Preservationists filed suit in Cook County court against the city and the Chicago Commission on Public Landmarks this afternoon, seeking to reinstate landmark designation for Bertand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital. The designation was rescinded by the landmarks commission two weeks ago, immediately after it was bestowed.
Judge Neil Cohen granted an immediate stay that will protect Prentice from demolition until their case is resolved.
Plaintiffs, Landmarks Illinois and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, claim that a rushed process employed by the commission—which collapsed proceedings that usually take months into a single afternoon—is illegal, and that the commission exceeded its bounds by making a decision on economic-impact issues that, according to law, are supposed to be considered by the City Council. In addition, the suit charges that previously prepared documents used by the commission during that meeting are evidence that the outcome of votes taken that day was predetermined.