Photo by Jonathan Solomon
There is a postmodern government building in Chicago that is in danger of being torn down.
It “might be called architecture on amphetamines,” wrote New York Times architecture critic Paul Goldberger in 1985 when the State of Illinois Center (now the James R. Thompson Center) opened, “a building that is so utterly relentless that it seems never to let you go.”
Once the embodiment of the future, draped in a banner reading “A Building for Year 2000,” why are so many people today ready to let go of the building, and why should it matter to you?
Opinion
While the clock is running on a process that takes several months, the state of Illinois will simultaneously entertain bids from potential buyers of the site, which houses state offices. In April, state officials said the goal is to select a buyer by the end of 2021.
The timing “will be very tight,” Blasius said.
The move to protect the building was announced in a May 7 statement by a group including AIA Chicago, Preservation Chicago and Docomomo US, which advocates for works of modern architecture. The effort took on new urgency days later, after the Thompson Center’s architect, Helmut Jahn, was killed while riding his bicycle.