Landmarks Illinois "Save Prentice" Case Study

Case Background

            In 2007, Northwestern wanted to demolish Prentice Women’s Hospital, a building owned by the University that was built in 1975.  The hospital was designed by renowned modern architect, Bertrand Goldberg, and was an example of the brutalism avant-garde style.  While the layout of the facility was exceptional for carrying out hospital duties and patient satisfaction, the style of the building received a lot for public backlash for being aesthetically unappealing.  Here is a picture of it:

            Many residents of Chicago took issue with Northwestern’s plans to build an entirely new hospital—primarily environmentalists, tax-payers, and architect buffs—but Landmarks Illinois took over as the group that would lead the fight to protect the building.  They first built a strong media campaign through the use of press releases and social media pages, which later got them national news attention with the New York Times.  Lisa Dichierra, whom I interviewed, was a huge help in using the media to gain public attention.  Landmarks hired three architectural firms to prove that Northwestern could use this building for all of the purposes they desired.  Later they formed multiple partnerships, including coalitions with Preservation Chicago and the international organization Docomomo, from which they received funding for their campaign.

The huge attention this case received encouraged the mayor to force city-planning groups to evaluate the building, something Northwestern had completely avoided before.  They were able to landmark the building; however, the city soon revoked it.  Lisa said it was ultimately a case of power; Northwestern and the city were going do what they desired no matter how much attention was brought to the issue.  The city justified it to the public saying, “It was for the greater good of the city of Chicago.” However, the attention this media campaign, “Save Prentice,” received put a check on the city.  Landmarks made them look bad by proving nothing was wrong with the building, and it would be a complete waste of tax money and resources to build this project. They put negative attention on the city for how they handled the situation, and made it public through the media.  The government is now much more hesitant when Landmarks gets involved because they do not want to look corrupt or receive the same national public dissent.       

Key Tactics at Work

Direct action is the tactic that was most effective for Landmarks and they used direct action in a number of ways to put pressure on Northwestern and the city.  By creating a strong social media campaign and getting press releases into the right hands, Landmarks was able to get the attention of the New York Times to document a piece on the issue at hand.  The campaign continued to grow after teaming up with big organizations that helped with funding.  A lot of burden was put on the city because of the national attention it received.  The power dynamics shifted because the public was putting pressure on them and Landmarks made the city look corrupt. 

Later they formed a protest rally with leaders of all of the coalitions speaking over microphone outside of Prentice.  Hundreds of people showed up with signs to protest.  Here is a picture of a teacher at Northwestern during the rally:

Creative petition delivery is another important tactic used by Landmarks.  A major exhibition for Bertrand Goldberg at the Art Institute occurred, and Landmarks formed a petition gathering where they handed out pamphlets and protested the demolition of Prentice Women’s Hospital.  This tactic was extremely helpful in building public dissent because it informed people who were interested in architecture that this building would be demolished, and it was a sure-fire way to get a lot of signatures. Here’s a photo of one of the posters from this event:

One of the creative tactics Lisa used that is not mentioned in Beautiful Trouble was rallying nostalgic women who were treated by the hospital, as well as kids to protest.  She said the building held a special place in her heart because she gave birth to her two children at Prentice, and she knew many other women who felt this way too.  Lisa got her girlfriends to engage in protest with their young kids outside the building.  Here are a few examples of this: 

This use of creative protest made more of the public sympathetic to the cause: when young kids are protesting, it captures the public’s attention and sympathy even more so.  It makes the city look more heartless to the public eye for going through with their plans to rebuild Prentice.  This campaign was effective because of the array of different groups that it bothered, including environmentalists, taxpayers, architects and people who enjoy architecture, as well as people that were treated by the hospital.  They were angry because they proved the building was full functioning, and saw the new project as a waste of money and resources.  Lisa was able to find young moms that were nostalgic for their experiences at the hospital.  They were then able to plan a kid-involved protest.  The city looked like a joke even more then they did previously because of this event in my opinion.

Key Principle at Work

            This case speaks to the idea that protest movements, while often unsuccessful in achieving main goals, are important because the attention they build.  By putting the city and Northwestern University under the spotlight for their flawed plans to demolish and rebuild Prentice Women’s Hospital, Landmarks Illinois put a check on the city for future benefit.  Chicago is now much more hesitant when Landmarks gets involved because they had such a successful protest, and they do not want the same public backlash that they received in 2007.  While the city continued through with their plans to rebuild the hospital because of their power over Landmarks, the organization placed power over the city through their campaign.  This speaks to the struggles of activism, but also the hidden gradual progress that protest can make.  While they failed to protect Prentice Women’s Hospital, they now have more success and the city is more cooperative with them.