Lakeside Technology Center (350 E Cermak)

The story

Originally built in 1912 for the R.R. Donnelley printing company to produce millions of phone books and Sears catalogues, 350 East Cermak is an eight-story Gothic-revival landmark near Lake Michigan. Because printing presses required floor load ratings exceeding 250 pounds per square foot, the building proved ideally suited for heavy server racks when telecom carriers converted it in 1999. Now spanning over 1.1 million square feet with 100+ MW of critical power, it uses an 8.5-million-gallon underground ice tank for peak-hour cooling and serves as the nexus of Chicago financial markets.

Notable

• Encompasses 1.1 million gross square feet inside the historic 1912 R.R. Donnelley printing plant building.
• Originally constructed with reinforced floors designed to support heavyweight industrial yellow-pages printing presses.
• Features an 8.5-million-gallon thermal storage brine tank that creates ice off-peak to cool server halls during daytime.
• Acts as the central telecommunications interconnection point and commodity futures trading hub in the American Midwest.

Expansions

• 1912: completed as R.R. Donnelley printing plant
• 1999: converted to carrier hotel and telecom datacenter
• 2005: acquired by Digital Realty Trust
• 2018: chilled water plant and electrical capacity upgraded past 100 MW