Pilsen’s rookie Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez (25th) has requested that the shuttered St. Adalbert Church be designated a Chicago landmark in hopes of holding the historic constructing away from the wrecking ball.
Sigcho-Lopez despatched a letter Wednesday to the town’s Planning and Development Department requesting the distinguished designation that would come with the church’s exterior facades, iconic twin towers, inside sanctuary, and rectory.
The transfer would “honor and preserve these beautiful and architecturally significant structures and encourage positive developments towards a goal of maintaining these buildings,” Sigcho-Lopez wrote, in line with a duplicate of the letter obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times.
If St. Adalbert, at 1636 W. 17th St., is designated a landmark, any work requiring a allow from the Department of Buildings — together with demolition — could be reviewed by the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. Demolition of the buildings would additionally require approval from the Committee on Historical Landmark Preservation and would go up for a vote in City Council.
St. Adalbert held its closing mass in July after the Archdiocese of Chicago introduced in 2016 it might shut the church and merge its parish with that of close by St. Paul’s.
In September, City Pads Chicago, a residential improvement agency, purchased St. Adalbert from the Archdiocese for a reported $four million.
Soon after information of the sale broke, City Pads mentioned it might restore the church to “public and accessible use” and convert the rectory and one other adjoining constructing into flats with “more than 20% of the units” earmarked for “affordable family housing.” A City Pads spokesperson additionally mentioned it plans on turning the church’s towers into statement decks.
City Pads managing principal Andy Ahitow helps Sigcho-Lopez’s efforts to designate St. Adalbert a landmark, the spokesperson mentioned.
It’s unclear if landmarking St. Adalbert would hinder City Pads’ plans for the property within the gentrifying neighborhood.
In an e-mail, Planning and Development Department spokesman Peter Strazzabosco mentioned landmark designations “identify protected features, not uses,” and that constructing permits “are reviewed by the commission for their impact on those features, not on what the features are used for.”
Sigcho-Lopez’s letter highlighted that St. Adalbert was one among two dozen church buildings designed by Henry Schlacks, a outstanding architect who apprenticed at Adler & Sullivan and was thought to be “the master of Catholic church architecture in Chicago” by church historian Edward R. Kantowicz.
Carlos Ballesteros is a corps members of Report for America, a not-for-profit journalism program that goals to bolster Sun-Times protection of Chicago’s South Side and West Side.