Grant Park street wall, surrounding buildings examined at GPAC meeting 

By Hayley Carlton 

Approximately 100 people gathered in the Daley Bicentennial Park fieldhouse recently to hear a presentation by the Grant Park Advisory Council (GPAC) about historic buildings on south Michigan Ave. The buildings face Grant Park and form its "street wall." 

            Six years ago the City designated this street wall the Historic Michigan Boulevard District. The landmarked district stretches from Randolph St. to 11th  St. and includes the Congress Hotel, the Hilton Hotel, and the Blackstone Hotel, which is scheduled to reopen this month.

            “Although Daniel Burnham envisioned that Grant Park would be symmetrical and that it would be surrounded by buildings [on three sides], most of the buildings went to the north and to the west,” said Bob O’Neill, president GPAC, noting that now more buildings are being built to the south, creating a southern street wall as well. “It’s starting to change rapidly,” he said

            During the meeting, participants discussed many buildings in the area.

            “The wonderful Montgomery Ward building is still to this day scaffolded,” noted O’Neill. “It’s been very slow going." 

The Chicago Athletic Association Building and its annex were designed by Harry Ives Cobb, "who also designed the Newberry Library and Yerkes Telescope in Lake Geneva," O’Neill added, saying those structures may become a four-star hotel.

            Denise Casalino of the City's Department of Planning and Development (DPD) also addressed the street wall at the meeting. “I’m not saying [the area] is the perfect storm, but it’s close,” she said. She explained that “it was not easy” for former DPD Commissioner Alicia Berg to pass the landmarking legislation because “everyone was concerned that it would stop development.” The legislation was intended, however, to “keep the architecture there and encourage architecture like it and keep the wall of the park,” Casalino noted. She pointed to the new Spertus College building as a good example of architecture "done right" in the historic district.

The meeting also covered old buildings being rehabbed for new uses, such as the office building at 55 E. Monroe St. that is being turned into condos. Another old office building, the Buckingham at 59 E. Van Buren St., was built in 1929 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places; it had fallen into disrepair before being converted into dorms.

Although the Buckingham “was really suitable for condos because of the view,” according to Ken DeMuth, senior associate, Pappageorge/Haymes, which rehabbed it, the structure features 456 beds for students in apartment units ranging from studios to four bedrooms. All units feature kitchens and central air, and the building provides a study lounge; craft room; guest lounge with fireplace; and sky lounge on the 27th floor featuring games, vending machines, and wi-fi internet.

            “We’re trying to find new uses for these old buildings,” said O’Neill, who pointed to structures such as the Medina Temple (now a Bloomingdale’s Home Store) as an example. “Is it perfect? Of course not,” said O’Neill, noting, however, that such reuses of historic buildings are better than letting them be demolished.

            The Buckingham and the 55 E. Monroe building have not remained office buildings because office space is "a weak market" in Chicago right now, according to DeMuth. The 55 E. Monroe building is being rehabbed because it lost most of its commercial tenants. “We need to look at ways to adapt to this changing market,” he said.

            Also speaking at the meeting was Peter Psihas, director of sales and marketing for the Blackstone Hotel. Psihas showed pictures of the historic hotel’s more than $100 million restoration. Located at Michigan Ave. and Balbo Dr., new features will include a restaurant in the old Mayfair Theater (where the play Sheer Madness had a long run) and a meeting room in the old barbershop. The foyer will display works by Columbia College art students.

            “You’ve heard of the smoke-filled room,” said Psihas. “This room [in the Blackstone] was apparently where Warren Harding was named the Republican candidate for president in 1920. We’re restoring this room, along with the presidential suite.”

           The Blackstone was designed by Marshall and Fox and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1915, it has hosted presidents, the famous, and the infamous. The Chicago-based television series Early Edition, about a man who lived in the building and received the newspaper a day early, was set there. 

            Other new features will be a “hotel within a hotel,” Psihas said, in a rooftop area that formerly housed mechanical equipment. Called Hubbard Place, after the old name of Balbo Dr., it will offer premium services and a private lounge. “You also have the porthole windows which feature a great view of the lake,” he said.

            During the question period following the presentation, one woman asked, “What’s going on with the Congress Hotel? I’ve lived here for eight years, and it seems like there’s always been a strike and always been problems."

            O’Neill said the Congress’s current owners "are not taking care of the building. It’s a beautiful building with a lot of problems.” He added that the owners seem to be happy with a price point “that involves putting as little money into the building as possible. It’s the most glaring example of a building gone wrong. It’s a wonderful old building. The owners are making money at a low price point,” noting that rates at the Congress are about “a third of the average of downtown hotels.” 

            The hotel’s owners recently tried to get a permit for a plan to add floors on the top of the building to create more rooms and a swimming pool. The City turned down the plan, mainly because of the building’s condition, O’Neill explained.

            Another woman inquired about plans for the Fine Arts Building. “As far as I know, the only plans might be to renovate the old Studebaker Theatre," O'Neill said. Also known as the Fine Arts movie theater, the Studebaker showed independent/art movies and closed when the Century movie theater chain opened two new locations in the Chicago area in recent years.