In 1986 there were already structural problems with the big new Helmut Jahn-designed state office building in Chicago, opened just a year before. That’s when Adlai Stevenson III, the Democratic candidate for governor, proposed renaming what was then called the State of Illinois Center after his opponent, James R. Thompson, because “it’s big, it’s ugly and it doesn’t work.” It wasn’t until 1993 that the state adopted Adlai’s idea, if not his reasoning. Now Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to sell the Thompson Center. If he’s unsuccessful doing so, as Gov. Rod Blagojevich was when he tried to sell it, the General Assembly might consider renaming it after the current governor. –Fletcher Farrar, editor and publisher
This article appears in Oct 15-21, 2015.
