Chicago Seven again...

Preservation Chicago has realeased its annual list of the seven most endangered buildings in Chicago. Returning to the list are two splendid prominent skyscrapers on State Street which I wrote about (hard to believe) two years ago.

Yet another Roman Catholic church has made the list, St. James Church at 31st and Wabash. The Joliet limestone church was designed by one of the preeminent ecclesiastical architects of the 19th Century, Patrick Keely. It is slated for demolition as early as next month and there will be a vigil outside the building on St. Patrick's Day held by a group hoping to save the building, a prominent landmark on the South Side for over 130 years. Unlike other recent threatened church buildings in the city, St. James continues to support an active, albeit small parish community which would like to save its beautiful church, just as it did back in 1972 after a devastating fire. The Archdiocese of Chicago supports the demolition siting the costs of repairs to bring the building up to code. I have to admit it's a difficult call, the Church has to juggle so many balls these days, money is tight and I have a hard time finding fault in the Archdiocese's view that its priorities lie in saving people rather than buildings. However in a case like this where there is an active community that would like to worship in a building that has meant so much to so many for so long, special considerations should be made. It worked with Holy Family Church which survived the Chicago Fire, but barely survived the wrecking ball no so long ago, ditto with the magnificent St. Mary of the Angles, the beautiful domed landmark off the Kennedy Expressway. I hope some arrangement can be made to save St. James but I'm not optimistic.

A prominent West Side landmark on the list is Hotel Guyon which fronts Garfield Park. That neighborhood which once boasted several magnificent hotel-apartment buildings, has been in decline for decades but has recently seen some resurgence, anchored by the restoration of the great Chicago park and its conservatory designed by the estimable landscape architect Jens Jensen. Coincidentally, Hotel Guyon was designed by another prominent Chicago architect by the name of Jens Jensen, no relation. It's a massive building that defines the western boundary of the park and its loss would be significant to the community. Unlike the restrictions faced with preserving a church, I believe the city should step in in cases such as this to encourage successful re-development of buildings which could go a long way to jump start communities which sorely need it. Given the size of the building however, it would be an enormous effort and again I'm not optimistic.

Saving the Medic Building on Ashland just north of Belmont Avenue would not be a massive undertaking. The two story Art Deco storefront-office building is a gem. Despite the difficult economy, it's hard to believe that a private concern could not be convinced to take over the building, and preserve an architectural genre that popular as it may be, is disappearing from our city at an alarming rate.

By contrast, post World War II architecture is not popularly loved as Art Deco or everything that came before. Three of the buildings, or groups of buildings on the list fall into that category:

• The Allstate Building, part of the Sears Campus on the West Side,
• The State Bank of Clearing on the far Southwst Side by Harry Weese,
• Lathrop Homes housing project on the Northwest Side. 

Preservation Chicago makes splendid arguments for all three. However despite being architecturally significant, none of them are particularly charming, or easily lovable works of architecture, nor are they in high profile areas, so it's hard to imagine a groundswell of public support for any of them. Which is too bad.

And speaking of post WWII architecture, old Prentice Hospital, Bertrand Goldberg's groundbreaking mid-seventies work which has been on the front burner of preservation battles in recent years, appears to be a lost cause. Here is a lovely elegy to the treasure apparently soon to be turned to dust from my friend Edward Lifson.

St. Boniface...

Yesterday, March 6th, marked the end of the 90 waiting period after the application for a demolition permit was filed by the Archdiocese of Chicago in order to demolish St. Boniface Church in West Town.

The church was closed in 1990 and since then has been a point of contention between the neighborhood and preservation communities and the Archdiocese. Designed at the turn of the last century by the foremost architect of the Chicago Catholic Church, Henry Schlacks, St. Boniface has been a landmark in the community, standing as a poignant backdrop to Eckhart Park at the intersection of Noble and Chestnut streets. The Romanesque Revival building is a work of wonderful proportion and exquisite craftsmanship reflecting the working class German community that built it. Its asymmetrical towers are a fixture in the near northwest side skyline, one of the pentateuch of great churches visible from the 2 mile stretch of the Kennedy expressway between Armitage and Chicago Avenues.

There have been numerous attempts in the past 18 years to find new uses for the building, including the possibility of its being taken over by the Orthodox Coptic Rite, but all have proven either impractical or unacceptable to the Archdiocese.

Unfortunately since its closing, the building has suffered from the ravages of time and neglect and today faces so many building code violations that it has been deemed to be a severe liability. The Archdiocese filed the demolition permit last December.

That a church of this significance and beauty should meet such a fate is truly a lamentable situation. The preservation community is correct in doing everything possible to save the building. However I think that much of the severe criticism I have read that has been leveled at the Archdiocese has been unwarranted.

Foremost in the criticism is the Archdiocese's greed in wanting to sell the property to the highest bidder, presumably to a developer who would build condominiums, rather than preserving a historic building.

The fact is that there are more church buildings in Chicago than the Church can reasonably accommodate. It is not unusual in Chicago to find five or six Catholic churches in an area of one square mile or less. This is a testament to the number of immigrants coming to the city from Europe a century ago, with each distinct ethnic group desiring a church solely dedicated to itself. The neighborhood where St. Boniface stands is such a case.

The predominately Irish, German, and Polish immigrants who built these churches eventually left the neighborhood, and the need for churches catering to their individual needs diminished.

Declining church membership obviously has taken quite a toll as well. It is very difficult to sustain a parish both financially and spiritually whose membership consists only of a handful of families. This was the case with many parishes in Chicago. During his tenure as archbishop, Joseph Cardinal Bernadin was forced with the heartbreaking decision of consolidating neighboring parishes, and closing churches, including St. Boniface.

Clearly, financial matters weighed heavily in the decision. This is simply a fact of life in which none of us is immune, not even the Church.

But "greed" is an unnecessarily harsh and inappropriate criticism in this case. The Catholic Church sees its mission first and foremost to serve the spiritual and physical needs of the people. This includes its major role in providing food and shelter for the poor of the city.

It is very difficult, especially in this difficult economic climate to for the Church to justify spending money on buildings rather than people.

Still there is some hope at this eleventh hour that some solution other than demolition will occur. There are rumors afloat that the city may present a land swap option, offering the Archdiocese a parcel of land in exchange for the St. Boniface site, pursue landmark status for the shuttered building, and work to convert it to an alternate use. Although the landmarking of churches is not permissible because of the separation of Church and State, this does not apply here because St. Boniface has not been an active church for almost 20 years.

I truly understand the pain of the community, especially those whose lives are tied to St. Boniface. It is a remarkable, historic and beautiful building whose loss would be profound.

But as with most preservation issues, this is complicated, and thoughtless accusations and lack of understanding will do nothing to prevent its loss.