Famous architects step in to save the Prentice building

More than 60 architects, educators and historic preservationists are betting their famous names might help prevent demolition of the old Prentice Womens Hospital.

Northwestern University owns the building and plans to tear it down for a research facility. Prominent architects, like Jeanne Gang and Frank Gehry, intervened on Wednesday and submitted a letter to Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

The architects called the clover-shaped building by Bertrand Goldberg a breakthrough in structural engineering and asked for landmark status.

Goldberg is a Chicago native who spent much of his career here and is best known for his Marina City towers. He studied under Mies van der Rohe at the Bauhaus in Berlin.

The legacy of Bertrand Goldbergs Prentice Womens Hospital is unmistakable, the letter says. Chicagos reputation as a nurturer of bold innovation and architecture will wither if the city cannot preserve its most important achievements.

But on Thursday, Northwestern said it has not changed its plans to demolish the building. A spokesperson said that its unsuitable for the kind of modern biomedical research building the University needs to build on the site.

The university says a feasibility study showed the Prentice wouldnt be adequate as research space and would cost too much to convert.

One of the well-known architects who signed the letter asking for landmark status, Dirk Lohan, doesnt buy that argument.

Hes the grandson of Mies van der Rohe. Lohans legacy in Chicago involves the restructuring of classic old buildings like Adler Planetarium, Shedd Aquarium and his controversial addition to Soldier Field. Hes a fan of Goldbergs building.

These are the kinds of things that I think our city needs to think about, to rejuvenate older buildings that may not meet their original functions exactly the way they were meant to be, Lohan said. And I have a hard time believing that another use cannot be found to work within that structure.

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Famous architects step in to save the Prentice building