Summary
Google has shared new designs for the redevelopment of Chicago’s James R. Thompson Center, including a redesigned atrium, retail and dining areas, public art and community spaces. The company plans to open the building to employees, tenants and the public in 2028.
Google has released new designs for its planned redevelopment of Chicago’s James R. Thompson Center, presenting the building as a future combination of offices, public gathering areas, retail, dining and art. The company also announced partnerships supporting youth arts programmes and Chicago Public School students.
Google plans to open the redeveloped building to Googlers, tenants and the public in 2028. The announcement describes the project through design renderings and planned community initiatives rather than a completed redevelopment.
A redesigned atrium built around movement and gathering
The central feature of the proposal is a reworked atrium beneath the Thompson Center’s 17-story interior volume. Google says the design, developed with Architecture Plus Information, expands the central opening and adds a cascading staircase with integrated terraced seating and retail areas.
The staircase is intended to connect different levels of the building while linking the interior to Chicago’s public transport network. Renderings show a route from the plaza and concourse towards the lower level and the CTA, with seating and retail kiosks positioned along the way.
Visitors entering from the plaza at Randolph Street would see the atrium through an oculus. Retail and dining spaces are planned around the entrance, while casual seating would occupy the area below. Google describes the plaza and atrium as spaces for everyday use as well as seasonal events, with food, retail and areas for people to meet or spend time.
The proposal is designed to preserve the building’s role as a place used by commuters, visitors and office workers, while adding amenities intended to draw people into the interior. Google’s Chicago offices currently have more than 2,000 employees, according to the announcement, which also says the company first opened a Chicago office in 2000.
Public art will carry local history into the redevelopment
Artist Sanford Biggers has been selected to create a 30-foot-tall plaza sculpture called Vector. The work will take the form of a tilted, accordion-like structure and will include glazed terracotta tile patterns inspired by historic 19th-century quilts.
Biggers worked with the Illinois State Museum and Chicago History Museum to incorporate elements of Illinois history into the design. One of the motifs is the Tumbling Block pattern, which the announcement identifies as historically associated with signalling along the Underground Railroad. The sculpture will continue Biggers’ Codex series, which explores meanings and geometric forms found in antique quilts.
Google also plans to source additional atrium art from artists with connections to Chicago. Together, the commissions are intended to make the building’s plaza and interior part of the Loop’s public-art landscape rather than treating the office space as separate from its surroundings.
Partnerships connect the project to Chicago youth
Google is partnering with After School Matters on a 10-week programme focused on the relationship between art and architecture. The organisation, which provides paid after-school and summer opportunities to nearly 20,000 Chicago teenagers annually, will recruit young people to create a large-scale commissioned artwork for the building’s atrium.
Google.org is separately providing $1 million to A Better Chicago for the organisation’s “Every Day Counts” initiative. The citywide programme aims to reduce chronic absenteeism in Chicago by 50% over five years by supporting community-based organisations working with students and schools.
The redevelopment therefore combines a physical transformation with two forms of local investment: paid creative opportunities for teenagers and funding aimed at improving school attendance. The next major milestone identified by Google is the planned 2028 opening of the Thompson Center to employees, tenants and the public.