Photos: Inside Century-Old Rush University Buildings Now Under Demolition

By Mae Rice in Arts & Entertainment on Mar 1, 2016 7:19PM

Since 2004, Rush University has been giving itself a $1 billion facelift. Officially titled the Rush Transformation, it’s a sweeping effort to modernize the hospital complex and the care it offers patients.

Its centerpiece is the Rush University Medical Center, completed in 2012, which looks like a butterfly from above.

The latest, and final, step in this transformation has been demolishing a cluster of four buildings on Wood Street, between Harrison Street and Congress Parkway. Most of the buildings were built more than a century ago, according to Nancy Di Fiore, assistant director of media relations at Rush.

This makes the demolition a somewhat controversial move—some view these buildings as historic treasures, others as woefully out-of-date.

"Frankly, the... buildings were kept in service longer than they should have been," wrote Rush Medical Center archivist Nathalie Wheaton in a Rush InPerson blog post.

The buildings slated for demolition include Senn (built in 1902), Jones (bult in 1888), Murdock (built in 1912), and Rawson (built in 1924), according to di Fiore.

The demolition started in January, and is slated to end in April or May, Di Fiore said. Photographer Matt Tuteur explored the premises of the Jones and Murdock buildings, photographing the premises one last time.

The quartet of buildings have been used for mostly administrative purposes since in recent years, Di Fiore said. (In 2012, medical functions moved over to the new Medical Center.) However, before that transition, the cluster of four buildings housed “the old emergency department.”

They were also home to plenty of historical architectural touches, which Rush has taken care to preserve, according Wheaton. She explained in her blog post:

[W]ith the help of architectural and historical consultants, Rush completed both external and internal surveys of all four buildings several years ago to determine what elements should and could be saved to preserve aspects of the history important to both Rush and to the architecture of the block. These pieces include cornerstones, entry porticos, signs, the aforementioned staircase from Jones, and decorative details from the exteriors of the buildings.

These beautiful relics were painstakingly removed and now are packed safely in storage, awaiting decisions regarding their next phase. Some of the more unique or historic pieces may find a home in a permanent display on campus, while other more decorative items might be shared with some of Rush’s generous supporters.

Not that everyone is satisfied with this solution.

“Victorian-Era Chicago Building Being Demolished For Nothing,” reads the headline of Chicago Architecture’s post on the demolition.

The site of the buildings is slated to become green space.

"That's what the current plan is," Di Fiore confirmed, though Rush doesn't have specifics plans yet for what that green space will look like.