Editorial: We can’t overdo it for the Wrigley Building

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Updated: March 7, 2012 9:45AM

There’s this thing in Paris called the Eiffel Tower. It’s really something. We’re pretty sure nobody would ever have to declare it an official “landmark” to keep people from messing with it.

But Paris is Paris, while Chicago is Chicago. And Chicago has had an annoying way over the decades of tearing down or badly remodeling perfectly excellent structures in a way that, in retrospect, is obviously stupid. We still can’t get over how the city tore down Louis Sullivan’s glorious Garrick Theater in 1960 to make way for a parking garage.

A parking garage.

All of which is to say it’s probably smart that the Wrigley Building on Michigan Avenue is about to be given official landmark status. This means the building’s owners — Groupon, for the moment — will have to show architectural sensitivity when they make upgrades. But they’ll also get a property tax break.

We’re fairly confident Groupon would do the right thing anyway.

But we keep thinking about that parking garage.