Others join city's appeal of landmark decision

By Blair Kamin | Tribune critic | March 19, 2009

Firing back at an appellate court decision that ruled that Chicago's landmark law is unconstitutionally vague, the city has appealed the decision to the Illinois Supreme Court, citing numerous cases nationwide in which courts have rejected vagueness challenges to laws comparable to Chicago's.

The "sheer number of these cases, and the appellate court's refusal to give them any weight, signals a clear need for further review," said the appeal, which the city indicated it would make after the appellate court decision. The appeal was filed by Mara Georges, the city's corporation counsel.

Underscoring the significance of the case, the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and several Illinois municipalities joined the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Landmarks Illinois and preservation advocacy groups from New York, Cleveland and Pittsburgh to file a friend of the court brief supporting the appeal.

At stake in Chicago are 277 landmarks and 51 historic districts, including Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House and Louis Sullivan's former Carson Pirie Scott & Co. store.

The documents, filed March 11 with the Illinois Supreme Court, respond to the appellate court's Jan. 30 ruling in a case brought by Chicago property owners Albert C. Hanna and Carol Mrowka. They challenged the constitutionality of the city landmark law and ordinances creating neighborhood landmark districts where they own property.

The appellate court agreed with their contention that certain terms in the landmark law—"value," "important," "significant" and "unique"—are unconstitutionally vague.

But the friend of the court brief argues that the appellate court's decision "stands in stark contrast to at least 42 different court decisions in 24 states and the District of Columbia that have upheld preservation laws similar to Chicago's against vagueness challenges."

Among the Chicago suburbs joining the friend of the court brief are Oak Park, Aurora, Lake Forest and Highland Park. Trump spire's wrap: It's been more than two months since a helicopter dramatically installed the undergirding for the spire atop the Trump Tower, the 92-story hotel-condo skyscraper along the Chicago River. But nothing has been done since then to complete the spire, which is supposed to be wrapped in gray fiberglass.

Now, finally, it appears that we'll know how the nation's tallest building since the 1974 completion of the Sears Tower will meet the sky.

"There have been some issues that have slowed down the completion, the biggest of which has been very cold and/or windy weather that made it impossible to work out there," Andrew Weiss, an executive vice president at the Trump Organization wrote in an e-mail Wednesday. "We expect that with good weather it should be completed in the next two weeks."

Filling the Bucky void: One of the weak spots of the otherwise engaging R. Buckminster Fuller show at the Museum of Contemporary Art is the absence of a geodesic dome you can actually walk in. That void is going to be filled by Art Chicago, the big Chicago art fair, which will be exhibiting one of Fuller's domes in the Merchandise Mart.

The dome, 24 feet high, is known as a "Fly's Eye dome," and it was Fuller's model for a new type of affordable, prefabricated housing. Will visitors to the Mart be able to walk in it? "Oh yeah," replied Kasey Madden, the director of public relations for Art Chicago. "We're hosting parties in it."

She said that the dome, on loan from the Max Protech Gallery in New York, will be completed in time for the opening preview party of Art Chicago on April 30 and will remain on view through the end of June.