This morning in Chicago’s South Loop, ULI members were treated to a tour of two historic and iconic buildings that have recently undergone major redevelopment and renovation. Tim Anderson, CEO of developer and general contractor Focus, led the tour of the Old Post Office (TOPO, built in 1921 and expanded in 1932, supported Chicago’s booming mail-order business, and was the world’s largest mail terminal with 19 million pieces of mail processed daily. The property sat vacant for two decades, until 2016 when new ownership began a $900 million renovation. The largest historic redevelopment in history, completed in 2019, TOPO now comprises more than 2.5 million square feet (232,000 sq m) of multiuse offices and event spaces.
The tour of the Willis Tower, a fixture in Chicago’s skyline since 1973, highlighted the Skydeck experience on the 103rd floor, which hosts thousands of tourist daily, as well as the just completed $500 million redevelopment of the iconic 110-story skyscraper, including redesigned lobby areas, a dining, retail, entertainment destination, new amenity and event spaces, and art installations by renown artists Jacob Hashimoto and Olafur Eliasson.
