680 N Lake Shore Drive ( a.k.a. Lake Shore Place) is a 29-story building located in the

Streeterville Streeterville is a neighborhood in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, north of the Chicago River. It is bounded by the river on the south, the Magnificent Mile portion of Michigan Avenue on the west, and ...

neighborhood of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

. Originally named the American Furniture Mart, was completed in 1926. The two halves were designed separately: the eastern half by Raeder,

George C. Nimmons George Croll Nimmons (June 8, 1865 - June 17, 1947) was an American architect. Nimmons was best known for his commercial work, which was primarily for Sears, Roebuck and Company, but he also designed several houses, including a Kenwood, Chicag ...

, and Max Dunning; and the western half by Nimmons and Dunning alone. 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. A 1959 newspaper story, based on reminiscences by the building's president, claimed the building included provisions for mooring airships, but nothing about airships appears in the descriptions of the building when it was being planned or built. The building was converted by David L. Paul into condominium and office space between 1979-84. Paul hired Lohan Associates, Inc. to be one of two architects. The design concept was 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 of commercial office space, of retail space, and seven levels of indoor parking.

History

During its early decades as the American Furniture Mart, the building's address was 666 North Lake Shore Drive. In 1984,

Chemical Bank Chemical Bank was a bank with headquarters in New York City from 1824 until 1996. At the end of 1995, Chemical was the third-largest bank in the U.S., with about $182.9 billion in assets and more than 39,000 employees around the world. Beginning ...

filed a foreclosure action against David Paul, which Chemical eventually won. Chemical announced that it would change the building's address from 666 N. Lake Shore Drive to 680 N. Lake Shore Drive effective May 1, 1988, officially as a way of dissociating the building from its past financial problems. There was speculation that the address change was intended to remove the stigma of the building having the number "666", as in the

Number of the Beast The number of the beast ( grc-koi, Ἀριθμὸς τοῦ θηρίου, ) is associated with the Beast of Revelation in chapter 13, verse 18 of the Book of Revelation. In most manuscripts of the New Testament and in English translations of ...

from the

Book of Revelation The Book of Revelation is the final book of the New Testament (and consequently the final book of the Christian Bible). Its title is derived from the first word of the Koine Greek text: , meaning "unveiling" or "revelation". The Book of R ...

, or at the insistence of

Playboy Enterprises PLBY Group, Inc. is an American global media and lifestyle company founded by Hugh Hefner as Playboy Enterprises, Inc. to oversee the ''Playboy'' magazine and related assets. Its headquarters are in Los Angeles, California. The company is focus ...

which at the time was considering a move to the building. Representatives of both the building's management agent and Playboy denied that they were concerned about the use of that number in the address. Later in 1988, a few months after the address change,

moved their corporate headquarters from its location in the

Palmolive Building The Palmolive Building, formerly the Playboy Building, is a 37-story Art Deco building at 919 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Built by Holabird & Root, it was completed in 1929 and was home to the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Corporation. The Palmo ...

to the location at 680 N. Lake Shore Dr. Consequently, 680 became colloquially referred to as the "New Playboy Building". Playboy moved all of their offices out of this building in 2012, and the Playboy sign was taken down from the Erie Street entrance to the building. Another notable tenant was radio station

WCFL (AM) WMVP (1000 AM) is a commercial radio station licensed to Chicago, Illinois, carrying a sports format. Owned by Good Karma Brands, the station serves the Chicago metro area as the market affiliate of ESPN Radio, the flagship station of the Chica ...

. They had their studios here from 1931 until 1964. At that time, they relocated broadcast facilities to

Marina City Marina City is a mixed-use residential-commercial building complex in Chicago, Illinois, United States, North America, designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg. The multi-building complex opened between 1963 and 1967 and occupies almost an entir ...

, where they stayed for the next 25 years. , much of the building's office space is leased to medical tenants. The commercial portion of the building was sold to TopMed Realty in 2017 for $109.5 million.

References

External links

* {{coord, 41.8946, -87.6168, type:landmark_region:US-IL, display=title Skyscraper office buildings in Chicago Commercial buildings completed in 1923 Commercial buildings completed in 1926 Residential condominiums in Chicago Residential skyscrapers in Chicago 1923 establishments in Illinois