Does the demolition of the Prentice Women’s Hospital mark a Penn Station Moment for the preservation of Modernism?
Bertrand Goldbergs Prentice Womens Hospital (1975) in Chicago met the wrecking ball on October 11, after a lengthy and bizarre process, involving landmark status approved and revoked, a mayoral op-ed, and little kids in preservation t-shirts. They were born at Prentice, and in the hospitals destruction, they may have learned their first political lesson. It was a sad day for Modernism, and a sad day for common sense: Northwestern Universitys insistence that they needed that site and no
other for a new biomedical lab never held up to scrutiny. It would be nice to think that Prentice would be the last structurally daring, imaginatively conceived concrete building clawed to rubble, but it probably wont be. Something more beautiful has got to go.
The demolition of Prentice hospital is not Brutalismsor even ModernismsPenn Station Moment, as architectural historian Michael R. Allen suggests in Next City. Unfortunately, it is going to take the sacrifice of another postwar landmark to create the kind of broad-based, politically connected, media-savvy preservation movement to support Modernism each time it is threatened. The modern preservation movement has had its victories. M. Paul Friedbergs Peavey Plaza (1975) in Minneapolis
was saved from revitalization in October, after the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota and the Cultural Landscape Foundation settled a lawsuit filed with the City of Minneapolis. Paul Rudolphs Orange County Government Center (1967) is still with us, but its future remains in doubt. Modern preservation is still niche.
Maybe someone needs to start ModPAC.