The Evolution of 2545 West Diversey Avenue: From Underwear to Eco-Fare
The building that will house Green Exchange, the country’s largest sustainable business community, has both an intriguing future and an interesting past. It seems highly unlikely that 95 years ago, when the Vassar Swiss Underwear company first erected this building that they would have been able to imagine its future incarnation as a state of the art LEED Platinum epicenter for green commerce. No, these folks had underwear, not eco-fare on their minds…
The Vassar Swiss Underwear Company, specializing in "union suits for gentlemen" was the first company to occupy the building at 2545 West Diversey. The company secured its building permit in September 1913 for $325,000 to build "the finest knitting mill in the world". They created a four-story building with a total of four acres of floor space featuring an illuminated clock tower that rose four stories from the roof. The mill had its own power plant, an area for coal storage, laboratories and a garage for the company trucks. The almost 1,000 employees benefited from the on-site restaurant, reading rooms and restrooms.
In 1924, the company expanded its headquarters and added on a three-story addition to the building, completing the distinctive U-shape of the current structure. For the next 43 years, the Vassar Swiss Underwear Company continued to produce undergarments expanding their niche from union suits to men’s briefs and finally, after a merger with the Munsingwear company in the 1950’s, they produced only girdles and bras. Vassar remained in the building until 1967, when Munsingwear relocated to Texas and the building was sold to another company, Frederick Cooper Lamps, a well-known manufacturer of "elegant lamps."
Frederick Cooper was an artist who created distinctive, architecturally-inspired lamps by mixing brass, fabric, glass and wood. His designs were embraced and his business flourished in Chicago where his factory remained for more than 35 years at 2545 West Diversey. The company name was proudly featured on the building’s clock tower and the identifying phrase "Lamps of Elegance" became a well-known sight to many Chicagoans as they passed by the factory while driving down the Kennedy Expressway. While the lamps are still being sold today, the rising costs of labor and the opportunities for overseas manufacturing eventually caused the closing of the Cooper Lamp Factory in 2005.
Enter David and Douglas Baum, founders of Baum Development, LLC, a company recognized for its expertise in adaptive reuse and acclaimed for its preservation of historic landmarks. The brothers purchased the landmark building and knew they wanted to develop it with a triple bottom line approach that would not only provide a financial return but also give back to the community and promote environmental sustainability.
The stars aligned when Barry Bursak, a long-time proponent of bringing green options to the marketplace and Manuel Flores, a Chicago alderman, approached the Baum brothers with a unique idea. Bursak was looking for a home for his sustainable furniture company and when he toured the vacant factory on Diversey Avenue he was inspired to dream big. Why not create a green cooperative, an entirely green business community housed in a green building to serve the needs of a burgeoning green customer base in the Chicago area?
Alderman Flores immediately embraced the idea, as it addressed the concerns of his constituents. The community was clamoring for the new development to bolster the local economy and provide new jobs to replace those lost when the factory was shut down.
It was not long before the Green Exchange concept was revealed, earning an enthusiastic response from green business leaders to Chicago’s own Mayor Daley, whose goal is to make Chicago one of the most environmentally friendly cities in the nation. With construction underway, Green Exchange is off and running, destined to be the convergence point for Chicago’s expanding green community.
