Although the commission will seek the consent of property owners, at least one apparently is in favor of the proposal. Brian Goeken of the department of planning and development says one building may be redeveloped with the help of property tax incentives that kick in as a result of landmark designation.

Constructed in the Depression era, the buildings are in the 2700 and 2800 blocks of Milwaukee Avenue, 3300 and 3400 blocks of Diversey Avenue and 2700 block of Kimball Avenue. They are owned by separate groups, who bought in as recently as January. Included are a six-story, 37,000-sf, triangular building at 2800-08 N. Milwaukee Ave., where Payless Shoes has ground-floor retail space; and a 75-unit mixed-use building at 2769-87 N. Milwaukee Ave. The building north of Diversey Avenue was sold in 2002 for $1.8 million, according to property records, while the building on the other side of the east-west thoroughfare commanded $1.6 million in 1998 from a Wisconsin-based owner.

The department of planning and development is seeking landmark designation around other "six-corner" intersections, Goeken says, which are created by a few diagonal streets mixing in with the city's basic grid street layout. One future candidate, suggests Jonathan Fine of Preservation Chicago, is the junction of Damen, Milwaukee and North avenues in the Wicker Park area. "I think this is a really excellent designation and bodes well for future six-corner intersections," Fine says.

Not only are the architects involved in the buildings noteworthy, the buildings at Diversey, Kimball and Milwaukee were instrumental in the development of the chain retail store, adds Michael Zimmy of the department of planning and development.

Built in 1922, a two-story building at the southwest corner of Diversey and Kimball avenues was originally occupied by a Woolworth's store. A three-story building at wedged between Milwaukee and Kimball, south of Diversey, once housed a Goldblatt's store but now is partially leased by Gap. Shopper's Warehouse now occupies part of the two-story building at 2772-74 N. Milwaukee Ave. But SS Kresge, the forerunner of Kmart, was the original tenant in 1928.