The existing ensemble of the Michael Reese Hospital was mainly built after World War II: its master plan was developed in 1946 and completed by the end of the 1950s. By the end of the 20th century, many buildings there fell into disrepair, and some were even abandoned: the hospital experienced serious financial difficulties, and in 2008 its management declared it bankrupt and sold the entire complex to the city. Then the authorities of Chicago were actively developing the Olympic project, and the vast territory of this hospital (15 hectares) was chosen for the construction of the Olympic Village. The SOM bureau, which was entrusted with the project of a housing estate for athletes, proposed to demolish all 28 hospital buildings - except for the Main Building built in 1880. At the same time, 8 (according to other sources - 11) structures were to be destroyed, in the design of which Walter Gropius took part, the landscape design of the territory created by Hideo Sasaki and other prominent landscape architects, as well as two buildings of SOM itself, created in the middle of 20 centuries, when her work had a completely different level of quality.
Several groups of activists - "guardians" of the heritage presented alternative options for the reconstruction of the complex, suggesting the preservation of at least 4 or 5 key buildings of Walter Gropius, but they were rejected by officials because of their "inexpediency". Unlike the officially promoted SOM project with a line of 12-storey residential towers, these plans involved the creation of a zone of different heights, a combination of new and old buildings, the coordination of the plan of the territory of the future Olympic Village with the grid of streets of the surrounding area - but the number of square meters there was not enough. Opponents of demolition admitted that it was difficult to reconcile the needs of the participants in the Olympic Games with the planning and buildings of half a century ago, and not even residential, but medical purposes. But such a free attitude of the authorities to the works of the key architect of the 20th century, who largely determined the path of development of American (along with world) architecture, made members of the public accuse them of realizing purely economic goals: of the desire, under the guise of the "national project" of the Olympics, to clear a piece of expensive land in the center of the city from the historical buildings for future commercial development. Such accusations seemed especially plausible in light of the fact that officials wanted to demolish all the buildings of Michael Reese's hospital before the IOC's decision - ostensibly to meet the schedule of work on the preparation for the Games that it had set (fortunately, this did not happen).
Now that Chicago has finally dropped out of the fight, advocates of heritage preservation hope that in the face of the economic crisis, there will be no people willing to deal with such a large area as the Michael Reese hospital complex, and over time, a developer will appear willing to reconstruct its territory in a more “gentle” way. (and the buildings of Gropius will receive the status of protected objects in the meantime).
