Goldberg in Elgin: A quick look at the Marina City architect’s modernist (and quite closed) facility

Goldberg in Elgin: A quick look at the Marina City architect’s modernist (and quite closed) facility
Bertrand Goldberg's Elgin Mental Health Center WBEZ/Lee Bey
Goldberg in Elgin: A quick look at the Marina City architect’s modernist (and quite closed) facility
Bertrand Goldberg's Elgin Mental Health Center WBEZ/Lee Bey

Goldberg in Elgin: A quick look at the Marina City architect’s modernist (and quite closed) facility

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While architect Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital has been—justifiably—getting scores of attention lately, I took a drive to Elgin, IL to see another abandoned Goldberg work at the Elgin Mental Health Center.

The five-story cylindrical medical building, built in 1967, predates Prentice by nearly a decade and is sort of an architectural cousin to the circular Streeterville hospital and Goldberg’s Marina City. The state-owned facility has been closed nearly a decade.  This building and a striking radiator-shaped laundry facility also designed by Goldberg have captured the eye of preservationists who fear for the shuttered buildings’ future. I blogged about this nearly a year ago.

The buildings are likely safe for now, the economy being what it is. Still, no harm in keeping an eye on things.