Can We See the Atrium, Please?

Just two renderings accompany Google's blog post from December 13, 2023: an overall view of the 17-story building looking northwest (above) and a similarly positioned approach to the building from the plaza seen at dusk (at bottom). These views give a strong sense of how the reflective glass facade of the building will be replaced with clear glazing. Jahn's original design for the State of Illinois Center (its name until 1993) featured an untested, insulated structural glass curtain wall, but astronomically high bids forced the State of Illinois to build a single-glazed system in aluminum frames. Combined with the southeast-oriented atrium, the single glazing overheated the interior, leading to thermal comfort and other issues for people working in the building — issues that had the State of Illinois trying to unload the building for many years, and had preservationists battling to save the building this century. According to Google's Karen Sauder, “the new triple-pane glass exterior will improve both the thermal performance of the building and the comfort of those inside by requiring less energy to heat and cool,” while the outdated HVAC equipment will be replaced with “high-efficiency systems that are capable of managing Chicago’s famously varied seasons.”

Although the details of the full-height atrium — arguably the greatest architectural asset in the building — have not been revealed in an interior rendering, the views from outside are enough for preservationists to breath a sigh of relief. In comparison to the renderings by Jahn from December 2021, a few months after Helmut Jahn's sudden death, that showed a dramatically reworked atrium, Jahn's new scheme for Google shows the atrium basically intact, particularly as seen in the dusk image. If the space will retain the pastels and other elements that made it Chicago's best example of postmodern architecture is doubtful, especially given that the pink-hued colonnade at the base of the building “will be redesigned to allow for an enhanced ground floor experience,” in turn losing its PoMo character. This statement by Google further indicates dining and/or retail may occupy the previously covered open space that was an extension of the plaza, but it's still unclear how much of the grand interior will be publicly accessible. In its roughly thirty years as a public building, the atrium and below-grade food court were public spaces, their frequent use further enabled by direct connections to six “L” lines. But so far, reports only indicate that the “L” connections will remain in the redesign, while the accessibility of the rest of the atrium is still a glaring question mark.