Chicago post office
Encyclopedia
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White
Graham, Anderson, Probst & White
Graham, Anderson, Probst & White is a Chicago architecture firm that was founded in 1912 originally as Graham, Burnham & Co. This firm was the successor to D. H. Burnham & Co. by Daniel Burnham's surviving partner Ernest Graham and Burnham's sons Hubert Burnham and Daniel Burnham Jr...
and built in 1921. The original structure was a brick-sided mail terminal building, still sited just east of the main building that engulfs Eisenhower Expressway
Interstate 290 (Illinois)
Interstate 290 is a main Interstate freeway that runs westwards from the Chicago Loop. A portion of I-290 is officially called the Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway. In short form, it is known as "the Ike" or the Eisenhower...
as it turns into the Congress Parkway. Major expansion in 1932 added a total of nine floors for more than 60 acres (24.3 ha), or 2.5 million square feet (230,000 m²) of floorspace. Its footprint, as initially designed, would have blocked the proposed Congress Parkway extension. As a compromise, a hole for the Parkway was reserved in the base of the Post Office and utilized twenty years later. In 1966 the Main Chicago Post Office came to a virtual halt when a logjam of 10 million pieces of mail clogged the system for almost one whole week. With Chicago rated worst in postal deliveries, a new Main Post Office was proposed for right across Harrison Street. In 1997, the old building was vacated in favor of the new, modernized facility. The official address of the Old Post office is 433 W. Van Buren, Chicago, IL. A February 2006 report by the General Accounting Office stated that it cost the government $2 million a year to maintain the retired building.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in 2001.
Filming
The post office was used in the filming of Batman BeginsBatman Begins
Batman Begins is a 2005 American superhero action film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Christian Bale as Batman, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson,...
in 2004, and for filming The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight (film)
The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins...
in April 2007. The film crew had plenty of signs up for shooting of "Rory's First Kiss," a.k.a. RFK, but that title is simply a pseudonym for "The Dark Knight." Many websites included pictures of the outside of the Post Office, which was decorated as "Gotham National Bank" on the North side of the building, and "Gotham Police Department" on the East side.
In the summer of 2010, Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
and Michael Bay
Michael Bay
Michael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing high-budget action films characterized by their fast edits, stylistic visuals and substantial practical special effects...
filmed numerous scenes for Transformers: Dark of the Moon in and around Chicago. The old Chicago Post Office's east facade was decorated as the "Department of Health and Human Services" where the Autobots were kept by the federal government in the movies. The same interior that was used for filming of the bank heist in The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight (film)
The Dark Knight is a 2008 superhero film directed, produced and co-written by Christopher Nolan. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, the film is part of Nolan's Batman film series and a sequel to 2005's Batman Begins...
was used again for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. There were also some scattered shots from within the Post Office interior used throughout the film.
Future
On June 9, 2009, the Chicago Sun-TimesChicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
reported that the postal service was placing the post office on the auction block. Held on August 27 and conducted by Rick Levin & Associates Inc., the auction raised $40 million, which was well over the opening bid of $300,000. The buyer was reported to be English real estate developer Bill Davies. While Davies missed an October 10, 2009 deadline to close the deal, he finally acquired the building on October 21, 2009, paying about $17 million.
Exactly nine months after acquiring the post office property from the Postal Service, Bill Davies unveiled his plan for the Post Office on July 21st, 2011. The proposal, which involved three other properties besides the 14-story Post Office, was broken down into three-phases pending the required $3.5 billion in funding:
• Phase 1: Converting the Post Office into a retail complex who's main entrance would be through the Beaux Arts-inspired lobby along Van Buren street, the remaining interior would become a parking garage, and the addition of a 40-story hotel on the east side of the building. (Approximate cost: $450 million)
• Phase 2: Building an addition 60-story hotel west of the Post Office and a 120-story, 2000 ft. office, hotel, and residential tower that would be the tallest in North America. (Approximate cost: $2 billion)
• Phase 3: Two residential towers built on the east side of the Chicago River diagonally southeast from the proposed 120-story skyscraper plus a 12,000 space parking garage. (Approximate cost: $1 billion)
The whole $3.5 billion dollar plan was submitted to the Chicago City Council and the Planning Commission for approval the same day it was released to the public. Only funding for Phase 1 has been secured as of July 21st, 2011.
External links
- U.S. Post Office, Chicago at EmporisEmporisEmporis GmbH is a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany. The company collects and publishes data and photographs of buildings worldwide....
- "Biggest Post Office To Be Built In Chicago", August 1931, Popular Science