The Produce Terminal Cold Storage Company Building is a historic refrigerated warehouse at 1550 South Blue Island Avenue in the
Near West Side neighborhood of
Chicago,
Illinois. Built in 1928–29, the warehouse was the largest cold storage facility in Chicago when it opened. As Chicago was a major shipping and transportation hub, refrigerated storage played a key role in preserving perishable goods so they could be sold year-round. Architects H. Peter Henschien, a renowned designer of refrigerated facilities, and Robert J. McLaren designed the
Art Deco building. The top two stories of the eleven-story building feature extensive
terra cotta and tile ornamentation, including
chevrons, Egyptian-inspired
colonette A colonnette is a small slender column, usually decorative, which supports a beam or lintel. Colonettes have also been used to refer to a feature of furnishings such as a dressing table and case clock, and even studied by archeologists in Roman ce ...
s, and a
dentillated
cornice
In architecture, a cornice (from the Italian ''cornice'' meaning "ledge") is generally any horizontal decorative moulding that crowns a building or furniture element—for example, the cornice over a door or window, around the top edge of a ...
with
cymatium molding. In addition to its extensive refrigerated space, the interior plan also included processing and office space, improving efficiency and lowering costs for the building's tenants.
The building was added to the
National Register of Historic Places on June 22, 2003.
References
Industrial buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago
Warehouses on the National Register of Historic Places
Art Deco architecture in Illinois
Industrial buildings completed in 1929
Cool warehouses
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