This building goes back to the 1920s. Traditional triple white brick in the front, hand-framed barrel-vaulted single story in the back. Most people in the neighborhood remember it as Harry Caray’s, which closed in 2010. It was briefly a Starbucks after that. Good bones, great location; right next to the ballpark, the L stop, and a lot of apartments full of people who want something to do.

When we came in, the goal was simple: don’t mess with what’s already working. The bar stayed where it was. The mosaic tiles and original woodwork stayed. The stairs stayed. We raised the roof slightly to fit the simulators, but you’d never know it from the street; nothing about the building’s exterior changed. We ended up with eight simulators on the main floor, and two private bays upstairs with their own entrance, their own bar, and their own bathrooms. Those are for corporate events, bachelor parties, that kind of thing. Cubs players have been known to show up. We worked in tandem with Peter Zelenko, the architect of record, to get it done.

The whole building runs on high-efficiency LED lighting and an LG low-temperature heat pump system. We maintained the same basic electrical surface. The greenest thing you can do is use what’s already there, and that building had plenty to work with.