Two men escaped injury Wednesday morning when a lobby ceiling crashed in a 91-year-old office building at 332 S. Michigan Ave.
Al Kempf Jr., who had come to inspect the McCormick Building for St. Paul Cos. insurance, said he and a guard were standing in the lobby about 10 a.m. when they heard “a light cracking noise” that got louder over four or five minutes. Figuring something was about to give, Kempf headed for the front door, and the lobby guard went to the back.
“There was a loud crack, and we saw the ceiling fall,” Kempf said. “The lobby filled with black dust.”
Kempf said a 15-by-20-foot section of the lobby’s ornate plaster ceiling fell in one piece and shattered when it hit the floor. Firefighters found no additional damage.
“I just made a comment about how beautiful the ceiling was and how nice it was that they kept the nice ornamentation,” said Kempf, who was there to do a safety inspection for an insurance policy assessment. Kempf said he didn’t notice any flaws in the ceiling before it crashed.
City building inspectors did not find a cause, but Kristen Cabanban, a Building Department spokeswoman, said a preliminary inspection showed the plaster ceiling was held together with horsehair ties. An annual building inspection in May found no structural problems at the building.
Kempf said the 3-inch-thick, rosette-inlaid ceiling could have been deadly.
“Generally, it’s a high-traffic area right now because it’s everyone’s break time,” said Lizabeth Herrera, who works in the building. “Luckily, somehow it missed everyone.”
About two-thirds of the brown-and-gold-trimmed ceiling remained unharmed, but Chicago building authorities scheduled a crew to work overnight Wednesday to cover the ceiling with a wooden scaffolding structure to catch debris, Cabanban said.
The McCormick Building was designed by Holabird and Roche architects and opened in 1910. It houses condos, law offices, insurance agencies and WCGI-FM.
Metropolitan Properties of Chicago bought the 20-story building, which faces Grant Park, from a New York real estate firm for $14.8 million in 1996.
![The Arlington Heights Village Board granted developers of the planned Arlington 425 project in downtown Arlington Heights another construction-related extension – making this at least the second one – even as financing for the work has still not been secured. The mixed-use development, planned for 225 W. Campbell St., has been in the works for five years. “We’re looking to get it going,” Stephen Messutta, general counsel for Norwood Builders of Park Ridge, told the board at the April 15 meeting. The developer requested a zoning extension for the proposed redevelopment on the longtime empty land parcel located just steps […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/migration/2023/05/09/E6SSECNLL5F4JLRU4GG4CNMQ2A.jpg?w=535 "The Arlington Heights Village Board granted developers of the planned Arlington 425 project in downtown Arlington Heights another construction-related extension – making this at least the second one – even as financing for the work has still not been secured. The mixed-use development, planned for 225 W. Campbell St., has been in the works for five years. “We’re looking to get it going,” Stephen Messutta, general counsel for Norwood Builders of Park Ridge, told the board at the April 15 meeting. The developer requested a zoning extension for the proposed redevelopment on the longtime empty land parcel located just steps […]")
