Chicago Mercantile Exchange Center

The CME Center lobby repositioning is a complete transformation of the ground level experience to meet the market’s need for livable urban amenities to recruit and retain young talents, who seek authenticity and places of comfort for their work and community.

As the world continues to evolve, the owner Tishman Speyer elected to invest in a drastic repositioning of the lobby typology to attract the next generation of users.

This lobby repositioning transformed the ground level experience of a 40-year-old office tower, which has helped ensure the CME Center’s 2.4 million square feet of office space to become relevant again in the post pandemic market. Situated on a full city block between two busy commuter walkways, the renovation created a continuous, interconnected space for the first time.

The 24-foot curved glass panels and the curved white solid-surface interiors unify the inside and out into a single place under the building, a shared urban living room, at the same time creating an impactful street presence for the towers.

The project’s approach to sustainability has made a legacy mega-tower complex viable; and in this time of climate crisis, the most sustainable way to build is to build less.