The building was designed by Howard Van Doren Shaw beginning in 1887. The primary use of the building was the printing of the White Pages and Yellow pages telephone books, as well as mail-order catalogs. The Lakeside press building ceased its printing operations in 1991 when Sears, Roebuck and Company discontinued the distribution of their mail-order catalogs. In 1999 the building was purchased by Digital Realty Trust and transformed into one of the largest private data centers East of the Mississippi River. This data center is the largest private consumer of electricity in the city of Chicago, second only to O’Hare airport.
Beginning in 2009, the Auburn Corporation started a multi-year multi-faceted window replacement project that lasted four years. Thornton, Tomassetti Architects in Chicago was the design firm responsible for replicating the window system to comply with the strict requirements of the Chicago Landmarks Commission and buildings status as a National Historic Landmark. The project was headed by Mr. Lance Parker of Thornton, Tomassetti who specified a custom Wausau Historic Window Wall system. Special care was taken to replicate the color and existing steel framed sitelines of the more than 800 oversized windows that went into completing this project. The old steel windows were removed and new windows were installed from the exterior of the building, using a custom-fitted mast climber system. The General Contractor on the project was Clune Construction.
Like what you see?