Off-Site Programs: Adding a Modern Office into the Wrigley Building

Tim Wolfe
Principal, Interior Design Director
Perkins+Will, Chicago

The goal for the revitalization of the Wrigley Building was to create a responsive studio that adapts to user needs while addressing business goals. This endeavor also provided an opportunity to not only transform the way work is done and people interact in the workspace at the new Perkins+Will office, but to tell a brand story through a new built environment.

The resulting design provides a mix of active, quiet, social, private, collaborative and restorative spaces to accommodate diverse work styles, personalities and respective projects and tasks. Along with the availability of different spaces comes the permission to work in a more mobile, less static, fashion. The studio’s home in the north tower of Chicago’s iconic Wrigley Building reflects its culture, showcasing its myriad accomplishments while allowing the design process to shine.

Moving to this iconic Chicago building offered Perkins+Will a unique opportunity, but it also came with engineering and cultural challenges not typically faced in modern steel and glass office building workplace design. Among these challenges were how to seamlessly integrate modern workplace technologies in a 1920s building, and how to build a two-story open stair in an almost century old clay tile arch structure. Further, the question of how to effectively integrate a modern workplace program kit of parts into small atypical floor plates was strategically approached. Ultimately, surmounting these issues yielded a unique project that fulfilled the vision of a responsive, modern studio.