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11 <br />0i 4 <br />Federal District Court Upholds Denial of <br />Permit to Demolish Chicago Landmarks <br />in Broad-based Lawsuit <br />The U.S. District Court for <br />the Northern District of Illi- <br />nois has upheld the denial of <br />a permit to demolish, in part, <br />two historic mansions and <br />their coach houses, located on <br />Chicago's Lake Shore Drive. <br />In a decision by judge john F. <br />Grady, the court rejected sev- <br />eral constitutional claims <br />brought under the U.S. and <br />Illinois Constitutions, includ- <br />ing charges that the Commis- <br />sion on Chicago Landmarks, <br />in denying the demolition <br />permits, had violated the own- <br />ers' due process and equal <br />protection rights and had un- <br />lawfully "taken" their proper- <br />ty. The court also upheld the <br />Commission's action against a <br />separate administrative law <br />claim, finding that the mani- <br />fest weight of the evidence <br />supported the Commission's <br />denial of relief on economic <br />hardship grounds. In ruling in <br />favor of the City, the court <br />addressed a wide range of <br />issues that should be useful to <br />other preservation commis- <br />sions in seeking to protect <br />historic resources within their <br />own communities. (Interna- <br />tional College of Surgeons v. <br />City of Chicago, No. 91 C. <br />1587 (N.D. I11. Dec. 30, 1994).) <br />his case involves a challenge <br />to the designation of, and <br />subsequent denial of a demo- <br />lition permit for, two historic man- <br />sions located on Lake Shore Drive <br />on the Near North Side in Chicago, <br />Illinois. The buildings in question <br />are among the few remaining ele- <br />gant mansions constructed for Chi- <br />cago's wealthiest citizens on Lake <br />Shore Drive around the turn -of -the <br />century. The City of Chicago <br />sought to protect these mansions <br />and others through the creation of <br />a thematic historic district referred' <br />to as the "Seven Houses on Lake <br />Shore Drive," ("Seven Houses dis- <br />trict") in June 1989. <br />Two buildings within the dis- <br />trict, the Edward T. Blair House <br />and the Eleanor Robinson Countiss <br />House, are owned by the Interna- <br />tional College of Surgeons, a non- <br />profit organization with 14,000 <br />members (the "ICS.") The Blair <br />House, a four-story mansion com- <br />pleted in 1914, was designed by <br />William Kendall of the renowned <br />architectural firm of McKim, Mead <br />& White. The Countiss House, <br />constructed in 1917 and modeled <br />"after the Petit Trianon, a three- <br />story Versailles mansion built in <br />1770 for Louis XV's paramour, Ma- <br />