The city announced yesterday that they're going to tear down three of the final four buildings in the Michael Reese Hospital campus, including the main hospital building. In announcing the teardown, the Public Building Commission said that the structure was too dangerous to leave standing. The campus's parking structure and hospital administration building are also slated for demolition. more ›

We just caught word of local professor Jeff Carter's work in response to the city's continued and basically incomprehensible demolition of the south side "Bauhaus campus." If you've recovered from Olympics oversaturation, you'll remember that Michael Reese Hospital - designed largely by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius (and landscape architect Hideo Sasaki) - was going to be demolished for the Olympic Village. Even after Chicago lost the bid, though, the city decided to go forward with the demolition, hoping developers would snatch up the land and get at it. So far that’s not looking so hot. more ›

Six months after the loss of the 2016 Olympic bid, Michael Reese Hospital, the planned site in Bronzeville for the Olympic Village is a thirty-seven-acre deconstruction site and the future remains uncertain. This week, NewCity took an excellent in-depth look at what's next (or not) for the site. The city took over the Michael Reese Hospital’s thirty buildings last July with plans to demolish most of it for the Olympic site, which upset local preservationists. They formed the Gropius in Chicago Coalition led by architect Grahm Balkany with hopes to save his work. Even though the Illinois Historic Sites Advisory Council voted unanimously to add the site to the National Register of Historic Places, the demolition had already begun and only two buildings are planned to remain, a plan that was the subject of scrutiny. more ›

Over 20 companies submitted their qualifications to handle the demolition of Michael Reese Hospital should Chicago win the 2016 Summer Olympics and now the Public Building Commission has whittled the final list down to 12. Those 12 companies can now start putting together their bid packages to earn the contract with the city. The hospital is the proposed site of the planned Olympic Village. And at least one firm - Heneghan Wrecking - is familiar with the hospital, as WBEZ points out. more ›

Blair Kamin, the Chicago Tribune's architecture critic, reported last week on the city's plans to issue a Request for Qualifications from demolition contractors to dismantle the Michael Reese Hospital campus. The city plans to use the site for a proposed Olympic Village should Chicago win its bid to host the 2016 Summer Games. Chicago's RFQ raised the ire of local historic preservationists, who claim that the city plans to demolish nearly all of the buildings on the campus, including those designed by Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius, as well as the prairie-style main hospital building, constructed in 1907. Those plans have now attracted national attention in an article published yesterday in the New York Times (via the Trib). more ›

• Roland Burris will be sworn in as Illinois' junior senator Thursday afternoon at 1 p.m. (Chicago time) by Vice President Dick Cheney.
• Chicago's "Debonair Bandit", suspected of up to five area bank robberies, was arrested earlier today in Atlanta.
• Work on the city's Michigan Ave. Bridge began yesterday and will interrupt pedestrian traffic likely until June.

After reworking the deal to appease aldermen who were worried about a lack of minority- and women-owned contracts, Mayor Daley's plan for the $1.1 billion Olympic Village at the site of Michael Reese Hospital has been passed by a City Council committee and is expected to be passed by the entire Council later today. The change: "Instead of demanding that union apprentices fill 5 percent of the "worker hours in the building trades" generated by Olympic construction projects, Chicago 2016 will make its "best efforts" to achieve 10 percent." Several aldermen expressed concern after Chicago 2016 chairman Pat Ryan admitted earlier this week that minority-led companies have only accounted for six percent of contracts thus far. more ›

Lest we should forget amongst talk of birth certificates, factory sit-ins, and clemency, the City of Chicago is still competing for the 2016 Summer Olympics and supporters got a boost today when Chicago 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan announced a deal with the property owner of Michael Reese Hospital has been restructured such that both parties can agree, meaning the proposed Olympic Village will go up on the site.

Under the new plan, Medline’s “charitable contribribution” will rise to $32.5 million. And instead the overall purchase price will rise by $1 million — to $86 million. more ›

Pat Ryan, head of Chicago's 2016 bid, says he thinks our Olympic-hosting hopes are in fine shape, despite the recent and ongoing violence. "In terms of it resonating with [International Olympic Committee] voters and saying Chicago is an unsafe city, I don't think that would be the case at all," he said. The IOC has already evaluated Chicago's safety and found it acceptable. more ›

The landlords of the 37-acre, 127-year-old Michael Reese Hospital announced they will be pulling the plug on operations, citing ownership changes, increasing competition, and the rising number of uninsured patients who can’t pay their bills. The closure is anticipated to happen some time this fall, making way for the property to be redeveloped for the 2016 Olympics. more ›