July 7, 2016

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Today marks the end of our three part Epstein Throwback Thursday feature on the projects completed for the R.H. Donnelley Corporation from the late 50s through the mid-70s in Oak Brook, Illinois. Our first feature (http://goo.gl/NkXhCl) was on 1961's 170,000 sf Direct Mail Division facility, our second (http://goo.gl/SavxJD) detailed 1968's 33,500 sf Official Airlines Guide (OAG) building, and now we complete the trilogy with an account on the two expansions to the OAG structure completed in '71 and '75, respectively.

As we discussed in the original OAG post, that facility was a high-tech computerized data and printing building that was constructed to produce a publication called the Official Airlines Guide, which in essence was a printed version of all domestic and international flight schedules. These 70s additions included a two-story 15,000 sf office wing that provided much needed additional space for the computer programmers and marketing department of what Donnelley called their Travel and Transportation Services Division. Like the original '68 OAG building, this expansion featured a structural steel frame and cladding utilizing aluminum and grey tinted glass curtain wall.

The final Donnelley project in Oak Park was another two-story expansion to the OAG Building, this time a 23,000 sf addition which was fully air-conditioned (!), featured flexible office space, included a new loading dock and also had a link to the existing '68 building. Best of all the lobby to this new portion of Donnelley OAG campus included the incredibly eye-catching and very 70s wall paper. Not quite sure if we were trying to channel our inner Keith Haring, a decade before he came to fame, but it definitely made a statement!

Lastly, unlike '61s Direct Mail Division facility, the OAG campus no longer stands. It was demolished a few years ago and the site is now the home of the HUB Group's Oak Brook operations.