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Morning News

Chicago's Historic Buildings Shedding onto Streets Below

Aired July 19, 2000 - 9:37 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: The sky is not falling in Chicago. But a lot of people are looking up and looking around for a very good reason.

Our Jeff Flock has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CHICAGO BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Tom Gentry (ph) is looking for trouble. Twenty stories above downtown Chicago, he taps every piece of the 90-year-old terra cotta facade of the historic Hubb building to make sure it's not falling apart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can see where the face shelve is actually spalled (ph) from the rest of the unit and there's a crack all the way around the surface.

FLOCK: It is an inspection that soon every old skyscraper in Chicago may have to get.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to do more hands-on inspection. If we want to solve this problem that we have with the facades, that's how we solve it.

FLOCK: The problem is that in the last two years, pieces of terra cotta facade have fallen off the Schubert Theater building and this 70-year-old office building, forcing city streets to be closed. Over this past July 4 weekend, huge sheets of limestone fell and crushed cars on La Salle Steet. And in the most tragic incident, a plate of glass fell from this newer building, ironically home to the CNA insurance company, killing a woman as her three-year-old daughter watched.

MARY RICHARDSON-LOWRY, CHICAGO BUILDING COMMISSIONER: Ownership of a high-rise, ownership of an older building, with that comes responsibilities.

FLOCK: And older buildings are becoming a hot trend.

(on camera): The increased interest in saving older buildings, rather than demolishing them, is leaving older cities like Chicago with vast numbers of 70, 80, 90-year-old buildings and not all of them in very good shape.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can see how deteriorated it was on the surface.

FLOCK (voice-over): Some say there is an overwhelming amount of work to be done.

GUNNY HARBOR, ARCHITECT: There is much more work than there are competent people, from architects and engineers to the contractor and the tradesman in between, to do it all at one time.

FLOCK: The other problem is that the inspections alone can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. But in a place where the architecture is considered a city treasure, it figures to be money well spent.

I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, in Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com

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