Abandoned $232M Allstate Headquarters in Chicago Illinois
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- Опубліковано 2 чер 2024
- In the remaining months of 2022, the former Allstate headquarters located just outside of Chicago, Illinois was put up for sale with a possibility of demolishing it for a logistics center. The property's dramatic decline was largely a result of the C-19 pandemic, which emptied the office complex, forcing more than 8,000 employees to work remotely. This made paying for the building's maintenance, utilities, and taxes a poor investment. Especially after realizing that most jobs could be completed with work from home positions. In December 2022, the massive office complex was officially sold and the 2 million square feet building began demolition. Today, we're going to show you one last look at what was left behind.
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As an allstate employee this was such a waste.
i m shamed as a human...... Projects like this destroy the world. USA sucks. Best wishes from Germany. No hate you see the true. Only politicians and the industry sucks
Just think of all the $ they are saving not having to have that HUUUGE building? LOL... Plus think about all the BORING meetings held in that auditorium :D
@@dodge33445 they'd still have boring meetings, just its now on the computer
@@trashyspeeds266 True... LoL. :D
it was weird when they closed the HE office (ages ago.) it was there for ages!
i fucking hated working at allstate. i could have been dead in my chair for two weeks before someone noticed
It's a prime example why everything costs so much. Wasteful corporations that pass the buck onto the consumer and never taking responsibility.
Of course they need a reason to charge us more
This building isn’t in good hands.
Just like their clients...
Awesome explore my friend! This was definitely one of the all time largest buildings i think weve been to!
I really enjoy the walk walk-through, as it gives to fond memories. This is remarkably humbling. I spent 30 years in corporate America, and have now been working from home for the last four or five. While the shift in paradigm has been nice; not having to deal with the pre-dawn commutes, it is still bitter sweet. I miss coming into the office and working directly with people. I miss a sense of belonging. I have spent more than a third of my life inside one of this office buildings, and I am sad to see those days gone.
I was fortunate enough to work from home for about 3 years prior to Covid. It's something I had been advocating for for many years after I got a taste of it in my mid 20's. I was stunned by how much more productive I was without all the interruptions. The improvement in my quality of life from not having to spend 4 hours per day getting ready, commuting, and being stuck for an extra hour at lunch was life changing. It was an extra 20 hours per week I could spend with my family! I was hoping that the one good thing that would come out of Covid would be that companies would realize how much happier and productive their employees were and that between the improved employee morale and the enormous cost savings, they would no longer force employees into the office. The cost savings associated with no longer needing to lease/rent/purchase and furnish and pay the utilities for these corporate offices is enough to pay everyone a living wage! Or put fat bonuses in some executives pockets. Alas, there still seems to be quite a lot of boomer mentality in the corporate world so one by one, so many corporations are forcing people back into the office.
I'm not completely against it for everyone. I understand that some folks thrive in the corporate office environment. But many of us find it downright depressing. It can suck the life right out of you. People should have a choice. There could be smaller offices for those few who prefer going in, and for meetings. That would be a win-win because they would still save an enormous amount of money using a smaller space, and employees would be happy because they would have a choice. I've decided that after 25-ish years in corporate offices, I would rather be homeless than ever have to go back. I pray every day that I can continue to work from home until I retire, which will likely be when I am 80 since it took 30 years to pay off my student loans as a single mom. Working from home for the last 6 years has been such a blessing. Not just for my mental health and wellbeing, but also for my daughter who barely got to see me the first 9 years of her life.
For those that don't know or aren't "local" - this is all gone now. They're already starting on the new warehouses.
I agree with most that repurposing alot of it would've been nice, but yhe unfortunate truth is that post-pandemic - its just easier to have employees work from home. Add to the fact that there are soooo many people now shopping on the internet, that warehousing is needed so much. I personally do very little shopping on line (especially for clothes/shoes) but then again, Ive always been a "brick & mortar" type shopper - I want to hold it, see if it fits, see the quality, etc... first hand.
Drive by there all the time on 294- boy that thing came down fast!
yeah drove by it and they had a wrecking ball on a crane just taking the tall part down vertically, bit by bit, eating it away from the side.
Chicago has some of the coolest architecture in the world. An amazing building that definitely should be repurposed vs demolished. My favorite was the silver, spiral staircase! Thanks, guys! The tour was very interesting 🎉
@@franken-pattern this isn’t even about repurposing- they never fully moved their staff in. This is about pure, pure waste. It becomes exhausting attempting to continuously find purposes for companies that over-estimate what they actually need- so they dispose of the rest. It needs to stop, now.
Sounds like the Sears family tree. The state subsidized them to move in to Hoffman Estates in the 90s, that development was never finished before the major layoffs started in the EARLY 2000s, and soon that will all be demolished too. Now ironically that Chinese front Gotion is looking at the ex Kmart warehouse in Manteno, more subsidies of course.
@@franken-pattern I agree even as repurposment has more advantages and overall good point you made!!
This is one of the ugliest corporate buildings ever. You should go into the world and see how more companies operate. This is about the worst design I’ve ever seen. Disjointed, a maze, no cohesion and boxed separate areas. Not a collaborative environment. It promotes islands and separation. No wonder Allstate is a failure.
@@muzaaaaak ohh a lot of companies are corrupted and living if making a better world, but and even though I’ve been jntot he world sicne my preteen years BUT I’d believe in repurposing building and making a companies for. Serious poeple with their values and values of centuries before,to now and to come and even to altering internal arcecture + external solar and wind farms etc too and I’d pay myself lasts ith smallest amount while employees get the first and biggest amount, a long shot but a free speech means of hope
worked there for 14 yrs - sad to see it disappear . How the business still operates with 100% from home amazes me
I enjoyed this.
I worked for Allstate In PA and AZ for 27 years and was only there in Northbrook once as a trainee back in 1990.
Some thoughts:
Yes the size is immense. But remember, this building was built in 1967. Allstate was still owned by Sears which was still a mammoth of a business. Sears poured a ton of money into this probably. Although really large I would say this place was far from opulent.
Visit a Google campus sometime.
Part of the size of this place is due to paper. There were no computers or very few. Everything was on paper and had to be stored and filed. Large desk space was needed (no cubicles with a laptop).
A woman I worked with in Arizona was from Allstate Northbrook and she told me a story about a very elaborate and ornate bar on the 8th floor for executives. She said that it was unreal and extreme expensive. This was back in the 70's though and times were different.
The bar was long gone by the 90s when Jerry Choate and Tom Wilson came in.
No doubt that parking garage was exclusive for executives. Very interesting to me as elevators took them from undergound to 8th floor without them having to interact with the home office peasants.
I had no idea that there was an in house pharmacy. That's crazy.
The "Little Hands" building was a daycare. I remember Home Office being really proud of it by sending company wide emails about it....and all of us in the field hating Home Office even more because of the perks that no one else in the company got.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this vid. Well done and thanks.
It's a crying shame that they are going to tear this big building down 😔
They should turn it into affordable living!!
@@dodge33445 you definitely got that right @dodge33445👍✌️
LMAO....YEAH 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@@his_tory_debunk5338 I wanna ride around it with a fast E scooter !
@@dodge33445 at the cost of literal millions to get it up to code requires so much money to modify the building heavily that in most cases its not worth the squeeze
This place is so nice! I drove past it so often and wondered what it looked like inside! It’s gone now though. Thanks guys!
some "backrooms" vibes happening there lol
100%. The only thing that's off is how modern it is
What a beautiful building - shame to see it go.
Carpet tiles are used because if one tile is stained or damaged it can be replaced easily.
Correct. 2' X 2' squares, with a rubber backing equivalent of a car tire. Costs about $30.00 a piece. High quality glue, laid down in a grid pattern, as opposed to a full float/coverage, to make them removable. Used to be a place in La Grange Georgia (Intec, I think) that made them. Almost definitely gone/farmed out to China, Vietnam, Korea, I'd bet.
@tuck6464 actually, Shaw is near Dolton, GA and most of the office carpet is still made in the USA.
Georgia is still a carpet powerhouse, the famous Williams Street TV studio was once a carpet factory.
I wouldn't get in any elevator in a derelict building.
As an elevator enthusiast/elevator nerd, I would! As long as it works, there's nothing wrong with riding it.
@@MrEngineer20051 Really? What if it gets stuck or something?
@@hotshower695 Think of it like any other elevator. As long as they are in good condition and are maintained properly, then it would be rare for someone to get stuck in an elevator. As for the elevators in the building that they were in, since the buildings weren't abandoned for very long, the elevators look like they're in pretty good condition, so I don't think it would be very likely for someone to get stuck in one of them. BUT, if someone DOES just-so-happen to get stuck in one of them, then all you have to do is use the emergency phone, and if that doesn't work for some reason, then just call 911.
I dont like ANY of them. I got stuck in one for 4 hours.. Claustrophobia sets in! big time... Knowing there is nothing you can DO to help yourself.
@@hotshower695I'd be more worried about it crashing down than getting stuck.
So much of that headquarters can be recycled and repurposed. It's really a shame that it's going to be demolished and trashed. A lot of the remaining items are high-quality commercial grade.
Yeah, that staircase would look beautiful in my house... If I ever own one 🥲
Great video!
Allstate did something similar ~ 8-10 years to their big building out in South Barrington. It was cheaper to demolish it and leave it barren than to continue to pay maintenance and real estate taxes.
How sad it's such a waste. They put down carpet square down in large spaces for 2 reasons, their easy to replace if something gets spilled on them or they wear out. Also it's hard to piece and match large rolls of carpeting
Wow that's so Sad.🤔🤔 Such a Huge Beautiful Building. 👍🏻👍🏻
This is an amazing video that you had. I would’ve given anything to be with you as security. I worked at that building for eight years and knew every corner of that building from top to bottom right to left. I even knew about a tunnel that most people didn’t know that went from C building to Willow building. I would’ve given anything to be able to walk with you guys through that building one more time before to document everything. The way you guys did I would’ve shown you some really cool shots.
DUDE im inspired by you to go and explore abandoned places now 🔥🔥
And they say that insurance companies are hurting. Imagine what that cost to build.
Very fiscally responsible huh
This could be a whole hospital 🤦🏾♂️or a school a community center something beneficial god damn it 🤦🏾♂️
Yeah, right, because a hospital or a school or warehouse or corporate office building are all just 4 walls ceiling and a floor. SMH
Insurance just prints money. I think most big companies like this find it more cost-effective to sell the lot than the building or build a new building. I do see that building costs them a lot to operate, and just having people work from home saves a lot of money. most people would rather work from home, and it opens up a lot of jobs to people who can't move to a big city or want to.
imagine in the distance. "HEY!"
I’m from NWI- your content is awesome!
Wen I was a kid my mom worked there , I went to a car show they held in that very garage they had many classic cars of the 30s I think I still have the show catalog
It's completely gone now...a UA-cam drone channel has the footage. Seems like none of the abandoned explorers ever managed to capture the executive rooms, boardrooms.
A friend's dad was their Head Groundskeeper , he'd told us they kept the ponds on the property stocked with fish for some of the execs and we would sneak in and try to catch a few bass and bluegills late on weekend nights.
The studios were because they produced a lot of their commercials and other media in-house.
That’s so cool!
The Water Softener is expensive, but not nearly as expensive as everything you walked through to get to it. Hell, those hood vents you passed under cost tens of thousands of dollars each. That kitchen along had hundreds of thousands of dollars put into it, not even including the cost of the building itself.
8:38 Literally the Backrooms Hum-Buzz
There’s an abandon steel mill here in Denver about 3.5 miles from my house I’ve been wanting to check out. I found out about it several years ago, I used to do ride share and took a guy that worked for the company that owns the building now verified it’s still empty.
Oh, the building by I-294 on Willow Rd exit. It's already gone unfortunately. My cousin had some coaching/training there in 2019 for All State, he was becoming an agent for them. He flew all the way from Atlanta and I live like 15 minutes from this site so we took him to our house instead of the hotel they booked for him lol. It was such a monstrosity, huge complex. I always looked at it while I was driving home from work or when I was driving to work and thought to myself that it was such a waste to leave this building empty. Well, what they build now is worse than that imo. There's already one warehouse, or even too in that place as I still enter highway on Willow Rd sometimes. What I know being in the trucking industry - these warehouses are gonna be empty for a long time! It didn't make much sense to do that but I'm not the one to decide after all. There's another warehouse that was built recently, I believe they finished it last year, up on the Lake Cook Rd exit and it's still empty to this day. They also demolished a huge office complex, not as big as this one but also rather large. This trend of bulldozing the buldings and building warehouses in that space should end, it doesn't bring any good to surrounding areas...
I drive by that every day and always wondered how it looked inside. I watched that whole demolition and it was sad to see. Lived around the area for 30+ yrs and always saw that.
What a beautiful monument to human greed.
Sort of…..
Wow crazy they just demo a building this huge
But they will cry that they need to increase rates. Yet they waste money like this 🤦♂️
the “footsteps” are the echos of a thousand employees running in circles with a never quite correct spreadsheet” SHAME ON YOU for the PTSD you’ve wrought upon me.
real backroom looks cool! and excite to visit with avoid security guard haha
I’m an interior architect. This is a nice building! Not many nice buildings are left in the US. Many people would love to work in nice buildings. I work in a remote office and id rather work in this! Well built, except for the leaks. What a waste!
Be glad you don't buy their insurance 😂
You guys should use your phones to check for wifi signals before going in. If you get a signal there's a strong probability that there are live feed security cameras.
I worked in that building. During early morning and evening there were so many cars going into the parking lot the police would be directing traffic.
This was in Northbrook IL. I passed by this building every day along I-294. Seen construction equipment slowly chip away into just rubble. I always wondered what that long hallway above the parking lot looked like from inside lol. Now it’s completely gone, you can’t tell this building even existed there. Now there’s giant hideous buildings for logistics. Must be terrible for the locals living nearby, having to have more truck traffic. Good things it’s just right off 294. At 12:51 , they had these classic cars parked inside there for show, you can just barely see them from I-294, there was only like 2-3 cars.
Allstate also had a building across from this one on Sanders Road. Much smaller, more modern/glass building. Should see what's there if they left that one too.
I can’t believe there demolishing the building when there nothing wrong with it,Chicago could used the building for so many things
19:11 - As an elevator enthusiast/elevator nerd, I appreciate you riding the elevator! As long as it works, I would ride it! As for the elevators at 12:43 in the video, it appears that only one of them was working, as the other 2 were flashing "OS" on the indicators, which means "out of service". So you could've possible rode that one. I would've tried pressing the call button.
Wow what an amazing building
the building is all demolished now... what a waste of a building. can't believe they couldn't repurpose the building
I used to love going there for Allstate day every year when I was a kid, it was awesome, my mom worked their for 30 years 😂
i went inside this building. i parked at the apartment complex and jumped the gate. it was pretty dope. reminded me of alberto culvers in melrose park when it was abandoned for a while
COVID was the final nail in the coffin but they'd been emptying out the building of people for years. The land was worth more than the building. The sad part is the negative impact the loss of Allstate has had on Northbrook. On the bright side, the traffic situation is much better there.
It’s all gone now. The site is cleared. These functionally obsolete buildings and complex are no more.
Nice building… it’s ridiculous to demolish.
200K glass staircase. What a waste.
So cool. And real backrooms vibes.
You can easily replace a single carpet tile for stains and traffic areas. We use those in the hospital.
Imagine turning this into a combination apartment complex and mall. It could be like that building in Whittier, Alaska.
Worked there for over 23 years, the whole campus went through a pretty extensive remodel the last few years before covid. Which is why everything looks relatively newish. Sad to see it destroyed. Oh, that tire wallpaper on the wall was when sears sold tires using the Allstate branding. 😂😂😂
idk when u hit 400k but congrats 🎉
Very beautiful head quarter
My dad used to work there and I used to go to school on that property 😢 sad to see that it’s been demolished and the new building is ugly asf
"social distancing" in a non-vented area. Our governor and other key players really killed our state and country
Total waste of human resources demolishing this, really irritating!
Why not repurpose it for residential housing or something instead of demolishing it?
Seems kind of wasteful 😢
Its beacuse it is
Most of it was just big open warehouse looking spaces.
Bcz the gvt wouldn't gt paid
Running gas water & electrical plus dividing it up wouldn't make much economic sense especially with the ceiling height x sq footage it'd be simply unfeasible for the average person to afford would have obvious design flaws & not worth the investment.
There are too many reasons to get into here. The list would scroll off the screen. Commercial never makes good residential except in fringe cases like hipster industrial lofts and such.
Why is this being represented as Allstate's headquarters? The door CLEARLY say "HAVLIC & ASSOCIATES" which, at least was, an independent Allstate AGENCY - not Allstate proper.
Looks like the Allstate Mayhem guy was still inside the office
its amazing to not see any broken glass or graffiti
That sign said we are the hands that Hold the hopes and dreams
Now you know why insurance rates are so high.
There Cafeteria was better than many high-end restaurants, plus it was subsidized so employees would pay three or four bucks for lunch.
people could life there.... this wold goes down
Don't ever think insurance companies are not getting rich off us... now that they don't have to build and maintain buildings like this they will get even more rich... they certainly are not going to offer us cheaper insurance now that their costs have gone down.
So how come you haven't started your own insurance company and became rich?
@@davidwheeler7503 Why do you think I am not rich?
@kl0wnkiller912 because I wouldn't want to think that you're a hypocrite.
Market entry legal barriers are high. Just the way existing companies and their political benefactors like it.
wow that had a beautiful cafeteria area
The basement of forest park in stl mo would be badass. It's locked up pretty good tho.
And during the pandemic State Farm built a billion dollar plus campus just north of Atlanta. At least as large as the Allstate campus.
You do carpet tiles because it's easy to replace if they get damaged or dirty.
31:24 you could have a drag race its so big! :D
That wasnt thr auditorium, just a larger side conference room next to the auditorium. They must have locked it off due to safety.
It is an insurance company and they do try and maximize their income
Brand operations would have had hundreds of cubicles
The title says "In Chicago" but the introduction says "outside of Chicago".
So much for the good hands theory.
Pretty cool
8 monitors would be for a network operations room.
Allstate HQ could make good place for the next startup company and employ first with few in office , most form home and over time more employees in office to twice employees then before the pandemic, just an idea and example
Allstate could have made the building more exciting for people to want to be in the office... and then have them work hybrid. but they chose the easy wasteful way
Hey, i drive by this area all the time. Its no more now.
You're in dirty hands with Allstate.
Allstate is ridiculous expensive
I wonder do they allow or promote salvaging as much of the items and materials used in making this building? I have seen recessed can lights that are professional grade/designer units that cost $90=140 a piece. Water coolers, fine wood paneling, imported marble and heavy duty thick glass wall units. All these things would cost a fortune if you were building this building. These items could be salvaged and sold to people who might use them in their own business or homes as accent pieces or replace similar items they have that are getting old. NO need to just run a bulldozer over it !
Wreckers know materials and do salvage if they are given the time. It can reduce the demolition cost. Depends on labor required to remove things without damage.
It took Covid-19 to show that we no longer need to live and work in congested cities? No longer need to have these massive corporate campuses and office buildings. That information workers don't need to physically grouped together in a building. This will make it so much easier when the AGI layoffs start really hitting hard. These workers will wake-up one day, log-in from home just to find out that their position has been terminated.
What a massive waste of money and resources. I wonder how much money it cost to build that campus, how many labor hours it took to construct and maintain, how many thousands of gallons of gas people burned to drive there each day, how many thousands of labor hours were lost each day by all the people commuting to be there. It boggles the mind. All for corporate ego?
It's kind of like everything else in life. A lot of nothing
Hmmm, maybe you want to re-read your comment and count just how many jobs got blasted by working from home....oh wait l mean sitting at home jobless.
@@davidwheeler7503 We've had a lot of useless jobs for quite some time, and those useless jobs spawned more useless jobs to support them. It started when we decided globalism was great and we don't really need to make stuff in the United States. So we offshored most of our manufacturing, to save a few percentage points on cost. The beginning of the end started before most people reading this entered the workforce. America is held afloat by debt to buy junk, and useless jobs to service that debt. We need to make real, physical things again.
@@davidwheeler7503 UA-cam for some reason won't let me fully respond to your comment. I'm not sure why it ghosted my reply, maybe because I mentioned the word Gl/obal/ism(?) The root of our problem is the "information age" has spawned too many useless jobs. If a job was lost, it was lost because it produces no real value. That's the problem when you work in a cube in front of a computer terminal, technology never stops making human labor redundant. Just like what it did to manufacturing. So what's next? I don't know. But I don't think there is enough demand in content creation or entertainment to replace the job losses. I think it's a HUGE problem that the virus revealed, not created. Our reaction to the virus just sped things along a bit.
@@Edmund_Mallory_Hardgrove I don't disagree. I'm was just trying to point out that working from home is not all a good thing.
"You're In Good Hands With Allstate."
So this is were all the high interest rate payments are going to.
No, those are going to Ukraine and the corrupt politicians
Isn’t it funny how in exploration videos they always say I’m not gonna film the boring parts only the interesting parts yet 70% of the video is them in hallways
@@notsolegitgarage2967 well, the whole campus was hallways, cubicle farms and conference rooms essentially. Insurance companies don't make anything tangible, it's just people.
I have an amazing idea for a place like and that could work great.. with said layout..wouldn't have to change alot either......if only I knew how to get investors and others to help...
how did you get in? And no security?