Demolition of old East Lakeview medical building to begin after Labor Day to make way for high-rise

Large-scale demolition of the former Stone Medical Center building in Chicago's East Lakeview community is set to begin after Labor Day.

The building at 2800 N. Sheridan Rd. is set to come down to make way for a new 28-story residential high-rise complex on the site.

A demolition update shared by the development team and posted to Ald. Bennett Lawson (44th)'s office website said the team has decided to wait until after Labor Day for demolition to minimize impacts on neighbors during the summer.

Site preparation, including installation of construction fencing and the demolition of a small structure along the alley behind the medical building, will take place in early August, according to developers.

Between Sept. 7 to Oct. 19, the medical building is scheduled to be leveled. It is composed of an atrium at the northwest corner of Diversey Parkway and Sheridan Road, a three-story portion facing Sheridan Road, and a seven-story portion fronting Diversey Parkway.

The new building set to be constructed at the site was originally to stand 24 stories tall with 303 apartments, but plans this past March increased the height to 28 stories, or 330 feet, and the number of apartments to 355.

The plan for the building also calls for 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, as well as a 50,000-square-foot fitness club on the fourth floor.

The building would include 71 affordable units.

The building will also feature 256 parking spaces and 355 bicycle parking spaces, according to the latest plans.

Plans for the building call for a three-tier "sculpted tower," described previously by Urbanize Chicago as featuring three staggered volumes of residential space rising into the air, and beneath them, a "podium" featuring ground-level retail.

The project would also build over a parking lot on Sheridan Road that used to serve the medical building, but is now out of use and closed off.

The new building would be made of bird-friendly glass, according to Lawson's office.

The building now standing at 2800 N. Sheridan Rd. has been home for many years to the Ida and Norman H. Stone Medical Center, housing doctors' offices and other medical facilities. Many of the offices have been associated with nearby Ascension St. Joseph Hospital.

In the atrium at the front of the building, those headed to doctor's appointments were greeted with greenery and curving ramps as they headed to the elevator.

Many medical offices that were housed in the Stone building relocated some time ago to the nine-story Ascension St. Joseph outpatient building at 2845 N. Sheridan Rd. about a block away, but there were a few still operating in the Stone Medical Center as late as March.

A spokesperson for the developers said the building has been vacant since early April.

As recounted by the blog Connecting the Windy City, what became the Stone Medical Center building opened in 1951 as the headquarters for the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America.

The Amalgamated Meat Cutters merged with the Retail Clerks International Union to form the United Food & Commercial Workers in 1979. Chicago Public Art reported that the union headquarters moved to Washington, D.C., that year, and the building was sold to St. Joseph Hospital.

Developers bought the Stone Medical Center building from Ascension Health for $17.25 million late last year, according to CoStar.

The Stone Medical Center building is also home to a pair of sculptures called the Brotherhood Monument, which date back to the meat cutters' union days. Sculptor Egon Weiner created two identical bronze statues for the building — one facing Diversey Parkway, the other Sheridan Road.

The Brotherhood Monument sculptures each depict four kneeling figures, two men and two women, in a circle with their hands on each other's shoulders. The figures represent the peoples of Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America, the Chicago Public Art guide reported.

A spokesperson for Continuum Development said both of the Brotherhood Monument sculptures would be preserved, and the developer was considering several options for relocation before the Stone Medical Center building is torn down.

A rendering in the latest plan for the site depicted one of the statues being placed outside the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1546, at 1649 W. Adams St. on the Near West Side. The spokesperson the UFCW hall is a potential new home for just one of the two Brotherhood Monument sculptures.

"While the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1546 is a potential home for one of the statues, we intend to keep at least one statue in the neighborhood," the spokesperson said. "As options are being considered, the priority remains ensuring the statues are protected, and upon relocation, visible to the public. Plans for the statues are expected to be finalized in the coming weeks and will be posted to the alderman's website."