Chicago’s register of individually designated landmarks holds 412 entries as retrieved August 9, 2026, with designation dates from 1970 through 2026. Read the designation dates and the register’s history splits sharply by era: 230 of the 412 — more than half — were designated while Richard M. Daley was mayor, a pace of about 10.4 a year across 22 years. The pace fell by a third under the next two administrations and has picked back up since 2023, and the 12 designations dated 2025 are the most in any calendar year since 2013. One scope note before anything else: these are individual landmarks only. Chicago also designates landmark districts, which protect far more buildings and are a separate register not counted here.
Individual Landmarks dataset, Chicago data portal · retrieved August 9, 2026 · designation dates as recorded in the registerReading the register
The Individual Landmarks dataset carries a name, address, architect, construction date, designation date, and building footprint for each entry. The designation date is a clean date field; two entries lack one and sit outside the era counts. The construction date is free text — “1873-94,” “1888” — so this page reads the first four-digit year in each as the construction start; 410 of 412 entries yield one. Some entries are sites rather than standing buildings — the register’s earliest construction date, 1803, belongs to the site of Fort Dearborn — and some are recent civic monuments: the Little Village Arch (built 1990), the Paseo Boricua gateway flags (1995), and the Rainbow Pylons and Legacy Walk (1997) all entered the register in the last decade. The register is not only old buildings.
The pace, era by era
- Before May 1989designations dated 1970 onward70
- Richard M. DaleyApr 24, 1989 – May 16, 201123010.4
- Rahm EmanuelMay 16, 2011 – May 20, 2019536.6
- Lori LightfootMay 20, 2019 – May 15, 2023266.5
- Brandon JohnsonMay 15, 2023 – Aug 9, 2026*319.6
Eras here are simply date windows — each designation is bucketed by who was mayor on its designation date, using inauguration dates, and the current era’s window runs through this page’s retrieval date rather than a completed term, which is why it carries an asterisk. The register’s busiest single year is 2003, with 24 designations; its longest sustained run is the Daley years, which produced more designations than every other era combined. The slowdown that followed was durable — about 6.6 a year under Rahm Emanuel, 6.5 under Lori Lightfoot — and the current pace, 31 designations in just over three years, works out to 9.6 a year so far. The register records dates, not reasons, and this page offers none.
Where they stand
- Loop77
- Near North Side43
- Lincoln Park24
- Near West Side24
- Austin15
- Grand Boulevard15
The Loop’s 77 individual landmarks are the city’s largest collection, with the Near North Side’s 43 next — but the register is not a downtown monopoly. Austin and Grand Boulevard hold 15 apiece, tied for the most outside the central area and the North Side lakefront, and 53 of the 77 community areas hold at least one individual landmark. Twenty-four hold none — a count of this register only, which says nothing about what stands in those areas or what the separate district register protects there.
The buildings themselves
The median landmark was built in 1907 and waited a long time for its designation: the median gap between the extracted construction year and the designation date is 95 years. The construction dates run from 1803 — the Fort Dearborn site — to 1997. One architect dominates the field’s attributions: Frank Lloyd Wright is listed alone on 10 entries, and an 11th credits him alongside Adler & Sullivan. Other firms recur under variant spellings — Holabird & Roche appears more than one way — so this page ranks no one else.
Known limits
Individual landmarks are one of Chicago’s two designation registers; landmark districts, which cover entire streetscapes and many more buildings, are a separate dataset this page does not count. Two entries carry no designation date, two carry no readable construction year, and one footprint did not resolve to a community area; each is excluded only from the specific figures that need the missing field. Construction years are the first year in a free-text field and can represent the start of a range. Era counts attach a designation to the mayor in office on its date; they say nothing about who initiated, supported, or opposed any designation, and the register does not record that.
- Sources Individual Landmarks (uct4-hrvh, 412 entries) and Boundaries — Community Areas (igwz-8jzy), both retrieved August 9, 2026.
- Eras Each designation is assigned to the window containing its designation date. Windows are the mayoral inauguration dates: Richard M. Daley April 24, 1989; Rahm Emanuel May 16, 2011; Lori Lightfoot May 20, 2019; Brandon Johnson May 15, 2023 — with everything earlier grouped, and the current window ending at retrieval. Per-year rates divide an era’s count by its length in days over 365.2425.
- Geography Each landmark was placed in a community area by testing one vertex of its own recorded footprint against the city boundary polygons (point-in-polygon, even-odd rule). 409 of 412 resolved; the register carries no community-area field of its own.
- Construction years The first four-digit year (1600–2029) found in the free-text date-built field; ranges like “1873-94” contribute their first year.
Computed by KCM Desk from records retrieved August 9, 2026. If you spot an error, corrections come first.