Prentice Women's Hospital

Bertrand Goldberg began design in 1971, after the consolidation of Passavant Deaconess Hospital and Wesley Hospital. It was named for Abra “Abbie” Cantrill Prentice.[4] It was opened in 1975.

The building was vacated in 2011[5] after serving as a hospital until the new Prentice Women's Hospital opened nearby at 250 East Superior Street in 2007.[6] Northwestern University announced plans to demolish it and replace it with a medical research facility.[7][8] Preservationists and prominent architects (including at least 6 Pritzker Prize winners) had called on Northwestern and the City of Chicago to save the building,[9] appealing to Chicago's "global reputation as a nurturer of bold and innovative architecture". Jeanne Gang presented a reuse design incorporating the building into a skyscraper.[10]

In the debate over the building's planned demolition, Northwestern argued that the site was needed for medical research on heart disease, cancer, and children's diseases.[5] Preservationists responded that Northwestern Memorial Hospital owns a two-square-block piece of vacant land directly across the street from Prentice, and within a potential skybridge's reach from the university's existing research building.[6]

The new Prentice Women's Hospital opened on October 20, 2007 on the hospital's northern campus border along Superior Street.[11] This facility would replace the old Prentice Women's Hospital Building which later was demolished in September 2014 for new campus construction.[12] The new hospital doubled the size of the previous women's hospital at 947,000 square feet, with one of the largest Neonatal Intensive Care Units in the country.[13]