Mid-Continental Plaza (know known as 55 E Monroe) is one of those buildings you either love or hate… No in between.

Me? I love it. Completed in 1972, this is a nice example of the tail end of modernism, and while most of what was built at the tail end of the era was just poorly executed watered down Mies’ism, this building pulled it off. In the materials selection, the beautiful marble and granite lobby, and the way it meets the street, and putting it’s parking behind the same facade as the office space above, with the main entrances at each end. Sadly, this building is soon to have some bad plastic surgery (like the kind you would find at a Florida strip mall) when it’s top twelve floors are to be converted to condominiums. The plan calls for destroying the verticality of the exterior by disrupting it 3/4’s of the way up with the removal of the current skin, and replacing it with glass. Now you all know I love glass walled buildings, but this just isn’t right. While it certainly could never look as horrible as the Sun Times building with a Holiday Inn plopped atop, the overall result will not be dissimilar. I am not so much unhappy that they are going to convert the building to condos, but altering only a quarter of the building to do so is a big mistake.