One of Chicago's most famous pieces of Brutalist architecture, the Prentice Women's Hospital, is in its final throes. Nearly dismantled, there is not much left of the old Bertrand Goldberg designed structure that was built nearly 40 years ago. Despite a hard-fought preservation effort, Northwestern University announced last December that a new 45 story tower designed by Perkins+Will would replace the old Prentice building. Before exterior demo began, photog Martin Gonzalez was able to get inside Prentice for a series of surreal and eerie photographs. Once demolition has been completed, Northwestern will begin the $370 million first phase of its new biomedical research center. Prentice isn't the only significant brutalist structure to meet the wrecking ball, many brutalist buildings throughout the world are being destroyed at an alarming rate.
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