One River Place Condominiums

Name of Building

Town or City, Country where the building was originally established

Chicago, Illinois

Date the building was designed and/or first built

Original Construction – 1908.
Redevelopment – Early 2000s (major adaptive reuse completed 2002–2005)

Name of Architect, Builder, or Primary Patron Responsible

Founder(s): Original Architect – Schmidt, Garden & Martin. Redevelopment Architects – Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM)

Builder - (Original): Montgomery Ward & Co. construction/engineering division

Culturally Specific Time Period

Progressive Era Industrial Architecture

Geo-Location

41.89647048928987, -87.64283616797735

Materials

Brick, Concrete, and Steel.

Size and/or Scale of Building

The Height of the building is 8 stories tall.

Architectural Type

Public

Formal Style

Exterior: Early 20th-Century Industrial / Warehouse Modernism

Building Description

600 West Chicago Avenue, part of the historic Montgomery Ward complex, represents one of the early masterpieces of reinforced concrete industrial architecture in the United States. Built in 1908 as a central warehouse and headquarters for the company’s huge mail-order business, the structure expresses the ideals of the Progressive Era: efficiency, fireproof construction, and worker-oriented daylighting. Its exterior is defined by colossal concrete piers and long rows of steel-sash windows, creating a powerful horizontal presence along the Chicago River.
Inside, the building’s wide-span mushroom-cap concrete columns and expansive floor plates gave Montgomery Ward logistical flexibility for catalog operations and warehousing. These raw industrial spaces later became the foundation for a transformative adaptive reuse. Beginning in the early 2000s, the complex was redeveloped into a Class-A office campus, preserving the massive concrete skeleton while integrating modern systems, glass-walled offices, tech-oriented infrastructure, and amenity-rich communal spaces. The interior retains its historical ruggedness even as it supports contemporary workplaces.
Over time, the building evolved from a pioneering mail-order fulfillment center to a near-obsolete industrial giant, and finally to a flagship adaptive-reuse campus occupied by companies such as Groupon and other modern firms. Its restoration revived original window openings, repaired concrete surfaces, modernized circulation, and activated the riverfront, all while keeping the integrity of the building’s industrial identity. Today, 600 West Chicago stands as a testament to Chicago’s industrial past and as a model for large-scale adaptive reuse in the 21st century.

Names(s) and location(s) of the museum holding the object(s)

Originally an Early 20th-century warehouse and office building for mail-order business. Now revised for a Class-A office campus (occupied by modern companies, e.g., Groupon)

Image source

Source
https://res.cloudinary.com/luxuryp/images/f_auto,q_auto/arxgx3lz2f7zvsbbzlnx/01_758nlarraee_311_57_frontview_hires-1
Source
https://www.wintercohen.com/images/11/87/75/69/n/758-larrabee-str-chicago-il-60654-0.jpg

Creative Commons or other copyright information

Images 1-3: Creative Commons

Student First and Last Name

Justin Forster

Bibliographic references for the item

Source
- One River Place | Luxury Condos | Michael Rosenblum (no date). https://happilyeveralways.com/neighborhoods/one-river-place.
Source
- Best Chicago Properties, LLC (2021) One River Place Condos - 758 N Larrabee - Best Chicago Properties. https://bestchicagoproperties.com/neighborhoods/river-north/one-river-place/.