A 43-story office tower in Chicago’s Loop business district has been granted preliminary landmark status, an important step toward funding a conversion of much of the property into 349 apartments — while touching off a debate about the city’s preservation process and the merits of the building that replaced a Louis Sullivan-designed gem in the 1970s.
The Commission on Chicago Landmarks is providing preliminary city landmark status for the tower at 30 N. LaSalle St. in the heart of the financial district. The decision is a key step toward making the property eligible for about $47 million in tax reductions as part of Cook County’s Class L tax program that aims to help preserve historic properties.
The Chicago debate spotlights a broader issue of historic preservation as mid-20th century structures throughout the country age and face similar decisions about their future.
The tax breaks over 12 years, coupled with $57 million in tax-increment financing dollars already in hand, would help Chicago-based developer Golub & Co. and Houston-based lender Corebridge Financial fund a planned conversion of low-rise floors into apartments and major upgrades to office floors.
That property is part of a broader, city-backed initiative to transform older, out-of-demand office space for apartments. Public dollars are available for projects in which at least 30% of the newly created units will have below-market, affordable rents.
Yet the process to designate 30 N. LaSalle a Chicago landmark has opened a broader discussion in Chicago’s preservation community about the need for redevelopment of outdated Loop structures weighed against the architectural excellence that historic designations are designed to recognize.
In this case, the building stands on the site where noted architect Sullivan’s Chicago Stock Exchange Building was demolished in a criticized move in 1972 that has been credited with leading to the city’s modern preservation movement.
‘Ironic twist’ decades later
Lee Bey, the Chicago Sun-Times’ architecture critic, called it “an ironic twist 53 years later” that preliminary landmark status was being considered for “the nondescript building for which Sullivan’s masterpiece was sacrificed.”
Completed in 1894, the Chicago Stock Exchange Building was designed by Sullivan and associate Dankmar Adler. It was known for ornate elements, including an arched entryway.
Its replacement was drawn up by Dallas-based architect Thomas Stanley, featuring what the city’s planning department describes as having “elements of New Formalism, such as strong vertical columns and granite cladding.”
Others have decried the tower as a lackluster addition to Chicago’s architectural heritage.
Chicago Architecture Center CEO Eleanor Gorski, in an op-ed published in Crain’s Chicago Business, wrote that today’s discussion over 30 N. LaSalle should serve as a call for consistent preservation standards and incentive reforms.
“When preservation rules appear either arbitrary or inflexible, it invites uncertainty, and uncertainty almost always undermines investment,” Gorski said.
“Along LaSalle Street, where office vacancy rates threaten the corridor’s vitality, we should be assessing buildings with sober judgment — preserving what deserves protection and repurposing the rest, making incentives available for all building reuse,” Gorski added.
Redevelopment vision
Golub and Corebridge, which seized the property after filing a foreclosure suit against the former owner in 2023, have been working in recent years to have the tower be among the first handful of city-backed conversions to apartments.
The first such project kicked off about a year ago in a smaller building at 79 W. Monroe St., where eight of 14 office floors are being converted to 117 apartments.
The razing of the Chicago Stock Exchange Building resulted in the death of photographer Richard Nickel, who was killed when part of the structure collapsed on him. The preservationist was trying to save elements such as the trading room floor, which later was reassembled at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Golub & Co. Managing Principal Lee Golub described the demolition and especially Nickel’s death as “tragic,” but he said the redevelopment is now important in reviving the city’s core.
“We want to bring the property back to life, and the Class L status with help with the rebirth of the office space,” Golub told CoStar News.
In addition to the residential conversion, Golub and Corebridge want to replace windows and building systems in the office portion of the tower, while adding amenities such as outdoor spaces.
The building owners also plan to bring back urban farming company Farm Zero back to the redeveloped building, Golub said. Farm Zero first tested its concept in temporary space at 30 N. LaSalle before earlier this year leasing space in another Loop tower.
“We need to move forward, and 30 N. LaSalle is a vital project in the rejuvenation of the LaSalle Street financial corridor,” Golub said. “We’re stewards of this movement with the adaptive reuse of the low-rise and the massive redevelopment of the high-rise.”