This 24,000-square-foot sub­ur­ban post office was the only retail oper­a­tion in a ware­house-filled indus­tri­al park. 

Since the first impres­sion of the build­ing is from the adja­cent high­way, the façade is scaled to be visu­al­ly com­pre­hend­ed at 45 miles per hour. Striped walls enclose the work­room and car­ri­er park­ing. A blue-glazed brick wall defines the ser­vice and lock­box lob­bies and is punc­tu­at­ed with a field of small open­ings that admit light while block­ing an unin­spir­ing view of park­ing lots. Bright gold screens mark the work­room sky­lights on the façade. The tri­an­gu­lar forms are repeat­ed as roof scuppers.

The plan is sim­ple con­sist­ing of two basic com­po­nents; a high bay work­room and a low-ceil­ing cus­tomer lob­by. Inter­ac­tion between the two worlds, the receiv­ing and deposit­ing of mail, hap­pens in the folds of the façade, illu­mi­nat­ed by sky­lights. The design of the inte­ri­or spaces con­cen­trates on cre­at­ing a dynam­ic, com­pet­i­tive image for the Postal Service. 

Mate­ri­als were select­ed for low first cost and dura­bil­i­ty. To cre­ate excite­ment and iden­ti­ty, every­day fin­ish­es were installed in unusu­al ways. The indus­tri­al vinyl link mat in the vestibule is embla­zoned with the Postal Eagle. Inlaid linoleum adds depth and inter­est to a durable, ​“gar­den vari­ety” floor covering.

Client: Unit­ed States Postal Ser­vice
Pro­gram: Sub­ur­ban post office
Size: 24,000 square foot
Cost: $6,000,000

Select­ed Awards/​Honors: 
1992 Fed­er­al Design Achieve­ment Award, Pres­i­den­tial Design Awards/​National Endow­ment for the Arts. 
1992 Bronze Medal, Illi­nois Indi­ana Mason­ry Coun­cil. 
1991 Insti­tute Hon­or Award, Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects.
1990 Nation­al Hon­or Award for Design Excel­lence, U.S.P. S. /​National Endow­ment for the Arts. 
1989 Dis­tin­guished Build­ing Award, AIA Chicago. 

Project Fea­tures:
Michael J. Cros­bie, ​“Spe­cial Deliv­ery “, Archi­tec­ture Mag­a­zine, Feb­ru­ary, 1991. 
Philip Berg­er, ​“Oh, Say can you see… the Post Office“, Inland
Archi­tect Mag­a­zine, May/​June 1990. 
Lisa Goff, ​“Post office design has dis­tinc­tive stamp“, Crain’s Chica­go Busi­ness, Novem­ber, 1989.
Ben­jamin Forgey, ​“Beau­ty and the Fed­er­al Beast“, The Wash­ing­ton Post, Decem­ber, 1990.
M.W. New­man, ​“Glen­dale Heights unfurls a funky post office“, Chica­go Sun Times, April 8, 1991. 
Stephanie Stubbs, ​“Glen­dale Post Office design proves
offices need­n’t be dull“, Dai­ly Her­ald, June, 1991. 
Matthew Nick­er­son, ​“New Glen­dale Heights post office rais­es eye­brows“, Dai­ly Jour­nal, June, 1989.

Col­lab­o­ra­tive Part­ners
Bel­ing Con­sul­tants (Mechanical/​Electrical)
Martin/​Martin, Inc. (Struc­tur­al)

Pho­tog­ra­phy Cred­it: Bar­ry Rustin Photography