update: August 7, 2024
Landmarks Illinois issued a statement in response to news that the General Services Administration (GSA) has selected “Viable Adaptive Reuse” as the preferred path forward for the historically and architecturally significant Century and Consumers Buildings in Chicago. Read the statement here.
HELP US SAVE THE CENTURY & CONSUMERS BUILDINGS!
The Century & Consumers Buildings in Chicago are two vacant, but architecturally significant terra cotta-clad skyscrapers located prominently on State Street. They sit within the National Register-listed Loop Retail Historic District and have been recommended for local landmark status in Chicago — a move Landmarks Illinois strongly supports.
The U.S. General Services Administration owns the buildings and has proposed demolishing them. This ongoing threat led Landmarks Illinois to include the buildings on our Most Endangered Historic Places in Illinois in 2022 and 2023. Landmarks Illinois also nominated the buildings to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2023 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in America.
As part of the required consideration of alternatives under the National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Policy Act, the GSA is also willing to consider adaptive reuse of the buildings. Learn more below about the historic significance of the structures and Landmarks Illinois’ years-long advocacy work to save them.