At noon on Wednesday, February 28, Preservation Chicago released its annual Chicago 7 list of most endangered buildings. Each year for the past 15 years, the local historic preservation advocacy organization has used this list to draw the public’s attention to threatened elements of Chicago’s built environment. Whether they face specific and urgent threats, or longer-term and more diffuse ones, failing to preserve these places would erase important parts of Chicago’s history and harm the distinctive and celebrated built environment of the city.

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Preservation Chicago announced this year’s “Chicago 7” list of most endangered buildings in a press conference today at the Chicago Architecture Foundation. The list is intended to draw attention to the most significant threatened buildings in Chicago each year.

Released annually since 2003, the list has led to numerous hard-won preservation successes. Both St. Boniface church and the New York Life Building, included in the inaugural list and several others since, have recently been in the news after efforts to save them ultimately succeeded. Other listed buildings remain in limbo or have gone on to be demolished, but not without a fight.

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