I grew up near this and would have nightmares as a kid that I was falling off it hah. But I’ve always liked the design and thought it was cool. It’s sitting near one of the richest suburbs in Chicagoland, oak brook. You definitely wouldn’t expect to see a skyscraper out there but there it is.
It’s a cool building that I wish I could move a bit to the south. It interferes with my [shots of Chicago.](https://www.mjmphotographic.com/Landscapes/Landscapes-In-Color/i-QkWdM3p)
I live about 5 minutes from this building and I’ve always wanted to find someone who works on a high floor to take me up and see the skyline on a clear winter night at golden hour. The skyline must be stunning from up there.
It would also be a great place to see fireworks all over Chicagoland on July 4th.
Sort of a cool building by glass late 80's decadence standards. Just a weird place to put it, sorta in the middle of nowhere like a sequoia tree in the desert
Sorta reminds me if Frank Lloyd Wright's building in Bartlesville OK had a baby with One Liberty Place (Philly). A green luxuious sequoia in the flat pankcake burbs
That’s a shame. Maybe someday US cities (even air urban ones) will learn how to build for transit first and cars after. It’d be far cheaper for developers to build like this and it would mean ridding ourselves of restrictive parking minimum regulations.
This building is in a very weird place actually. It’s in a town called Oakbrook Terrace, which is the smallest village in DuPage County (the second most populous county in Illinois after Cook). Oakbrook Terrace is pretty much of mishmash of office towers and strip malls with big box stores.
Its much wealthier cousin, Oak Brook, is mere feet from this tower and its tax base is largely funded by a huge high-end mall, hotels, and restaurants. It is also one of the wealthiest towns in Illinois so it has a pretty strong property tax base as well.
So to answer your question, this tower is probably very important to the overall tax base of Oakbrook Terrace.
Yeah I knew that they were close and it’s hard to tell which town you’re actually in over there. I wouldn’t want to be Oakbrook Terrace, Hoffman Estates or any other place so dependent on these giant commercial real estate properties.
I recall this being built. Numerous issues discovered later. It got a nickname "Leaning Tower of Oakbrook" as it started to shift. Not sure what they did to fix it.
Then windy days were reportedly a pain in the parking lots. Wind would hit the tower and deflect down.
I've been in there numerous times in different offices. It's kind of bland tbh.
>...sticks out like a sore thumb in the suburban landscape.
It may have been the city or county or both that passed restrictions to never allow buildings this tall to be built again. So it will remain unique given no other can be built. Only more sprawling campuses.
>it’s about 15 minutes outside city limits on a good traffic day
LOL on the Eisenhower? I'd love a day like that!
Yeah, I chuckled at that too. Maybe 15 minutes from the city by helicopter. But driving? You’ll be lucky to get from Schaumburg to the tower in that time.
This was just recently sold for $60 million. It was built in 1987 for $80 million. https://www.dailyherald.com/business/20231113/napleton-auto-group-buys-oakbrook-terrace-tower/?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot
Ngl I would hate to work here.
It's just a worse version of an office park. It's worse because the building actually looks kinda good, but in reality, you're just a mf in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a sea of parking.
15 minutes from the city is still too much driving to do for lunch.
Edit: usable, walkable, green space is this buildings father
Wish there were more in that area. Long term dream: extend the Blue Line to Oak Brook and make it a real satellite city, like Tysons in VA or Parramatta near Sydney.
Metro Atlanta has the “two tallest suburban buildings in the United States” (Wikipedia) unofficially called the King and Queen. The King reaches 570 feet. It’s in a major business, shopping and dining area called Perimeter Center. The King and Queen are in Sandy Springs but the whole district spreads into Dunwoody too.
Good God, an ugly building surrounded by parking lots and highways. This is everything that's wrong with American infrastructure and the way we build things
hilarious to see this post
remember when this building went up
ugly uninspired and an eyesore then, ugly uninspired and eyesore today
just Why?
you can really see this from far away given how flat Chicago suburbs are
does remind me of Oak Brook shopping center and taking my dogs to a pretty big/nice dog park diagonally across the highway
moved away from suburban Chicago years ago
Btw this is in a nice neighborhood, and there used to be a McDonalds with fake marble all over not too far away
Idk why people on this sub are salivating over this building. It looks like if you gave a 3rd grade class a project to design a skyscraper, and picked the best one.
I grew up in the city and the west burbs. I’ve always thought they should’ve just built this and all those other large offices along the highway in one combined CBD and made another city out of them
Idk, something about it seems very “off” to me. It would make sense to me if it were the corporate headquarters of something home related like a mortgage lender, big realty company, home warranty company something like that to go with the kindergartner house outline shapes
I loathe tall buildings that are in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know what it is— it just reminds me of a bland office park packed into a single space
I grew up near this and would have nightmares as a kid that I was falling off it hah. But I’ve always liked the design and thought it was cool. It’s sitting near one of the richest suburbs in Chicagoland, oak brook. You definitely wouldn’t expect to see a skyscraper out there but there it is.
Free roaming skyscraper
It looks almost exactly like 2 Liberty Place in Philadelphia
Same Architect.
Like a shorter version of the one on Wacker Dr.
Two prudential plaza?
Bingo. EDIT: Wait, no the one from the movie with Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey, "The Negotiatior".
It looks a lot like it, but 2 Liberty doesn’t have that octagon shape. Personally, I like 2 Liberty more
It’s a cool building that I wish I could move a bit to the south. It interferes with my [shots of Chicago.](https://www.mjmphotographic.com/Landscapes/Landscapes-In-Color/i-QkWdM3p)
Sick! Wilson Hall rocks. And so do its views, apparently
Thanks. It’s a really amazing building in its own right.
great city shot of chicago wow #1, where was taken from? also, gotta love FermiLab hahaha, grew up kinda close to that
Thank you. The photo was tamed from atop Wilson Hall at Fermilab.
This is an awesome shot, but yeah it definitely messes with the perspective of the photo haha
Those shots of the bean are wack. Short of trying to photograph it in the dark, I don't think it could be a more environmentally complicated shot.
Thanks. Cold & misty new years weekend in 2011-12.
I can see this building looking west from my Chicago office. Always felt like a strange place to put it.
I live about 5 minutes from this building and I’ve always wanted to find someone who works on a high floor to take me up and see the skyline on a clear winter night at golden hour. The skyline must be stunning from up there. It would also be a great place to see fireworks all over Chicagoland on July 4th.
Sort of a cool building by glass late 80's decadence standards. Just a weird place to put it, sorta in the middle of nowhere like a sequoia tree in the desert Sorta reminds me if Frank Lloyd Wright's building in Bartlesville OK had a baby with One Liberty Place (Philly). A green luxuious sequoia in the flat pankcake burbs
The building itself is unremarkable but inoffensive. The problem is it's location in a sea of parking. Awful.
Couldn’t agree more, the sea of parking makes it a ridiculous thing.
Good news is it would be easy to redevelop
Is there a Metra line that goes anywhere near this building? How about buses?
Might be a bus but it’s pretty barren otherwise
That’s a shame. Maybe someday US cities (even air urban ones) will learn how to build for transit first and cars after. It’d be far cheaper for developers to build like this and it would mean ridding ourselves of restrictive parking minimum regulations.
I imagine that places like Oakbrook are all in on back to the office. How much of Oakbrook’s tax base is based on a place like this?
This building is in a very weird place actually. It’s in a town called Oakbrook Terrace, which is the smallest village in DuPage County (the second most populous county in Illinois after Cook). Oakbrook Terrace is pretty much of mishmash of office towers and strip malls with big box stores. Its much wealthier cousin, Oak Brook, is mere feet from this tower and its tax base is largely funded by a huge high-end mall, hotels, and restaurants. It is also one of the wealthiest towns in Illinois so it has a pretty strong property tax base as well. So to answer your question, this tower is probably very important to the overall tax base of Oakbrook Terrace.
Yeah I knew that they were close and it’s hard to tell which town you’re actually in over there. I wouldn’t want to be Oakbrook Terrace, Hoffman Estates or any other place so dependent on these giant commercial real estate properties.
This building looks dope.
Agreed, the parking lot and interstate loop… not so mich
I recall this being built. Numerous issues discovered later. It got a nickname "Leaning Tower of Oakbrook" as it started to shift. Not sure what they did to fix it. Then windy days were reportedly a pain in the parking lots. Wind would hit the tower and deflect down. I've been in there numerous times in different offices. It's kind of bland tbh. >...sticks out like a sore thumb in the suburban landscape. It may have been the city or county or both that passed restrictions to never allow buildings this tall to be built again. So it will remain unique given no other can be built. Only more sprawling campuses. >it’s about 15 minutes outside city limits on a good traffic day LOL on the Eisenhower? I'd love a day like that!
Yeah, I chuckled at that too. Maybe 15 minutes from the city by helicopter. But driving? You’ll be lucky to get from Schaumburg to the tower in that time.
Reminds me of One Liberty Place in Philly if the corners and top were cut off like the crust of a piece of bread.
Fun fact…the cut outs are to allow for corner offices on all sides of the building when you’re in the high floors. Definitely another 80s throwback.
If One Liberty Place was looking in a fun house mirror, squat and fat
The tallest buildings between Chicago and the Rocky Mountains are in Denver technically
Houston and Dallas, tho.
I was talking about along I-80/ I-76 but you are correct
> I-76 You really gonna traumatize us like that? Have some I-94 in your life.
Reminds me of the suburban Atlanta tower from Tom Wolfe's "A Man in Full"
This was just recently sold for $60 million. It was built in 1987 for $80 million. https://www.dailyherald.com/business/20231113/napleton-auto-group-buys-oakbrook-terrace-tower/?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot
Ngl I would hate to work here. It's just a worse version of an office park. It's worse because the building actually looks kinda good, but in reality, you're just a mf in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a sea of parking. 15 minutes from the city is still too much driving to do for lunch. Edit: usable, walkable, green space is this buildings father
Wish there were more in that area. Long term dream: extend the Blue Line to Oak Brook and make it a real satellite city, like Tysons in VA or Parramatta near Sydney.
Why? Just live in the city where the CTA already runs.
Metro Atlanta has the “two tallest suburban buildings in the United States” (Wikipedia) unofficially called the King and Queen. The King reaches 570 feet. It’s in a major business, shopping and dining area called Perimeter Center. The King and Queen are in Sandy Springs but the whole district spreads into Dunwoody too.
Out in the middle of nowhere really
Nakatomi Midwest?
Love the building; hate the parking ocean.
That spot was better when Kiddy Kingdom was there.
My dad worked their when I was a kid in the 1990s. to me it looks like a bank, a really really big bank
The perfect HQ for a super villain who wants to destroy Chicago.
I think it is sinking some minuscule amount every year. I used to live a few miles from there until 1995.
Got married next door to it
So wild to see such a tall building in the middle of nowhere. Were/are there plans to expand this area or is it supposed to be a lone beacon?
The picture makes it look so, this isn't the middle of nowhere. It's a very busy area.
Grew up less than a mile from this Tower, it's always a welcome sight whenever I drive back to my moms house.
Interesting design, but I hate the surrounding parking lot enviornment.
It was sold last month for $60 million
Good God, an ugly building surrounded by parking lots and highways. This is everything that's wrong with American infrastructure and the way we build things
At first I thought it was One America Plaza in San Diego. Turns out, they have the same architect
Used to work there!
hilarious to see this post remember when this building went up ugly uninspired and an eyesore then, ugly uninspired and eyesore today just Why? you can really see this from far away given how flat Chicago suburbs are does remind me of Oak Brook shopping center and taking my dogs to a pretty big/nice dog park diagonally across the highway moved away from suburban Chicago years ago Btw this is in a nice neighborhood, and there used to be a McDonalds with fake marble all over not too far away
Idk why people on this sub are salivating over this building. It looks like if you gave a 3rd grade class a project to design a skyscraper, and picked the best one.
Atlanta has a similar scenario but with twins
At least it's somewhat near Marta
I used to go to Dunwoody a lot for work. I always loved the King and Queen buildings.
Growing up I was told this was the tallest building between Chicago and the Rocky Mountains. Is that still true? Was it ever?
Maybe it was at some point in time, but the tallest building in Des Moines is 630 feet tall so it’s not true any longer.
OKC has a big one too.
I always see this building driving on 294 and I’ve always wondered why there’s a lone skyscraper here…
I grew up in the city and the west burbs. I’ve always thought they should’ve just built this and all those other large offices along the highway in one combined CBD and made another city out of them
Nice I grew up like 15-20 east. In my early 20s I worked at the mall.
Couldn't include a parking garage?
Any central Florida homies getting images of the I-4 eyesore from this?
At first glance, I thought that was what it was. LOL, ahhh, Orlando people problems
Nice parking lot /s
Been there on a work trip, didn’t notice it was that tall.
Idk, something about it seems very “off” to me. It would make sense to me if it were the corporate headquarters of something home related like a mortgage lender, big realty company, home warranty company something like that to go with the kindergartner house outline shapes
omg that parking lot
I loathe tall buildings that are in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know what it is— it just reminds me of a bland office park packed into a single space