680 N Lake Shore Drive

680 N Lake Shore Drive (a.k.a. Lake Shore Place) is a 29-story building located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Originally named the American Furniture Mart, was completed in 1926. The two halves were designed separately: the eastern half by Henry Raeder, George C. Nimmons, and Max Dunning; and the western half by Nimmons and Dunning alone.[1] At 474 ft (144 m) tall and encompassing the entire block between Lake Shore Drive and McClurg Court, it was the largest building in the world when it was completed.

Architecture

Construction of the American Furniture Mart was undertaken in two phases: the eastern section was completed in 1923, and the western portion (including the tower) in 1926. The eastern half is constructed with reinforced concrete, whereas the western half, as well as the tower, is steel. The easternmost portion of the building has a superstructure that was originally designed to hold a mooring mast for dirigibles, though it never was used for that purpose.[2]

The building was converted by David L. Paul to condominium and office space between 1979-84. Mr. Paul hired Lohan Associates, Inc. to be one of two architects. The design concept was Mr. Paul's. It is now home to 415 condo units divided amongst the building's three separate condominium associations: the Tower, the Lake, and the South residences. There is also 420,000 sq ft (39,000 m2) of commercial office space, 65,000 sq ft (6,000 m2) of retail space, and seven levels of indoor parking.

History

During its early decades as the American Furniture Mart, no one appeared to notice the building's address: 666 North Lake Shore Drive, the numbers "666" being the Number of the Beast. In March 1988, the building's name was officially changed to 680 North Lake Shore Drive. A few months later, Playboy Enterprises moved their corporate headquarters from its location in the Palmolive Building to the location at 680 N. Lake Shore Dr. Since then, 680 has been colloquially referred to as the "New Playboy Building" and is commonly mistaken for the Playboy Building. Playboy moved all of their offices out of this building in 2012 [3] and the Playboy sign was taken down from the Erie Street entrance to the building.

References

  1. ↑ Alice Sinkevitch and Laurie McGovern Petersen, The AIA Guide to Chicago, 3rd Edition (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2014), p.144
  2. ↑ Fuller, Earnest (February 28, 1959). "Chicago's Famous Buildings (14th in a series)". Chicago Tribune.
  3. ↑ "Chicago and the bunnies. Building a global future in the Windy City". Retrieved 21 January 2015.

External links

Coordinates: 41°53′41″N 87°37′00″W / 41.8946°N 87.6168°W / 41.8946; -87.6168

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