The Brutalist design by architect Bertrand Goldberg featured a 9-story concrete quatrefoil tower with oval windows cantilevered over a rectangular five-story podium.

[7] Preservationists responded that Northwestern Memorial Hospital owns a two-square-block piece of vacant land directly across the street from Prentice, and within a potential skybridge's reach from the university's existing research building.

[12] In late November 2012, Cook County Circuit Court, Judge Neil Cohen entered a stay that restored the commission's preliminary Landmark recommendation for the time being and barred the city from issuing a demolition permit.

Judge Cohen set the next court date for December 7, and made it clear that he wanted to see Prentice protected in the interim.

[13] After the original denial of landmark status, the National Trust for Historic Preservation sponsored a campaign to save the building.