Here is sad news from sculptor Walter Arnold, who reports on an act of vandalism in Chicago. He writes:

Eric J. Nordstrom continues documenting the destruction of the Charles Sumner Frost-designed Public Life Insurance Building in Chicago. He took this photo in the past few days. He reports that the carved marble mantel, ornamental iron staircase and Bedford limestone façade are now in the landfill. nothing was salvaged and/or saved.

One need not have much imagination to guess what will replace the Public Life. I do not know. Maybe someone does. I’m not sure I want to know. Looking at the beautiful Ionic capital within the grip of the machine, I wonder how many decades of what goes by the name of creativity in modernist design would it take to match the creativity in the design of this one single capital? I don’t know. Maybe Walter Arnold can guess. I do not think such a calculation is humanly possible.

Here, from Russell Versaci, is more about the Public Life Insurance Building, its fate and its history, on the urbanremainschicago.com website.