Demolition Begins on Closed Ravenswood Hospital

The closed Ravenswood Hospital is coming down after four months of asbestos removal. Demolition began Wednesday to make way for a private school.

The hospital, located at 1931 West Wilson Avenue, has been closed for more than 12 years, said Jim Poole, community specialist for Ward 47 Ald. Ameya Pawar. Since that time, the building has been vandalized with graffiti and broken windows.

Demolition is expected to last through November in a floor-by-floor process, Poole said. Belowground demolition will go on through February and by April, the area will be a gravel lot. It’ll be empty for almost a year until the school begins construction, Poole said.

“There was both a need and a desire to move as quickly as we could on the demolition and then we could wait for construction,” he said.

Lycée Français de Chicago, a private French-language school for elementary and high school students, purchased the land in Nov. 2011. The owners were cited for not securing the property, according to city records.

In July, the Chicago Tribune reported that a 16-year-old died after falling from the second floor at the abandon building.

“Everybody’s happy to see it coming down,” Poole said, adding that the site has security and a construction fence to prevent incidents during demolition.

The new school, totaling $30 million, hopes to be open by the fall of 2015, CBS reported. Lycee rents its current location for the 660 students enrolled in the school.

Poole said the owners hosted meetings with the community and have been good partners in moving up demolition of the hospital.