March 2, 2017

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Today, our weekly Throwback Thursday nostalgia trip through our archives takes us back to 1985 for the opening of the Epstein designed and engineered Northwest Business Center located at 2100 Golf Road in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. For this office development, which consists of two one-story buildings totaling 134,000 square feet, Epstein developed a flexible design to meet a variety of needs for the UK developer, Slough Parks Incorporated. (BTW one of the first tenants of this building was an early incarnation of Apple)

Each building features a steel structure with a curtain wall of reflective glass and precast concrete. The green insulated glass used in ribbons around the building was structurally glazed to give off, for the mid-80s time period, a high-tech appearance. Bordering this glass is a concrete band consisting of two types of concrete that differ in color and texture. The design intent of this linear pattern was to create an undulating concrete surface and provide a strong textural contrast to the emerald glass below.


The Northwest Business Center plaza entrances at various locations around the building allow many tenants individual identities. In addition, the interior space of the building could be modified to meet the needs of each tenant which was leased in sizes ranging from 5,000 to 67,000 square feet.


Reception for Apple's 1st Chicago-area office space

Our design of the Northwest Business Center was well received and in August of 86 the Illinois Council of the Society of American Registered Architects gave the building its Award of Excellence.


Lastly, the Northwest Business Center is still standing and a thriving suburban office development servicing a wide-variety of clients, but, alas, not Apple.