From the Crain's Chicago Business Newsroom...
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Downtown offices close, evacuate
by Steve Daniels, Alby Gallun, Sarah A. Klein, James Evans
• September 11, 2001
The ripple effects of terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C, were being felt in Chicago early today as large office and government buildings in the Loop were being closed. Thousands of workers were sent home shortly after they arrived at work.
Separately, area hospitals are meeting to discuss how to handle any local emergencies, should additional attacks occur here.
Suburban office buildings and malls also are on heightened alert and Northwestern University canceled classes at its Chicago campus.
At a news conference in the city's 911 center this morning, Mayor Richard Daley and city police and fire department heads discussed Chicago's emergency plans.
"There is no reason to believe Chicago has been targeted in any way," Mr. Daley said, encouraging people not to panic. He said no extra police have been called in for duty, but those who are working are on heightened alert.
He also pointed out that the evacuations of downtown buildings were voluntary, not mandated by the city.
Chicago banks were operating as close to normally as possible, although they were giving employees the option of going home. Spokesmen for both Bank One Corp. and LaSalle Bank N.A. said bank branches would remain open.
Closed buildings in Chicago included the city's two most recognizable skyscrapers, Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center. At the Hancock, residents as well as office workers were being asked to leave.
In addition, buildings around the Sears Tower were closing as a precaution. Both 311 S. Wacker Drive and 125 S. Wacker Drive were closed.
Other buildings in downtown Chicago that have been closed include the Board of Trade at 141 W. Jackson Blvd., the Richard J. Daley Center at 50 W. Washington St.; the Dirksen Federal Building at 219 S. Dearborn St.; the Aon Building at 200 E. Randolph St., and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange at 10 S. and 30 S. Wacker Drive, said a dispatcher at Quicksilver Messenger Service.
Property managers at the buildings could not be reached for comment.
While many downtown Chicago office buildings were evacuated this morning, others were closed to visitor traffic and workers were given the option of leaving.
"We straddle the (Sears) tower on either side," said Samuel Delisi, property management chief for Insignia/ESG Inc., which manages both buildings. "We've closed our office, and a lot of our tenants are going of their own volition."
Aon Center, the city's second-tallest building, was closed to outside traffic, but was not officially evacuated. Still, most tenants were leaving, said Robert Gillespie, an executive at CB Richard Ellis Inc., which manages the building.
"I see a stream of people still coming out," he said around 10 a.m. "People have been leaving for over an hour."
Officials also closed some major malls. Urban Shopping Centers Inc., part owner of Water Tower Place, was closing the well-known downtown retail center. Urban, which also manages 900 N. Michigan Ave. across the street, was closing the retail portion of that building, too.
In addition, Urban, which owns major malls all over the country, was closing its high-profile centers in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston, said CEO Matthew Dominski.
Meanwhile, officials at Cook County Hospital and Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago—two of the city's three trauma centers—were meeting separately Tuesday morning to discuss implementation of their emergency plans.
"Information (from law enforcement agencies) will dictate how we execute (our) plan," said a Cook County spokesman.
Neither Cook County Hospital nor Northwestern had been warned by law enforcement officials to prepare for a local disaster as of Tuesday morning, the representatives say, but the hospitals are nonetheless considering whether to call in extra staff to handle an emergency.
Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center convened a meeting of managers and department heads to discuss a wide range of preparedness plans. The hospital also brought in additional security forces as a precaution. There were also reports that off-duty hospital staffers were being contacted in case they would be needed.
Northwestern University, meanwhile, canceled all classes at its Chicago campus, including those at its law school, medical school and school of continuing education, a spokeswoman said.
In the suburbs, Hoffman Estates-based Sears, Roebuck and Co. was carrying out its contingency plans for crisis situations, but it had not made a companywide announcement for employees at its headquarters to go home, a spokeswoman said. Individual managers, however, may give employees the option to leave work, she said.
And Woodfield Mall in Schaumburg went on "high priority security" this morning, but there were no immediate plans to close doors to shoppers, said Marc Strich, general manager of Woodfield Mall. The mall went on the same security alert when the Oklahoma City bombing occurred in 1995. |
