After a years-long campaign, a nomination to list the James R. Thompson Center in Chicago to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) was rejected this month due to objection by the building’s current owner, Prime Realty. The news follows the announcement last July that Google parent company Alphabet would acquire the exuberant 1985 office complex that serves as one of Helmut Jahn’s most recognizable—and maligned—works for a second Chicago headquarters by 2026, following renovations overseen by Prime and the late architect’s firm, Jahn/.
The nomination, a 37-page document commissioned by the nonprofit Landmarks Illinois and written by architectural historian and writer Elizabeth Blasius and architect Jonathan Solomon of Preservation Futures with Chicago journalist AJ LaTrace, was just one part of a larger grassroots effort that sprung up around the future of the Thompson Center. The building’s fate has hung in the balance since its previous owner, the State of Illinois, first announced plans to put it up for sale in 2015. The diverse movement to save the so-called “Postmodern People’s Palace” from potential demolition has included sit-ins and rallies and garnered the support of prominent voices in the architecture community beyond Chicago. Jahn himself tirelessly defended the eccentric, glass-encased civic building often likened to a UFO that crash-landed in the heart of the Loop.
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