(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The head of a preservation group is calling on DePaul University to abandon plans to demolish several buildings that are more than 100 years old.
DePaul University plans to knock down five buildings that are currently used for student housing at Sheffield and Belden. The university wants to build a practice facility for the school’s basketball teams.
Ward Miller of Preservation Chicago said the two greystones and three red brick buildings that house about 80 students should be left alone. He says they were built between the late 1880s and mid-1920s.
“You’re seeing a sort of a whittling down of the historic neighborhood,” he told WBBM Newsradio.
Miller says there is another option DePaul should consider before beginning demolition in 2025.
“There’s a surface parking lot that DePaul owns at Sheffield and Fullerton. It was part of a former grocery store that was re-faced with brick. It’s their Student Welcome Center. Certainly, that surface parking lot could serve the needs of this new building,” he said.
DePaul’s plans would cost $60 million and would also include renovating the university’s Sullivan Athletic Center, which has a 3,000-seat arena.
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