[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 27 (Monday, February 10, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S814-S815]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING DANIEL LEVIN

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, after the Great Fire destroyed much of 
central London in 1666, the city was rebuilt with even grander and 
stronger buildings than before. The most majestic building of all in 
the new London was St. Paul's Cathedral, designed by the great 
architect Sir Christopher Wren. There is no monument to Wren. But on 
the dome of St. Paul's, written in Latin, is an inscription. It says: 
``If you seek his memorial--look around you.''
  There is no monument in Chicago to Dan Levin, either. But if you want 
to see what he meant to Chicago--and what Chicago meant to him--just 
look around our great city. Daniel Levin was a visionary real estate 
developer, civic leader, and generous philanthropist who loved Chicago, 
its neighborhoods, and its people. Sadly, he died a few weeks ago.
  Over half a century, Dan Levin's real estate development and 
management company, the Habitat Company, built structures that 
redefined Chicago's skyline. Drive into Chicago on the Kennedy 
Expressway, and you will see the Presidential Towers, four soaring 
skyscrapers of upscale condos and apartments in the West Loop. Take a 
cruise along the Chicago River, and you will pass the East Bank Club, 
one of the finest health and fitness clubs anywhere in America. Follow 
the river to where it meets Lake Michigan and you will come to 
Cityfront Plaza, another tower of apartments and condos surrounded by a 
bucolic green oasis of a park. He created other landmark buildings 
including South Commons, Columbus Plaza, ONE333, and many others.
  But Dan Levin didn't build and manage only luxury properties. His 
faith in Chicago's people and their extraordinary potential led to 
Habitat's creation of nearly 25,000 rental housing units for people of 
all incomes.
  His ``North Star,'' his family says, was his belief that all people 
deserve to live in a home and a neighborhood they can be proud of.
  He described his business philosophy this way: ``No project is only 
an investment in real estate. It is an investment in the future of the 
community and the lives of the people who live and work there.''
  His confidence and his love for Chicago led him to take risks and to 
invest in parts of the city that others overlooked. And time after 
time, those risks paid off. His buildings attracted other new 
investments that transformed once blighted areas into vibrant 
neighborhoods. Dan had a rare gift to see potential where others saw 
only problems. The Presidential Towers, for example, stand on what was 
once Chicago's Skid Row.
  The East Bank Club was built on the site of an abandoned railroad 
yard. In a once-gritty neighborhood that many Chicagoans feared to 
drive through even during the day, Dan created a world-class fitness 
club and an outstanding restaurant, where he loved to host Seders every 
Passover. You never knew who you would see at the East Bank Club. You 
might find yourself in a Pilates class with Oprah when she was a 
member. Years ago, Dan became friends with a young law professor from 
the University of Chicago who used to come to the club to play 
basketball. That young hoopster-professor went on to become President 
of the United States, Barack Obama.
  Dan Levin was a ``social entrepreneur'' decades before anyone had 
ever heard that term. He believed that he could make money and do good, 
and that is exactly what he did for 50 years.
  He almost certainly would have made more money if he had concentrated 
exclusively on upscale buildings. But Dan Levin wasn't in business to 
make a killing; he wanted to make communities.
  Probably his biggest professional challenge came in 1987 when a 
Federal judge appointed the Habitat Company to serve as a receiver for 
the then-bankrupt and badly mismanaged Chicago Housing Authority.
  The job was massive: Manage all of Chicago's public housing, except 
senior housing, and rehab or replace thousands of dilapidated housing 
units.
  The receivership lasted 23 years. 23 years. By the time it ended, 
hundreds of blighted apartment buildings across the city had been torn 
down, including high rises that had become towers of poverty.
  With Dan as chairman and Valerie Jarrett as the company's CEO, 
Habitat replaced the high rises with townhouses and replaced concrete 
with green spaces. All told, the company built or rehabbed 4,000 units 
of public housing.
  Many developers might have been intimidated by such a massive 
undertaking. But Dan Levin saw it as a civic responsibility and a 
chance to give back to a city that had given him so much.

[[Page S815]]

  You see, Dan wasn't born in Chicago. He was born and grew up in 
Detroit, the grandson of Jewish Lithuanian immigrants. His father was a 
Federal judge. His brother became a justice on the Michigan Supreme 
Court. And two of his cousins, whom he thought of almost like his 
brothers, became distinguished members of Congress, Senator Carl Levin 
and Representative Sander Levin.
  Dan assumed he would follow in the family footsteps. He graduated 
from the University of Chicago Law School. After a prestigious 
clerkship for a Federal judge with the U.S. District Court for the 
District of Columbia, he returned to the family law firm, where he 
worked on a project with a renowned real estate developer whose company 
constructed many buildings designed by Mies van der Rohe, one of the 
giants of 20th century architecture.
  It proved to be a good fit, and Dan signed on as the company's in-
house counsel. In 1960, the firm's founder, Dan's mentor, died in a 
plane crash. Dan stepped in to finish the project his boss had been 
overseeing, another van der Rohe building--and he discovered that he 
loved creating buildings. So he left the law and became a developer.
  A short time later, he moved to Chicago, the birthplace of 
skyscrapers and other architectural marvels. His buildings now stand 
shoulder to shoulder with some of the great architecture of the 20th 
and 21st centuries.
  In addition to his work, Dan loved classical music. He was a devoted 
supporter and board member of WFMT, Chicago's classical music station. 
He was also a trustee of WTTW Public Television, vice chairman of the 
Environmental Law and Policy Center, and a generous supporter of the 
Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and the Harris School of Public 
Policy at his alma mater, the University of Chicago.
  He was kind, modest, and generous with a happy spirit and a twinkle 
in his eye. He was equally at ease speaking with Uber drivers as with 
Presidents.
  He was devoted to his family: his son Josh Levin; his daughters Jil 
Deheeger and Betsy Bernardaud; and their spouses; his 11 grandchildren 
and two great-grandchildren; and his step-children Alyssa Rapp and 
Jeffrey Rapp.
  Most of all, he adored his wife and partner, former Ambassador Fay 
Hartog-Levin. The only time they were separated was when Fay served as 
U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands, and even then, Dan crossed the 
ocean many times to be by her side.
  Loretta and I offer our deep condolences to Fay and all of Dan's 
family in this sad time.
  Daniel Levin was a good man, a visionary leader, and a true mensch. 
Loretta and I, and the people of Chicago, will miss him. But, as I 
said, if we want to see his legacy, all we have to do is look around. 
We are a better city because Dan Levin lived among us.

                          ____________________