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It would seem that the ongoing saga of the James R. Thompson Center, Chicago’s beloved but neglected governmental office building-slash-postmodernist mecca, might be reaching its final act.
Yesterday, Brendan Reilly, alderman of the city’s 42nd ward, announced a proposed rezoning ordinance that could kick the sale of the prized 3-acre site (12,140 m2) at 100 West Randolph Street into high-gear. The cash-strapped State of Illinois has been considering/trying to offload the property as early as 2003.
In 2019, the formal process of selling the “oversized, outdated, and expensive” Thompson Center got underway when Governor J.B. Pritzker signed a bill igniting the sale, which must be finalized by April 2022 (the original deadline was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Chicago preservationists and the greater architectural community have been rallying to save the highly idiosyncratic (but also inefficient) Helmut Jahn-designed structure from potential destruction an