Feds save Century and Consumers buildings, but make redevelopment tougher

The U.S. General Services Administration made the correct choice last week when the agency decided not to demolish downtown's vacant but historic Century and Consumers buildings.

The two early Chicago skyscrapers at 202 and 220 S. State St. respectively, had faced an uncertain fate after a federal security assessment recommended wrecking the buildings, claiming reusing and repopulating the towers represented a security risk to the nearby Dirksen federal courthouse.

The buildings are too important to demolish, even in their dilapidated state under 20 years of federal ownership.

But the GSA threatens to ruin its good deed by stressing — perhaps over-stressing — the Dirksen security concerns as the agency contemplates the reuse of Century and Consumers.

The result? A wrongheaded and bewildering reuse provision that would allow the agency to rule out "short-term or long-term residential or lodging, places of worship, or medical treatment, services, or research."

In other words, virtually every reuse that might be financially feasible and of real merit to State Street. It's as if the GSA has handed the city a bright balloon, then seeks to jab it with a stickpin.

The GSA's decision, contained in the agency's Final Environmental Impact Statement, came after months of hearings on the buildings. The hearings are required when a potentially historic U.S. government-owned site is being considered for demolition.

At 16 stories, the Century, designed by Holabird & Roche, opened in 1915. The 22-story Consumers, the work of Jenney, Mundie & Jensen, opened two years earlier. They are also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and have been granted preliminary landmark status by the city.

The federal government bought the buildings in 2005 for office space, then did little more than sit on them. A 2017 plan that would have allowed the city to buy the buildings from the GSA and subsidize their conversion to residential apartments fell through under Mayor Lori Lightfoot's administration when the federal government began raising security concerns.

Then in 2022, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Illinois, earmarked $52 million to demolish the buildings and replace them with the landscaped security plaza. Preservationists, downtown advocates, and this editorial board all rightly objected, saying the buildings were too important and too vital to State Street's future to be razed rather than redeveloped.

And they are.

‘A little disappointed’ about restrictions

But the buildings and their location are also too important to continue sitting in limbo and deteriorating, which seems a possibility under the GSA's plan.

The agency said it will not fund any reuse efforts, even as it sits on the $52 million federal earmark — or what remains of it after 212 S. State St., a small retail building between the Century and Consumers was demolished.

The four-story 214 S. State St., remains and would be preserved also.

In addition, anyone or anything entering the reused buildings would be "subject to clearance and controls" required to get inside the actual court building, the GSA says.

"We’re a little disappointed the restrictions they’re taking about aren’t going to allow for a creative solution that's not only good for their campus [but would] add excitement to State Street," said Chicago Loop Alliance President and CEO Michael Edwards.

On Monday, the GSA told us that it would "consider proposed deviations" but the agency would still have to approve the changes.

We hope there's some room for daylight on this.

And while we appreciate the federal government's safety concerns regarding the Dirksen, we also note the Federal Center is surrounded by buildings and has streets running through and around it.

This context should help bring some reason to whatever next steps are taken to redevelop this key Loop location.

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