National Trust places old Prentice Hospital on its ‘most endangered’ list
By Lee BeyNational Trust places old Prentice Hospital on its ‘most endangered’ list
By Lee BeyThe former Prentice Women’s Hospital, the shuttered modernist medical facility designed by Marina City architect Bertrand Goldberg, was today named among this year’s 11 most-endangered historic places in America by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The Washington D.C.-based non-profit organization called the building Goldberg’s “tour de force” that “like many of Goldberg’s architectural wonders in Chicago…still has no formal protection from demolition.” The 36-year-old building has been the subject of a heated preservation battle triggered when Northwestern University announced plans to demolish the ionic structure for a new research facility.
Other buildings on this year’s National Trust’s America’s Most Endangered Places list include the vacant and dilapidated Long Island N.Y. house where jazz saxophonist John Coltrane wrote A Love Supreme and other sites.
The Trust’s announcement will be formally made at a 11am rally near Prentice on the corner of Huron and McClurg Ct. The local chapter of the modernist preservation group DoCoMoMo, Landmarks Illinois and Preservation Chicago are among the participants.