Most recently, Prime Group Realty Trust proposed a $200-million mixed-use project that would have added 180 condominiums, 400 hotel rooms as well as 500,000 sf of office space above the Union Station's Headhouse Building. Before the REIT's financial crunch derailed the project, it had hired architect Lucien LaGrange, who ironically had drawn up plans about 20 years earlier for another developer before Tax Reform Act of 1986 torpedoed US real estate markets.

Burnham's designs included a tower above the station, but he died before the station was completed. Jones Lang LaSalle has been involved in the redevelopment of two other buildings designed by Burnham, Symphony Center in Chicago and Union Station in Washington, DC.

"Our goal is to perpetuate Burnham's historic vision for Union Station and at the same time create a state-of-the-art, mixed-use facility that includes office space built for the 21st century," says Hossein Youssefi, whose company also includes Stuart Scott. "Union Station will be an architectural jewel as we extend the Burnham Chicago tradition to the West Loop."