Wrecking the Century & Consumers Buildings is ‘Durbin Renewal,’ not urban safety
Federal money has been allocated for the demolition of the Century & Consumers Buildings, two early 1900s skyscrapers at the corner of State and Adams streets in Chicago’s Loop. This demolition could be a part of the larger story of urban renewal, the mid-20th century practice of using federal money to raze older buildings perceived as emblematic of decay in America’s cities to clear a path for new development.
But this isn’t history. This is happening now, and this isn’t urban renewal. This is “Durbin Renewal.” U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin helped earmark $52 million for the demolition of the Jenny, Mundie & Jensen-designed Consumers Building, completed in 1913, and the Holabird & Roche Century Building, in 1915, known collectively as the Century & Consumers Buildings.
This earmark also includes the demolition of two low-rise buildings between them, both an expression of State Street’s midcentury retail history. This suite of buildings are owned by the General Services Administration, the agency responsible for managing federal properties.
According to Durbin, demolition of the Century & Consumers Buildings is the only option to protect the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse and the public servants inside from a potential act of domestic terrorism. Located just west of the Century & Consumers Buildings, the Dirksen is America’s largest courthouse, and was designed in 1964 by the architect famous for urban renewal projects, Ludwig Mies van Der Rohe.
In a recent op-ed for the Chicago Sun-Times defending the demolition, written in response to Preservation Chicago and Landmarks Illinois’ designation of the buildings as two of Chicago’s most threatened, Durbin states that the buildings must be razed to create a “security buffer zone,” and that they are “so close to the courthouse that from the higher floors, it is easy to see directly into judges’ chambers and jury rooms.”
In a piece published prior to Durbin’s op-ed, the Sun-Times reported that U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo had told the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin in 2017 that the Century & Consumers Buildings proximity to the eastern side of the Dirksen raised concerns.
As an architectural historian who has worked in disaster recovery, I’ve helped clients in the public sector determine how historic architecture can be adapted to protect the people it serves.
Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act requires that each federal agency identify and assess the effects its actions may have on historic buildings, guiding the way toward best practices. Section 106 dictates that federal agencies also consider public concerns about historic preservation issues when making final project decisions.
These outcomes rarely include the demolition of one viable building to ensure the safety of those in another. The public has come out broadly in defense of the Century & Consumers Buildings’ historic character, which contributes to the National Register of Historic Places Loop Retail Historic District.
There are a range of reasons not to demolish these buildings. Postwar urban renewal gutted viable commercial corridors and destroyed neighborhoods. Today, South State Street already has dozens of retail vacancies because of pandemic-era closures. Demolition of the Century & Consumers Building would be bad for business: it would create a void on Chicago’s most iconic thoroughfares.
The demolition is also bad for the planet. Postwar urban renewal consigned whole neighborhoods to the trash heap, wasting resources and energy. Sending millions more pounds of the Century & Consumer Buildings’ terra cotta, brick, glass and metal into an area landfill would be anti-environment.
Durbin contends that the Century & Consumers Buildings “have been vacant and unused for years and have fallen into serious disrepair.” Make no mistake — this disrepair is the direct result of the GSA’s lack of maintenance and care for the buildings, and not a reason for their demolition.
Meanwhile, the GSA has expertly maintained the Dirksen Federal Building, replacing the exterior curtain wall in 2006 and repainting the complex with black paint. The General Services Administration owns an inventory of almost 500 historic buildings, spanning over 200 years of American architectural history. Each of these buildings demands that GSA consider design, security and planning surrounding the buildings in concert with the areas surrounding them.
Durbin argues that the Century & Consumers Buildings are too close to the Dirksen, and that no plan put forth for private redevelopment has addressed the security risk.
Yet the Dirksen is within a dense urban core, adjacent to numerous buildings, including 131 S. Dearborn St. and the Monadnock Building at 53 W. Jackson Blvd. How can proximity to these buildings be considered safe and others not?
Urban renewal is widely agreed to have been a mistake with devastating consequences that reinforced segregation, increased dependency on the automobile, and wiped whole neighborhoods off the map. Let’s not repeat any of these mistakes.
If Durbin claims that the Dirksen Courthouse is at risk, then the GSA should have the expertise and resources to mitigate that risk not by devastating a neighborhood, but by reassessing the safety of the courthouse and seeking a safe private redevelopment plan for the Century & Consumers Buildings.
This an approach that is completely feasible and cost-effective for the GSA, and preserves the vibrant, dense, commercial core of the city the Dirksen building serves. Sen. Durbin, work to make this, not a gravel pit in the heart of the Loop, your legacy.