Art: The Landmark & the Law

Architect Louis Sullivan was the father of the modern skyscraper, but the tallest structure he ever got to build was the 17-story Garrick Building on Randolph Street in Chicago’s Loop. It was a theater topped by offices, and in its best days it was a masterpiece of soaring arches, spiraling staircases, and original, light-catching setbacks. But time has not been kind: as Randolph Street degenerated, the theater turned into a rundown movie house. Finally this year its owners, a subsidiary of the Balaban and Katz theater chain, decided to tear it down and put up a garage.

As a result of a feverish crusade started by a 32-year-old architectural photographer named Richard Nickel, the case of the Garrick went before Cook County Superior Court. The ruling last week could well be a historic one for Americans concerned with saving landmarks. Judge Donald S. McKinlay went back to a 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said in effect: the District of Columbia had the right to demolish a building if the building posed an esthetic threat. On the same principle, ruled Judge McKinlay, a city should have the right to preserve a building for esthetic reasons. The judge suggested appropriate compensation, but the owners said that they still wanted their garage and would appeal.