New use for old Chicago firehouse « chicagoareafire.com

New use for old Chicago firehouse

A former fire house in Beverly for Engine 121 was redesigned into a sharp, stylish factory and headquarters for bespoke hatmaker, Optimo.

After 25 years, Optimo needed to expand and recruited architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill to create a new space in a 100-year-old decommissioned firehouse at 1700 W. 95th Street. The 7,700-square-foot, two-story building houses a design team, operations, and production.

The new headquarters is highly customized for the small team, which can spend up to six weeks crafting one hat. Throughout the workspace you’ll see elegant 12-foot open steel shelves displaying handmade hats which range from $395 to $1,000. The machinery for trimming, shaping, and steaming is beautiful too and finished in matte black. Elements of glazed brick, blackened steel, walnut, and cork create an earthy but luxurious feel.

On the second floor, the new design embraces the building’s history as a fire station by inserting porthole windows in the floor where firepoles had existed. A 10-foot circular light fixture centers the room which is decorated with collections of custom tools and historic hats.

Off to the side, there is a lounge area with leather sofas, brass light fixtures, and more hats on display. The second floor can also double as an event space with a full kitchen and staging area where the original firehouse showers once stood.

thanks Dennis and Austin

Tom Rossiter photo

Tags: former Chicago FD Engine 121 firehouse, former Chicago fire station has new tenants, new headquarters for Optimo hatmaker, New use for old Chicago firehouse, new use for old fire house, new use for old fire station, Optimo hatmaker, Tom Rossiter

This entry was posted on May 9, 2018, 11:00 AM and is filed under Fire Department History, FIre Stations. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Comments

#1 by John Antkowski on May 11, 2018 - 8:12 AM

I agree, but at least it’s not abandoned and susceptible to vandalism. Any rumors of new firehouses being built? I believe Engine 16 was the last one. Thanks John.
#2 by John Struve on May 10, 2018 - 12:35 AM

I have no knowledge of the style trends or profitability of designing, creating and selling hats but it looks like Optimo did a very first class job of fixing up former Chicago Engine house 121. It might have been nice for them to carry on some of the fire department thematic visuals throughout the new space as a reminder of what is old can become new again. Even if they created a few hat designs with firefighter throwbacks it would add to the appeal of shopping at this particular location and perhaps starting a new trend of placing their stores in other unused urban or suburban fire stations… Maybe calling one model a “Hot Hat,” a “Hood and Ladder,” or perhaps even a “Siren Stetson.”