The Preservation Battles: 1980s-1990s

By 1987, Soldier Field was 63 years old. The limestone colonnades were weathered. The wooden seats had been replaced. The capacity had shrunk from the original 100,000 as fire codes caught up with...

By Dear Kevin Warren · 2026-01-21

Section 1: A Stadium Becomes a major

By 1987, Soldier Field was 63 years old. The limestone colonnades were weathered. The wooden seats had been replaced. The capacity had shrunk from the original 100,000 as fire codes caught up with reality. The Bears had been there for 16 years, long enough to call it home.

On February 27, 1987, the National Park Service made it official: Soldier Field was a National Historic Landmark. The citation praised the "Classical Revival colonnades" and the stadium's status as a war memorial. Holabird & Roche's Doric columns—100 of them, carved from Indiana limestone—were now officially protected.

That designation meant something. The same protection that covered the Alamo and Gettysburg now covered a football stadium on Chicago's lakefront. The Park Service was saying: this matters. Don't mess with it.

Section 2: The McDome Proposal

Not everyone agreed. By 1989, the Bears wanted a dome.

Michael McCaskey, the team president and grandson of George Halas, pushed for what became known as the "McDome"—a $300 million domed stadium at McCormick Place. The proposal caught the attention of Governor James Thompson and Mayor Richard M. Daley, who saw it as a way to expand the convention center while keeping the Bears happy.

The idea was that the Bears would practice there in cold weather and move their front office downtown. The convention authority could use the dome for events when the Bears weren't playing. Everyone wins.

The Illinois Legislature disagreed. They rejected the McDome in 1990. The financing was shaky. The lakefront location was controversial. And a lot of people weren't sure why taxpayers should fund a dome for a franchise owned by one of Chicago's wealthiest families.

McCaskey didn't take it well. The Bears started buying land options in the suburbs: Hoffman Estates, Elk Grove Village, Aurora. Give us a stadium, or we leave. The playbook hasn't changed since.

Section 3: The Gary Gambit

By 1995, the Bears' lease at Soldier Field had four years left. McCaskey needed leverage.

He found it in Gary, Indiana.

A development group called Northwest Indiana/Chicagoland Entertainment Inc. pitched a $482 million entertainment complex called "Planet Park." The centerpiece: a 75,000-seat stadium for the Bears, with 138 skyboxes and 9,000 club seats. They'd throw in an amusement park, hotels, a golf course, a Bears hall of fame. The whole thing would sit near Gary-Chicago International Airport, on the southern shore of Lake Michigan.

The proposal had backers. Gary Neale, president of the utility company NIPSCO, led the push. The developers promised an economic turnaround for a city that had been struggling since the steel mills closed.

Chicago fans were furious. The Bears had been playing in the city since 1921. George Halas built the franchise in Wrigley Field, then moved it to Soldier Field. Now his grandson was going to take it to Gary?

The Lake County Council rejected the plan. Most people assumed it was a negotiating tactic—a way to squeeze concessions out of Chicago and Illinois. They were probably right. But it worked.

Section 4: The Renovation Deal

Mayor Daley got the message. If Chicago didn't do something about Soldier Field, the Bears might actually leave.

In 2000, the city, the Chicago Park District, and the Bears reached an agreement: a major renovation of Soldier Field. The Bears and the NFL would contribute $200 million. The rest would come from bonds backed by hotel taxes.

The design was controversial from the start. Architects Wood + Zapata and Lohan Caprile Goettsch proposed keeping the historic colonnades but gutting everything inside. A modern glass-and-steel bowl would be dropped into the historic shell. The new capacity would be 61,500—barely half of what the original stadium held.

The National Park Service warned that the design threatened the major status. Friends of the Parks and the Landmarks Preservation Council of Illinois sued. They argued that using public money to benefit the Bears was illegal, and that the renovation would destroy Soldier Field's historic character.

The lawsuits went all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court. The preservation groups lost. By the time the court ruled, the renovation was already half-finished.

Section 5: What the Preservation Groups Saw Coming

The preservationists were right. Nobody wanted to hear it, but they were right.

On February 17, 2006, the National Park Service stripped Soldier Field of its National Historic Landmark status. The renovation had "destroyed" the architectural integrity, they said. The new bowl was "incompatible" with the historic colonnades.

"For national landmarks, we look more for restoration," explained Park Service spokesman David Barna. "This one crossed the line in terms of too much renovation."

Architecture critic Blair Kamin of the Chicago Tribune called it the "Eyesore on the Lake Shore." Others went with "Monstrosity on the Midway" or "Mistake by the Lake." Architect Stanley Tigerman, a Chicago native, called it "a fiasco."

The colonnades survived. They're still there—those 100 Doric columns that Holabird & Roche put up in 1924. But now they frame a spaceship.

Section 6: Lessons from the Preservation Wars

The 1980s and 1990s taught Chicago something about leverage. The Bears learned they could threaten to leave and get what they wanted. The city learned it would rather give in than call the bluff.

Soldier Field is still on the National Register of Historic Places—a lower tier of protection than the major status it lost. The colonnades are still there. The stadium still hosts Bears games.

But the preservation groups saw what was coming. They fought the renovation in court. They lost. And now, thirty years later, the Bears are threatening to leave again. Arlington Heights. Gary. Whoever will build them a dome.

The bluff worked in 1995. Why wouldn't they run it back?

Sources

- Chicago Park District Historical Archives - National Register of Historic Places documentation - National Park Service major records - Chicago Tribune archives, 1987-2006 - Illinois Supreme Court records (Friends of the Parks v. Chicago Park District, 2003) - Pro Football Reference (Bears history)