Cross-country bus terminals were once a part of almost every major urban center, as present and important as high-rises and department stores.
The Loop once had two: the Greyhound bus depot on Clark and Randolph streets, and the Trailways station at 20 E. Randolph St.
Both were iconic and modern buildings in their heyday. But when the land beneath them became valuable – and the bus station was deemed too rundown and unfit for a city center – both depots were demolished in the late 1980s and the site rebuilt.
Greyhound is building a smart-looking new terminal at 630 W. Harrison St. in 1989, it was designed by the firm now known as Sheehan Nagle Hartray Architects.
But it seems the days of the Greyhound depot are now numbered.
Twenty Lake Holdings, which last year bought the station and 33 who were once owned by Greyhound, now want to sell the property for housing redevelopment.
And how is it possible for passengers to get on the bus or arrive in the city center if there are no stations?
“What we're seeing across the country is, these stations are closing … and in many cases (bus services) end up on the side of the road,” said DePaul University professor Joe Schwieterman, director of DePaul University's Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development.
But a city with two major airports, and Union Station just west of the Loop for Amtrak travelers, should have facilities for the 500,000 people who arrive here each year on intercity buses.
If the Greyhound station is demolished and not replaced, Chicago will become the largest US metropolis without an intercity bus terminal.
“That would be real chaos for a city the size of Chicago,” said Schwieterman.
The breed bus depot disappeared
The city's bus depot was once part of Americana. Not as much as an old train station or an all night restaurant, but close.
Drivers sneaking into town by bus — in fiction, film, or real life — arrive under the cover of neon-accented darkness.
Students with backpacks and suitcases head back to their new semester as the hydraulic hiss of the bus doors closing and the roar of its engines blend in with the sound of downtown traffic.
That everything played out in the middle of the city center shows how the central bus station used to be the physical and cultural landscape of the city.
How central? Architecture firm SOM's original 1949 design for the Greyhound Loop station included an unconstructed skyscraper that is modern and glassy—perhaps more so—like New York City's landmark Lever House, completed in 1952.
Then 40 years later, the station was removed from the Loop and placed next to Jane Byrne Junction.
Now downtown expansion – much of it started around the time the old bus station was demolished – has reached the Greyhound site.
And like a homeless person arriving in town on a bus, there's no telling where the new terminal will appear. If at all.
So what's the solution?
Greyhound was paying $1 million per year in a lease with Twenty Lake Holdings that was nearing its end.
“The best solution – and it is not without complications – is for a public agency to acquire the station and make it available to all intercity bus lines,” said Schwieterman, of the Chaddick Institute. issue studies this month about the potential impact of losing a Greyhound station.
“A lot of cities already do that,” he said.
Ah, but which agency? Of course not CTA, who is busy just keeping the urine free L station.
And do we need another government unit? Or could we extend MPEA's powers to include the bus terminal at McCormick Place's Lakeside Center? The Metropolitan Pier, Exposition and Bus Authority have a ring to it.
Fortunately, the Chicago Department of Transportation is working with Greyhound.
The department said last week in a written statement to me: “The City of Chicago recognizes the importance of affordable and accessible intercity transportation and is actively assessing and exploring solutions to ensure Chicago continues to have an intercity bus terminal.”
That's good. It is now up to the administration of Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson to ensure bus travelers are not kicked to the curb.
Lee Bey is an architectural critic for the Chicago Sun-Times and a member of the Editorial Board.
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