One of Chicago’s best-known pieces of public art is set to move out of the Loop business district after nearly four decades as Google prepares to redevelop and move into the formerly state-owned James R. Thompson Center.
French artist Jean Dubuffet’s “Monument with Standing Beast,” a 10-ton fiberglass sculpture that sits on the large plaza alongside the Thompson Center, will be loaded onto a truck and sent to New York to be refurbished, Chicago developer Mike Reschke told CoStar News.
After that, the 29-foot-tall sculpture will have a permanent home at the Art Institute of Chicago on Michigan Avenue, Reschke said. Several pieces of Dubuffet’s artwork are already displayed there.
That is a change from the state of Illinois’ previously stated plan last year to have the artwork displayed outside an office building at 115 S. LaSalle St. in the Loop, where state employees based in the Thompson Center will have moved by the end of this year.
It’s unclear why the state changed its plans.
In an email to CoStar News, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Central Management Services said the agency is working with the Illinois State Museum and Illinois Department of Natural Resources to relocate the sculpture and other art from the Thompson Center, “to best ensure its long-term preservation and the JRTC’s cultural legacy for future generations.”
The statement did not confirm or deny that the sculpture is destined for the Art Institute.
On Tuesday morning, fencing could be seen around the sculpture along with workers and equipment. The move is expected to happen this month, Reschke said.
The sculpture arrived on the plaza at 100 W. Randolph St. in 1984 as construction of the Thompson Center was being completed. Dubuffet died in 1985, the same year the Thompson Center opened.
Meant to depict an animal, a tree, a portal and an architectural form, the avant-garde artist’s white-and-black sculpture long has mystified passersby, leading Chicagoans to nickname the artwork “Snoopy in a Blender.”
Movement of the sculpture will be a visible sign of the Thompson Center’s transition away from public ownership.
Since the glassy, spaceship-like, Helmut Jahn-designed building opened in 1985, it has served as state offices as well as a public space for celebrations, protests and other large gatherings. The Thompson Center also is connected to several Chicago Transit Authority train lines.
After years trying to sell the building and consolidate state workers into other buildings downtown, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker in 2021 agreed to sell the 17-story structure known for its towering atrium to Reschke’s firm for $70 million. The deal included options for the state to buy back or lease a portion of the building after it was renovated.
Last year, the plan by Reschke’s Prime Group took a dramatic twist when Google struck a deal to buy the building after Prime Group completes initial stages of a redevelopment of the 1.2 million-square-foot building. Prime Group paid $105 million to the state, which agreed to fully move out of the building to make way for what is expected to be thousands of Google office workers when the redevelopment is completed.
Under the complicated deal, Prime Group paid the state $30 million in cash for the Thompson Center and gave the state ownership of the office building at 115 S. LaSalle that was valued at $75 million. Reschke already had a deal to buy the LaSalle building and one next to it when Google’s deal for the Thompson Center fell into place.
Reschke said state workers will be out of the Thompson Center by the end of this year, with construction work expected to begin by January 2024.
“Everything’s on track,” Reschke said.
Google has yet to reveal specific details of its plans for the building. The Mountain View, California-based tech giant has its Midwest headquarters in the Fulton Market district west of the Loop.