #1 Posted **May 31, 2011, 6:02 PM**

EXCELLENT NEWS:

Goldberg's Prentice Hospital is on the landmarks commission agenda for preliminary landmark designation!!!

http://www.cityofchicago.org/content...or_Posting.pdf

The meeting is this Thursday at 12:45 PM. Everyone please show up to voice your support and drive home the point that Prentice must be saved!

source: http://www.landmarks.org/image_library.htm

Alliance · #2 Posted **May 31, 2011, 6:04 PM**

Thank god. I thought I was going to have to fly there to yell at Northwestern.

the urban politician · #3 Posted **May 31, 2011, 6:16 PM**

GREAT news. Until NWU shows some evidence that they give 2 shits about the cityscape around them, only legal action can stop their bulldozing frenzy.

F1 Tommy · #4 Posted **May 31, 2011, 6:23 PM**

That is great news. Can't believe they wanted to tear it down anyway.

wrab · #5 Posted **May 31, 2011, 6:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

EXCELLENT NEWS:

Goldberg's Prentice Hospital is on the landmarks commission agenda for preliminary landmark designation!!!

http://www.cityofchicago.org/content...or_Posting.pdf

The meeting is this Thursday at 12:45 PM. Everyone please show up to voice your support and drive home the point that Prentice must be saved!

'bout time.

Nowhereman1280 · #6 Posted **May 31, 2011, 7:37 PM**

I know its great news, but we've only won the first battle, the war is only half over. EVERYONE who works downtown should show up to this meeting and make it known that tearing down a Goldberg is like tearing down a Wright or a Sullivan building and far worse from a historical perspective than tearing down a Wrigley Building or a Tribune Tower.

The structural components of the building exist almost nowhere else in the world. This is the largest and one of the only examples of a cantilevered arch in the world. This is more structurally unique and complex than the St. Louis Arch, the Pantheon, and many other engineering landmarks.

Let's make a strong showing and help finish the job!

patriotizzy · #7 Posted **May 31, 2011, 10:08 PM**

That thing is ugly. Not sure why everyone seems to be so supportive of it O.o

Steely Dan · #8 Posted **May 31, 2011, 10:15 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nowhereman1280

EXCELLENT NEWS:

Goldberg's Prentice Hospital is on the landmarks commission agenda for preliminary landmark designation!!!

http://www.cityofchicago.org/content...or_Posting.pdf

The meeting is this Thursday at 12:45 PM. Everyone please show up to voice your support and drive home the point that Prentice must be saved!

holy crap! there's actually hope for prentice?

i had already written it off in my own mind because the vast majority of people who live on this planet (and 100% of the people on NW's board) are completely and totally fucked in the head.

ardecila · #9 Posted **May 31, 2011, 11:12 PM**

I will try and be there for sure. I hope the room is big enough.

pilsenarch · #10 Posted **Jun 1, 2011, 4:21 AM**

ok, i am totally in agreement with saving prentiss (sp?) as an icon of chicago architecture... (don't u love the post a couple earlier that thinks it's butt f**k ugly?)

what i don't understand is why there isn't more confrontation with NW regarding the SIGNIFICANT amount of development potential on properties they already own in streeterville

AND

the other surprising thing is how young a building prentiss is... correct me if i'm wrong, but it was built in the 70's? my point is, more reason to save it... green roofs? how about not tearing down totally functioning, well-built architecture...

gttx · #11 Posted **Jun 1, 2011, 5:21 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by pilsenarch

the other surprising thing is how young a building prentiss is... correct me if i'm wrong, but it was built in the 70's? my point is, more reason to save it... green roofs? how about not tearing down totally functioning, well-built architecture...

Is it "totally functioning," though? As far as I know, the nursing units in the building are arranged radially around a central core....which is different from the "standard" unit in most hospitals today. The ceiling heights are also too low by today's standards, and it doesn't seem like the building takes in much natural light. Yes, 35 years doesn't seem incredibly long for a building....but healthcare is an industry that has changed immeasurably since 1975, and that change has required new and different types of facilities.

That said, the column-free floor plates could easily be repurposed for something else. But at what cost to Northwestern - and are they willing to pay it?

Alliance · #12 Posted **Jun 1, 2011, 5:30 AM**

I'm assuming if its landmarked NWern would try to sell it? They've pretty emphatically stated its only use is landfill filler.

Nowhereman1280 · #13 Posted **Jun 1, 2011, 2:30 PM**

^^^ Hopefully they'd sell it. It is ideally located to be a condo/apartment conversion. Think of the awesome green roof deck on top of the base and excellent perpetual park/lake views from its sexy oval windows... It would be like living in a womb with a view...

Rizzo · #14 Posted **Jun 1, 2011, 6:23 PM**

I'll try to be there. My schedule looks open around 1ish

Nowhereman1280 · #15 Posted **Jun 2, 2011, 1:35 PM**

As a reminder to everyone, the Prentice meeting is TODAY. Let's make a strong showing!

Mr Downtown · #16 Posted **Jun 2, 2011, 3:54 PM**

No need, at least today. Prentice Hospital has been pulled from the Landmarks Commission agenda at the request of Northwestern University, who "assured the city that they would not be applying for a demolition permit at any time in the near future in order to discuss the situation with city officials."

Nowhereman1280 · #17 Posted **Jun 2, 2011, 4:11 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

No need, at least today. Prentice Hospital has been pulled from the Landmarks Commission agenda at the request of Northwestern University, who "assured the city that they would not be applying for a demolition permit at any time in the near future in order to discuss the situation with city officials."

Those fuckers better not try anything funny...

Alliance · #18 Posted **Jun 2, 2011, 4:12 PM**

*series of expletives*

I smell a scheme.

Steely Dan · #19 Posted **Jun 2, 2011, 4:55 PM**

^ yep. no doubt there's some nefarious backroom meeting taking place right now between NW and the city to have prentice sit vacant and unmaintained for some prescribed amount of time until an outside party engineer can come in and deem that it is "too far gone to save", thus paving the way for NW to destroy an unqualified landmark of 20th century genius while saving face in the PR game. we'll get some BS line about how "we made a good faith effort to try and save this important building, but it's just too old and unsafe to reuse".

"the city that works (underhandedly)"

sammyg · #20 Posted **Jun 2, 2011, 5:12 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

^ yep. no doubt there's some nefarious backroom meeting taking place right now between NW and the city to have prentice sit vacant and unmaintained for some prescribed amount of time until an outside party engineer can come in deem that it is "too far gone to save", thus paving the way for NW to destroy an unqualified landmark of 20th century genius while saving face in the PR game. we'll get some BS line about how "we made a good faith effort to try and save this important building, but it's just too old and unsafe to reuse".

"the city that works (underhandedly)"

Is there a procedure to force the landmarks commission to look at it during the interim, whether or not it's going to be demolished soon?

Perhaps during the Art Institute's upcoming Goldberg retrospective?