"The name Marshall Field's is so synonymous with Chicago,"Natatus says. "I hope we put a plaque on all four corners of thebuilding. That should be a message to the corporate hierarchy." TheMarshall Field's name is in jeopardy as a result of the flurry ofretail takeovers.

The nine-story, 1.6-million-sf building takes up an entire cityblock bounded by State, Washington and Randolph streets as well asWabash Avenue and the overhead Chicago Transit Authority elevatedtracks. The designation, recommended Thursday by the commission onChicago landmarks, includes restrictions on altering exterior andinterior elements such as an iconic clock at State and Washingtonstreets as well as two interior atriums, one of them traditionallyused to house a tall tree during the holiday shopping season.

"Chicagoans have been meeting under the clock since 1897," saysHeidi Sperry of the city's department of planning and development.The clock was memorialized by a Norman Rockwell painting thatgraced the front of the Saturday Evening Post in 1945.