March 18, 2022

Project #17 in our Centennial Year countdown of our Top 100 Projects is the $2M ($23M in 2022) I.S. Berlin Press Headquarters & Manufacturing Facility. This Epstein designed and engineered 128,000 square foot facility was completed in 1949 and located at 3201 N. Kimball in Chicago along the Kennedy Expressway. Constructed of terra cotta, stone, stainless steel and glass, and equipped with ‘modern’ lithographing production facilities, this new plant utilized ‘new’ industrial concepts like air conditioning and electronics to the floor finish to help keep down dust.

Over six years went into the planning and design of this facility which featured a 400-foot long, unobstructed production ground floor as well as 2nd floor office comprised of executive space, accounting, sales, copy preparation and art departments.

The production floor was very cutting edge for the time with a space that featured exterior walls with continuous windows insuring plenty of natural daylight. Additionally, a skylight further allowed for natural light to reach the manufacturing area.

In addition, the production floor was planned and designed to allow for a workflow that mimicked the forward progress of the typical work flow for press production. Starting from the up-front customer relations and art production to the estimating and production, the building was planned to follow exacting production standards and procedures.

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