In a sign of the rising concern over the future of postmodern architecture in the American preservation community, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has named the 34-year-old Helmut Jahn-designed James R. Thompson Center in Chicago to its annual “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places” list.

In making the cut, the 17-story Illinois state government building becomes the first work of postmodern architecture named to the influential list.

The orange and blue-tinted glass and steel building opened in 1985 as a rebuke to a then-dominant modernist architecture ideology that called for austere and aseptic expanses of curtain walled glass for office buildings. Designed with sloped exterior glazing and a base marked by a perimeter arcade accented with alternating colored panels, the building presents a degree of consideration for the public that challenged the conventional notions of public and private space in the city. The tower flanks a public plaza that contains a monumental public art work by French artist Jean Dubuffet, for example. The building’s interior, meanwhile, is designed with a large skylight-topped atrium at its core and a transit stop and food court below the main level.

Quadrant-shaped in plan and articulated as a series of swept and extruded shapes in elevation, the building represents a key work of 1980s-era corporate postmodernism on par with contemporaneous works like I.M. Pei’s Fountain Place in Dallas and Johnson Burgee’s Bank of America Center in Houston.

Advocates for the Thompson Center have long pushed for the building’s preservation. In recent years, as the state of Illinois has sought to divest some of its building stock, talk of selling the building to a private buyer has increased. In April 2019, Illinois Governor J. B. Pritzker confirmed those rumors when he signed a bill authorizing the building’s sale according to a two-year timetable. There are fears among the Chicago preservation community that the Thompson Center could be demolished if the building is sold and the buyer is approved to build a taller structure on the site, according to The Chicago Tribune.

That’s where National Trust’s highly-regarded list comes in. Widely seen as a clarion call within the preservation community, the non-binding “America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places” list can sometimes help marshal the attention and institutional energy necessary to save significant but undervalued historical sites. Though, as the recent example of Chicago’s Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital shows, being included on the list is far from a sure bet for staving off demolition. The iconic porthole-dotted tower cluster from 1975 was demolished in 2013 following a protracted preservation battle, and despite making the National Trust’s list in 2011.

Joining the Thompson Center on this year’s list are a series of other significant sites, including the Modern era Willert Park Courts apartments in Buffalo, New York, the first public housing project made available to African American residents; the National Mall Tidal Basin in Washington,D.C., which is facing significant damage due to rising sea levels; and Hacienda Los Torres in Lares Puerto Rico, a site significant for its relationship to the island’s 19th century coffee economy. For a full list, see the National Trust for Historic Preservation website.