Two Chicago Buildings Bought for $1.00, Then Revived and Turned Green

In Chicago, it’s possible to buy an old, deteriorating building for one dollar, provided you promise to save it from the wrecking ball and spend your money renovating it instead. Not only do you avoid the need to demolish and start from scratch---wasting energy and resources in the process---but you can revive a venerable old structure and make it more sustainable as well.

Two LEED-certified cases in point: the Optimo Hat Co. plant and corporate headquarters in a former south side firehouse, and Hairpin Lofts, a north-side apartment house in what once were the offices of a ladies’ hairpin manufacturer. Both were purchased from the City for the bargain basement price of $1.00.

Optimo Hats

The firehouse, constructed in 1915 and vacated by the Fire Department in 2008, was rehabbed for Optimo Hats by a team headed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) to accommodate the manufacture of classy, custom-made men’s chapeaux. Far from being a dingy sweatshop, the handsome structure, which reopened in 2018, has plenty of light on the workroom floor, thanks to a combination of oversized windows and LED task lamps.

The design team recycled materials from the existing firehouse: marble reclaimed from the firehouse’s shower stalls were used to finish the second-floor kitchen. The designers outfitted the hat factory's bathrooms with low-flow fixtures, and installed a radiant heat system in the floor. Radiant heating, an efficient substitute for other types of heating, warms the floor and then heat rises into the room above it directly and evenly. All this without having to bother with radiators, vents, or ductwork. The bottom line: a marked drop in utility bills.

Hairpin Lofts

The 1930 Hairpin Lofts building, on the other hand, morphed from the corporate offices of the Hump Hair Pin company, to the Morris B. Sachs Department Store, to a 28-unit apartment building plus art gallery. It fell into disuse by the 1990’s and languished for nearly two decades until Brinshore Development stepped in and reopened it in 2011 after a wholesale renovation.

Now daylight streams into Hairpin’s rooms through restored, energy-efficient windows. Energy savings in the building are compounded by a geothermal heating/cooling system, green roof, and rooftop solar thermal panels. As in the Optimo firehouse, designers made the most of original materials, like the marble and terrazzo flooring, which gleam anew in the latest version of the historic landmark. Key players in the makeover were Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture and Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc. (WJE).

Stay tuned for more energizing tales of ailing Chicago structures bought on the cheap and resuscitated, like the Ramova Theatre, a long-abandoned gem that held its grand reopening on New Year’s Eve 2023. And word has it that yet another vacant city fire station is slated for redevelopment, this one as a community arts center.