680 N Lake Shore Drive is a 29 story building located in the Streeterville

Streeterville

Streeterville is a neighborhood in the Near North Side community area of Chicago, Illinois, United States, north of the Chicago River in Cook County...

 neighborhood of Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. Originally named the American Furniture Mart, it was designed by Henry Raeder and construction was completed in 1926. At 474 ft (144 m) tall and encompassing the entire block between Lake Shore Drive and McClurg Court Street, it was the largest building in the world when it was completed.

Architecture

Construction of the American Furniture Mart was undertaken in two phases: the eastern section was completed in 1923, and the western portion (including the tower) in 1926. The eastern half is constructed with reinforced concrete, whereas the western half, as well as the tower, is steel. The building was converted to condominium and office space between 1979-84 by Lohan Associates, Inc. It is now home to 415 condo units divided amongst the building's three separate condominium associations: the Tower, the Lake, and the South residences. There is also 420000 sq ft (39,019.3 m²) of commercial office space, 65000 sq ft (6,038.7 m²) of retail space, and 7 levels of indoor parking.

History

During its early decades as the American Furniture Mart, no one appeared to notice the building's address: 666 North Lake Shore Drive, the numbers "666" being the Number of the Beast

Number of the Beast

The Number of the Beast is a term in the Book of Revelation, of the New Testament, that is associated with the first Beast of Revelation chapter 13, the Beast of the sea. In most manuscripts of the New Testament and in English translations of the Bible, the number of the Beast is...

. In March 1988, the building's name was officially changed to 680 North Lake Shore Drive. A few months later, Playboy Enterprises

Playboy Enterprises

Playboy Enterprises, Inc. is a privately held global media and lifestyle company founded by Hugh Marston Hefner to manage the Playboy magazine empire. Its programming and content are available worldwide on television networks, Websites, mobile platforms and radio...

 moved their corporate headquarters from its original location in the Palmolive Building

Palmolive Building

The Palmolive Building, formerly the Playboy Building, is a 37-story Art Deco building at 919 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Built by Holabird & Root, it was completed in 1929 and was home to Colgate-Palmolive-Peet....

 to the current location at 680 N. Lake Shore Dr. Since then, 680 has been colloquially referred to as the "New Playboy Building" and is commonly mistaken for the Playboy Building.