Out Of The Loop?

Chicago may lose another historic downtown building.

1 minute read

October 25, 2002, 5:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"Fine contacted the city's Landmarks Commission and department of planning and development, neither of which, he asserts, was aware that the 17-story building, located in Chicago’s historic Loop—once a dense collection of 1920s structures that recently has suffered high levels of vacancies—had been slated for demolition... For Fine, the impending demise of the Mercantile Exchange exemplifies a larger problem among city agencies. 'The irony here is that the Building Department is on the eighth floor [of City Hall], and the Department of Planning is on the 10th, but unless we happen to see scaffolding going up on a building and call to find out what’s going on, nothing is ever communicated,' he says. 'No one ever knows until it’s too late.'"

Thanks to National Trust For Historic Preservation

Friday, October 18, 2002 in Preservation Online

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