Threatened historic places list includes Cook County buildings

Threatened historic places list includes Cook County buildings
The old Prentice Women's Hospital by Bertrand Goldberg. Courtesy of Landmarks Illinois
Threatened historic places list includes Cook County buildings
The old Prentice Women's Hospital by Bertrand Goldberg. Courtesy of Landmarks Illinois

Threatened historic places list includes Cook County buildings

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The annual list of Illinois’ ten most endangered historic places came out today.

Three of the most threatened places named by Landmarks Illinois are in Cook County.

President Jim Peters said the former Park Ridge home and studio of Alfonso Iannelli made the list. Peters says Iannelli, who collaborated with architects including Frank Lloyd Wright, was one of the most significant artists of his time, and one of the least known today.

“He did a lot of sculpture work that you see on these Prairie-style buildings, and he was one of the first people to do that to where he did sculpture that became a part of a building rather than tacked on,” Peters said.

Another building that made the list, Prentice Women’s Hospital, by Bertrand Goldberg, resembles a four-leaf clover in concrete. Northwestern University wants to tear the old hospital down, but is delaying getting a permit temporarily at the request of the local alderman.

Peters said the New Regal Theater on Chicago’s South Side was included, too, because it has gone into foreclosure.