Chicago
Chicago |
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ONE SCHOOL of girlwatching says a woman of 35 is over the hill. Another believes that age to be one of charm and experience. Still others dismiss the whole subject as male chauvinism.
Cities can generate the same distinctions. Some assert that big cities are doomed because of their age; others that supercities are the focal points of the future. Still others insist cities are simply going through a maturing process, just like people.
Pierre DeVise, noted urban scientist, sees many pessimistic signs that Chicago is on the decline. Richard A. Miller, a tall, bearded, 40-year old attorney, leans toward the "mature city" concept. Without overlooking the problems, Miller, who was born in the city but raised in Peoria, sees Chicago on a changing, but dynamic course.
Miller's group
Miller's enthusiasm is based, in part,
on his role: He is president of the
Landmarks Preservation Service, a
largely volunteer group of enthusiasts
for architecture, history and more than
a touch of nostalgia. Obviously, if there
isn't a prosperous downtown, there's
little chance of preserving the major
structures that his group believes
deserve landmark status.
Recently we visited his office. Not surprisingly, it is located in the Old Colony Building, 407 South Dearborn. The building itself is a notable example of early Chicago architecture. The old iron cage elevators have been modernized, but they are still operated by people, not pushbuttons. There's even an old Western Union call-switch on the office wall.
Miller's group has no official status, but they have put together an effective lobbying group to work with city government and with the state legislature seeking to find ways to preserve some of the important aspects of the past. One of their more famous battles was to preserve the old Stock Exchange Building on LaSalle Street. They lost that 1971 fight, and the building was demolished to make room for a new skyscraper.
Miller played a key role in that dispute; he and others emerged with a conclusion that other landmark buildings would also be lost if some positive campaigns were not launched. But they also emerged with a feeling that idealism itself wasn't enough; they needed a strong dose of practicality, and now they have it. They look for commercial ways to save key buildings on the theory that any city can afford only so many museums.
They have selected 88 structures in and around downtown Chicago that they believe should be preserved. Some of the list (the Wrigley buildings, Newberry Library, Fourth Presbyterian Church) already have official landmark status, which means they can't be torn down or radically altered on the exterior without city permission. The Council goes further than single structures, however. It believes whole neighborhoods can be revitalized, and it is working on a pilot program on South Dearborn, with federal funds, to elevate a series of buildings to economic respectability. "The experience of the 1960's shows us you can't just build cities as you did in the 1800's," Miller says. "We have a region which, instead of growing, is now maturing in its life style."
He points out Chicago not only has competition from its suburbs, but there is now a shift toward southern, warm weather cities: "We can't offer the hot shot supergrowth opportunities that Chicago gave in the 1870's, but we can offer a city which is hardheaded and business oriented, but also has many civilizing influences like the Chicago Symphony, the Art Institute. Chicago also has a history, and one of its features is that it was the home of the architectural revolution that changed architecture worldwide."
The enemy
Miller sees these old buildings as a
potent sales weapon. They help
dramatize the scope of the city as well as its
maturity. "You can't build the detailed
decorating of those older buildings,
even if it were in vogue today; it's just
too expensive." From an economic
standpoint, he feels these older
buildings provide the rental space that
fledgling companies can afford.
Properly handled, an office in a landmark
building acquires prestige. The "enemy"
according to people like Miller, is not
old age or lack of income, it is the real
estate speculator who buys up large
parcels of land just to build another
building. Allies for the speculator, and
one target of the conservationists, are
tax laws which often benefit new
construction simply because it is new.
Another "enemy" is the questionable modern notion that a city must constantly change if it is to stay viable. The Council studied downtown Chicago and found it already has enough convertible land (parking lots, small vacant stores, etc.) to supply three times as much floor space in the Loop as the business community envisages by the year 2000.
Miller even has doubts about such notions as turning part of downtown into wide-sidewalk malls. The theory: crowded sidewalks and the bustle of confined space is a key part of the character of Chicago. Take it away, and who knows? Put another way, suburbia has a copyright on shopping centers, maybe big cities ought to do what they do best: be themselves. ž
30/ August 1976/ Illinois Issues