Comcast is in the process of vacating its Madison Street cable television facility, possibly by year’s end, in order to consolidate its west suburban operations into a more industrial setting.
The village government hopes to combine forces with Comcast, pursuing an architectural survey of the building’s bones, which would peal away the exterior to see how much of its original façade and infrastructure remains, according to Village Manager Tom Barwin.
Located at 820 Madison St., the building was originally designed by architect Albert Kahn, who Barwin said contributed as much to industrial architecture as Frank Lloyd Wright did to residential.
Born in 1869, Kahn was an architect and planner renowned for his designs of American industrial automobile factories and “was considered the world’s foremost industrial architect and the ‘father of modern factory design,'” according to the online Encyclopedia Britannica.
Doug Kaarre, the village’s urban planner, said the facility was originally built in 1927 and used as a Cadillac motor dealership. In its last incarnation as an auto dealership, the building housed a Ford franchise through the 1970s or early 1980s.
Cablevision, a predecessor to Comcast in holding Oak Park’s cable TV franchise, put up the outer siding in the 1980s.
At that time, obtaining Cablevision’s regional headquarters was considered a coup for Oak Park which had made it a requirement in granting the local cable franchise to the firm. For a number of years the building also housed the studios where a nightly cable sports wrap-up program was produced, as well as pre- and post-game shows for the White Sox, Cubs and Bulls.
The building doesn’t currently have historic designation, and there are no restrictions on its future use, Kaarre said. The the village’s Historic Preservation Commission would like to see it preserved, he added, not only because of Kahn’s design but also because it was part of “motor row” on Madison.
“A lot of [what happens to the building] hinges on what we can find underneath,” Kaarre said. “We haven’t done that yet.”
Kaarre anticipates that Comcast will move out in the next six months.
Angie Amores, a spokesperson for Comcast, could not identify what Comcast will do with the facility or a specific move out date. However, she confirmed that the company is finalizing plans to vacate the warehouse and its technical operations. The company hopes to bring several different operations under one roof to help to better focus on its customers, she said.
Comcast inherited the facility when it took over the Oak Park cable system roughly 10 years ago. Amores said the company is intent on being very open and cooperative with any ideas the village might have for the building.
The availability of the Comcast building and adjacent parking lot opens up another key parcel on Madison Street. The village currently owns several plots of land on the street which it is holding for redevelopment. The imminent closure of Foley Rice Cadillac will mark the end of the street as a destination for car buyers from across the city and suburbs. Car dealers lined the street from the 1920s until the 1970s.