Abandoned Motorola Headquarters

[Unitrunker2]

Abandoned Motorola Headquarters - Abandoned Spaces

The international telecommunications company Motorola once had its headquarters in Schaumburg, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.

www.abandonedspaces.com

"The international telecommunications company Motorola once had its headquarters in Schaumburg, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.

But as times and fortunes change, Motorola found itself drawn back to the heart of Chicago and this site ended up becoming abandoned."

 

[xmo]

As fortunes change. Change indeed.. Once a Fortune 50 company with over 100,000 employees.

 

[ur20v]

I lived in the Northwest suburbs as a college kid in the early '90s and had friends who worked for Motorola in Schaumburg, Libertyville, and even up in Harvard and elsewhere. I worked in a restaurant that got a lot of Motorola traffic, and because of some pretty regular customers I got to see some very cool technology before it came out like iDEN phones, and prototypes of stuff like PDAs that did wireless email. Those engineers were very proud of their devices, as they should be. It was quintessential American innovation and technological leadership.

 

[K4EET]

Ahhh... What memories... I traveled there a few times for microwave product proposals when I was Motorola's Microwave Product Consultant for a six state area back in the early 1980s. Anybody here end users of Starpoint and Starplex? Inside the facility, things were quite abuzz with activity. Lots of smart folks designing products for tomorrow.

 

[K9RPL]

I really miss that place. Sigh....

 

[GlobalNorth]

Paul and Robert Galvin were visionaries. Gary Tooker was not.

Many in my family worked in SPD, GED, and even the little LCD plant on 56th Street where the Arizona contingent got their start. When I got married, I married into another Motorola family who worked at Schaumburg and Arizona.

Bob Galvin was like a family member.

 

[GlobalNorth]

Here's the GED facility in Scottsdale in the early to mid 1960s.

 

[GlobalNorth]

 

[GlobalNorth]

Motorola even had its' own Arizona airfield in the late 1950s and early 1960s!

 

[GlobalNorth]

Here is a view of the field looking west:



This is in Scottsdale, proximal to the GED plant. The road on the far right is McDowell Road and the mountains in the upper left are the South Mountain range.

 

[wa8pyr]

Abandoned Motorola Headquarters - Abandoned Spaces

The international telecommunications company Motorola once had its headquarters in Schaumburg, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.

www.abandonedspaces.com

"The international telecommunications company Motorola once had its headquarters in Schaumburg, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.

But as times and fortunes change, Motorola found itself drawn back to the heart of Chicago and this site ended up becoming abandoned."

Wow, I think that's the building where I took all my system administrator training classes! Sure looks familiar.

System assembly and testing was in that big building in the middle (pictured in post #2), which according to Google Earth has been demolished. Anybody know where that moved? I spent many hours in that building when our system was built out, doing the pre-delivery testing.

 

[KevinC]

Wow, I think that's the building where I took all my system administrator training classes! Sure looks familiar.

System assembly and testing was in that big building in the middle (pictured in post #2), which according to Google Earth has been demolished. Anybody know where that moved? I spent many hours in that building when our system was built out, doing the pre-delivery testing.

CCSI moved to Elgin.

 

[xmo]

CCSI (aka staging) was in the main plant. They now have a facility in Elgin.

Back in the day, if you told someone that you worked for Motorola - it meant something. Now, all that's left is two-way (aka Communications division)

It's almost criminal to run a great company into the ground.

Consumer electronics - Gone
CCTV - Gone
Information systems - Gone
Microwave - Gone
Automotive electronics - Gone
Semiconductors - Gone
Component products - Gone
Government electronics - Gone
Cellular - Gone

 

[wa8pyr]

CCSI moved to Elgin.

Yeah, just got off the phone with our Motorola rep (he called about another matter) and he confirmed that CCSI and all the stuff I worked with moved to Elgin. Guess I'll have to get used to saying "Elgin" instead of "Schaumburg."

At the time we did rebanding (2011-2013), Elgin was where we shipped the old stuff that got replaced.

And I'm positive the building in those photos was where I took all my classes, etc. The giveaway was the cafeteria and the brick patio (I ate lunch on that patio a couple of times), and the very last picture showing the little desk and the showcase in the wall to the left; the last time I was there taking classes in 2014, that was where we entered the building. The greeter person was at the desk, and the showcase contained all sorts of little Motorola knick-knacks we could buy (including the Motorola laptop backpack I grabbed and still have).

 

[KevinC]

Yeah, just got off the phone with our Motorola rep (he called about another matter) and he confirmed that CCSI and all the stuff I worked with moved to Elgin. Guess I'll have to get used to saying "Elgin" instead of "Schaumburg."

At the time we did rebanding (2011-2013), Elgin was where we shipped the old stuff that got replaced.

And I'm positive the building in those photos was where I took all my classes, etc. The giveaway was the cafeteria and the brick patio (I ate lunch on that patio a couple of times), and the very last picture showing the little desk and the showcase in the wall to the left; the last time I was there taking classes in 2014, that was where we entered the building. The greeter person was at the desk, and the showcase contained all sorts of little Motorola knick-knacks we could buy (including the Motorola laptop backpack I grabbed and still have).

When I took the iDEN EBTS training waaay back when I didn't realize the make yourself sandwiches in that cafeteria were sold by weight...until I got to the cashier. Fortunately my employer was paying for my meals. Now both that employer and that facility are gone.

 

[wa8pyr]

When I took the iDEN EBTS training waaay back when I didn't realize the make yourself sandwiches in that cafeteria were sold by weight...until I got to the cashier. Fortunately my employer was paying for my meals. Now both that employer and that facility are gone.

Learned that lesson the hard way myself... sure was a tasty sandwich though. Come to think of it, the expensive DIY sandwich was one of the meals I ate on the patio.

 

[K9RPL]

Back in the day, the cafeteria staff were Moto employees, not contractors.

 

[fourgres]

Motorola now owed by China.

 

[hfdp2usa]

Just to be able to scrounge the antennas and miles and miles of hardline.....oooooooo I shutter!

 

[GlobalNorth]

Motorola now owed by China.

One of Motorola's derivates is owned by China - Motorola Mobility. The other company - Motorola Solutions [a dumb moniker, in my opinion] is an American company.