{"id":420745,"date":"2026-01-21T12:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/420745\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T12:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:12:19","slug":"will-a-vacant-modernist-bank-in-skokie-designed-by-som-be-razed-or-reused","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/420745\/","title":{"rendered":"Will a vacant modernist bank in Skokie designed by SOM be razed or reused?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A shuttered midcentury Skokie bank, designed by a Skidmore Owings & Merrill team led by famed Sears Tower architect Bruce Graham, is for sale.<\/p>\n

But does its future hold reuse \u2014 or demolition?<\/p>\n

Colliers International is looking for a buyer for the former Bank of America branch, 4747 Dempster St. <\/p>\n

The company describes the site as having \u201cversatile development potential, including retail, multi-family, office, medical, or a combination of these uses.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is true. The two-story vacant building and its separate drive-in facility sit on a well-landscaped 3-acre site on a busy North Shore corridor, not far from the Edens Expressway, the CTA\u2019s Skokie Swift train station and the village\u2019s downtown.<\/p>\n

And yet, the bank is far more than that.<\/p>\n

Built in 1968 as Skokie Federal Savings, the broad, horizontal building is a superlative example of modernist architecture: bold, confident and not a wasted line or superfluous element.<\/p>\n

The connection to Graham makes the structure all the more important. The legendary SOM design principal gave Chicago (and the nation) some of the finest midcentury buildings, including the John Hancock Building, the Inland Steel Building and, of course, the Sears.<\/p>\n

While the bank isn\u2019t being marketed as a teardown, it\u2019s worth noting Skokie doesn\u2019t have a landmark ordinance that would protect the building from demolition.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the more stunning modernist buildings on the North [Shore],\u201d urban planner Jim Peters said. Peters included the bank in a survey of modern suburban buildings in 2006, as part of a class he taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a beautiful setting as well as a beautiful building,\u201d Peters said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s a shame to think about it vanishing and being replaced by, you know, a strip mall or another box bank or something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A very elegant building\u2019<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in the area, the 58-year-old bank at Dempster Street and Skokie Boulevard is worth checking out.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a good-looking steel-and-glass building \u2014 painted white and not the black or dark gray found on most Miesian modern structures. <\/p>\n

A dozen exterior steel columns do most of the work supporting the structure. Both floors have ribbons of recessed floor-to-ceiling windows.<\/p>\n

Clear plate glass was used on the first floor, according to the building\u2019s original design, while bronze-tinted glass was installed on the second floor.<\/p>\n

And if the building looks more like a corporate headquarters than a suburban bank, there\u2019s a reason.<\/p>\n

Skokie Federal was built before Illinois allowed branch banking. That meant a bank had to have a single location that was also its headquarters, with room enough to service customers, while providing office space and amenities for everyone from tellers to executives.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The vacant Skokie bank building\u2019s drive-thru facility.<\/p>\n

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

SOM designed the facility with a first-floor banking hall, teller counters, offices, conference room, board room and accounting space. <\/p>\n

The second floor was set aside as rented office space. A basement level had a vault, safety deposit boxes, storage, restrooms, kitchen and lounge space and mechanical equipment.<\/p>\n

As a result, Skokie Federal is fairly large at almost 34,000 square feet. With its landscaped grounds and a big parking lot, the property takes up nearly a block.<\/p>\n

SOM brought some of its best talent to the project. SOM Design Partner William Dunlap led the project under Graham \u2014 the two would work together on the Sears Tower \u2014 along with associate partner Jack Train, who worked on the firm\u2019s U.S. Air Force Academy<\/a> commission, according to records found by the architecture firm\u2019s librarian Karen Widi.<\/p>\n

The result?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a well-proportioned, very elegant building,\u201d architect David Fleener, chairman of DOCOMOMO Chicago, the local chapter of the international group dedicated to the documentation and conservation of buildings and sites of the modern movement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very, very nice building worth preserving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Skokie Federal has a near twin \u2014 also designed by SOM \u2014 in Bronzeville.<\/p>\n

After sitting empty for years, the building at 467 E. 31st St., was rehabbed by architects Johnson & Lee and reopened last year as the Bronzeville Health Center<\/a>, a health care facility that\u2019s part of Cook County\u2019s Provident Hospital.<\/p>\n

The 26,000-square-foot building was built in 1959 as office space for Illinois Bell. Then it spent years as the Lake Meadows Professional Building, before closing down.<\/p>\n

The right buyer could find a way to reuse the marvelous former Skokie bank too. The property sits in a tax-increment financing district, which could generate funds to help cover rehab costs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Black-and-white<\/p>\n

Skokie Federal, shortly after it was completed in 1968.<\/p>\n

Peters, a past CEO of the preservation group Landmarks Illinois, said a good case could be made for placing the building on the National Register of Historic Places.<\/p>\n

A listening would make the building eligible for rehab tax credits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat would be a great thing for owners to explore,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s hoping it happens. To lose the building would be a waste.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A shuttered midcentury Skokie bank, designed by a Skidmore Owings & Merrill team led by famed Sears Tower…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-420745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}