LPCI has placed Westinghouse High School on its annual Chicagoland Watch List, saying that CPS intends to demolish this giant former candy factory for playing fields once the replacement school (now under construction) is complete. Of course, never mind that there’s plenty of other open spaces in half-vacant East Garfield Park, that Chicago School loft buildings are almost priceless in some neighborhoods, and that rehab has begun filtering their way around to Franklin and Sacramento Boulevards.

Sure, converting a 400,000 square foot building is a daunting prospect — two or three hundred lofts, perhaps — but selective demolition of the additions could improve feasibility. It has fantastic surviving architectural details and a shallow, T-form plan that’s a great improvement over the too-deep floorplates that plague many current loft conversions.

Ironically, the new Westinghouse school is being done to LEED specifications. Doesn’t LEED supposedly promote reuse of existing buildings?