Conventions are a significant industry in the US. It helps support hotels, restaurants and airlines. Chicago got into the business in 1873 with the Exposition Building. It was the largest exposition building on the continent. And Chicago had the International Amphitheater from 1934 to 1983.
Then they opened McCormick Place on the lakefront in 1960.
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| Michael Brandt posted A nice postcard of the original McCormick Place. |
A different postcard treatment of the same photo.
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| Chuck Edmonson posted Looking nothing like the vast multi-building complex it is today, on Nov. 18,1960 the original McCormick Place was officially dedicated. At a cost back then of $41M the original hall could hold six football fields within the walls and three months later Arie Crown Theatre which could seat 5,100 was opened as well. In February 1961 after finishing touches were added it would welcome it's first major exhibition, the Chicago Auto Show. The original idea was the brainchild of Col. Robert McCormick, owner and publisher of the Chicago Tribune who was inspired after the success of the 1933 World's Fair. It would take almost 30 years for that dream to come to fruition and would be touted as the world's largest convention center. To many it was an eye sore, a quasi brutalist piece of architecture along the lake. Only seven year later the building would be ravaged by a fire in January of 1967, only to emerge from the ashes in true Chicago fashion bigger and better than ever. Over the years it has expanded to four major interconnected buildings offering almost 2.6M square feet of exhibition space. |
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| Gail Bob McCabe posted I don't know what I was more impressed with...the original McCormick Place or the terrific looking boats... |
Unfortunately, it burned down on Jan 16, 1967.
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| ExhibitCityNews "On July 31, 1967, seven months after the fire, the official investigation report was released. Led by Rolf H. Jensen, professor of fire protection engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology, the investigation team concluded that not only was there a lack of sprinklers and working fire hydrants, but the building’s construction was unable to withstand the fire regardless of the severity." The Arie Crown Theatre sustained only minor damages, and it was easily rebuilt. Today's Lakeside Center opened its doors on Jan 3, 1971, with a 300,000 sq. ft. exhibition hall. The convention center now has roughly 2.6 million sq. ft. |
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| McCormickPlace-pdf, p1 |
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