Last June, McDonald’s moved into its new global headquarters in Chicago’s Fulton Market. It now occupies the entire 492,000 sf of the office space and portions of ground-floor retail space of a Class A, nine-story, 567,000-sf building in the city’s West Loop.
The interior construction was completed in just 6½ months. This fast-track schedule was maintained by top-down construction that allowed the concrete structure above ground to be built and fitted out simultaneously with the excavation and construction of the garage levels.
The rigorous schedule required close collaboration between the core-and-shell team, led by the project’s developer, and the interiors team, led by McDonald’s. That collaboration was facilitated by extensive use of BIM, with a heavy emphasis on the MEP systems for the headquarters’ test kitchens and labs on the second and third floors. The BIM process was compressed to 14 weeks, during which 4,500-plus man-hours were spent on BIM for interiors alone, resulting in time and cost savings.
The team addressed multiple challenges throughout the project's fast-track engagement. One was the installation of a prominent stair feature in the five-story atrium. The structural steel feature—which was not part of the project’s base building design—was hoisted onto the fourth floor through the curtain wall leave-out panel, then hoisted again by an internal crane onto each floor.
McDonald’s Hamburger University has three fully functional test labs, a static kitchen, and a mock dining area for training new employees.
Due to the large floor plates, noise abatement was also a concern. The team solved this problem by hanging thick felt material (Arktura) for sound dampening and as an aesthetic element. Specialty acoustic gypsum board (USG's Ensemble) was used in large gathering spaces and circulation paths.
The building has a remarkably diverse array of spaces that include “work neighborhoods”—dynamic workspaces with open floor plans and free-address seating. The neighborhoods have huddle rooms, communal tables, workstations, private phone rooms, and personal lockers. There are also “conversation areas” throughout the building that encourage serendipitous employee interaction.
The company’s internal marketing group, Agency 123, has a variety of studios within the building to enable quicker content turnaround. Another part of the headquarters showcases the company’s history through interactive exhibits, wall art, and other artifacts. The company commissioned two art installations, by artists Jessica Stockholder and Jacob Hashimoto, that weigh a total of one ton.
Another collaboration space is the Work Café on the sixth floor, with stadium seating and a tech bar to fulfill employees’ technological needs. Floor-to-ceiling windows that span two floors offer stimulating views of Chicago’s skyline. Views of downtown are also available from outdoor amenities spaces on the sixth and eighth floors.
A 700-person conference center on the third floor is equipped with technology for connectivity on a global scale. The project team worked with smart-building consultant JLL to implement features such as high-level AV integrations that connect McDonald’s employees in offices around the world.
The global innovation kitchen allows chefs to collaborate as they test and develop new product offerings. The equipment can be reconfigured in a couple of hours.
The conference center shares technology and MEP systems with the 40,000-sf Hamburger University learning center for new employees. That space contains three fully functioning laboratories, a static kitchen, and a mock dining area. The building has kitchens and walk-in coolers on the second and third floors, as well as a global innovation kitchen that is designed to allow chefs to collaborate in order to develop new products faster.
McDonald’s has nearly 38,000 restaurants worldwide, and its headquarters reflects its international presence in many ways. A ground-floor “Experience of the Future” restaurant features a rotating menu of favorites from a wide variety of countries. The restaurant offers self-order kiosks, table service, mobile order and payment, and McDelivery with Uber Eats.
The LEED-certified building has a green roof. All waste produced by its test kitchens is composted.
The opening of its new headquarters, where about 2,000 of its 210,000 employees work, was a kind of homecoming for McDonald’s, which was based in Chicago from 1955 to 1971. The company’s CEO, Steve Easterbrook, sees this return as “an important step in our journey to build a better McDonald’s that strives to get closer to our customers in everything we do."
Building Team — Submitting firm Executive Construction (GC, interior), Owner McDonald’s Corporation, Developer Sterling Bay Companies, Architects IA Interior Architects (interiors); Gensler (AOR, core and shell); Studio O+A (branding), SE Magnusson Klemencic Associates, MEP/FP/security engineer WMA Consulting Engineers, AV/cable/acoustics engineer Waveguide, Smart building consultant JLL, Atrium exhaust consultant Jensen Hughes, Commissioning agent Cyclone Energy GC (core and shell) James McHugh Construction
General information — Size 567,000 sf, Construction time, November 2017 to June 2018, Delivery method CM at risk
Return to the Building Team Awards landing page
Related Stories
Building Team Awards | Jun 24, 2019
14 projects earn BD+C's 2019 Building Team Awards
The McDonald's Headquarters, the Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center, and Pacific Visions at the Aquarium of the Pacific are three of the projects awarded with BD+C's 2019 Building Team Awards.
Building Team Awards | Jun 21, 2019
Up, up and away: Dutch hospitality chain completes the world's tallest modular hotel
Honorable mention: At 21 stories (15 of them modular), it is the world’s tallest modular hotel.
Building Team Awards | Jun 20, 2019
PPP gets the job done: Three-party deal saves time and money for client
Bronze Award: Weitz, acting as developer and design-builder, leased the land and borrowed the money for the project.
Building Team Awards | Jun 20, 2019
Making waves: The façade of Pacific Visions suggests the movement of water, day and night
Bronze Award: The new wing holds an exhibition space, a state-of-the-art 300-seat theater with a 32-foot-tall, 180-degree arc, 130-foot-long projection wall.
Building Team Awards | Jun 19, 2019
Unsung heroes: Two hurricanes couldn't stop this project team
Bronze Award: St. Lucie County’s population exploded to the point where the hospital needed lots more space.
Building Team Awards | Jun 19, 2019
Crime fighter: San Diego County's new forensic facility helps battle crime in three ways
Silver Award: The 158,000-sf addition collocates three crime-fighting functions.
Building Team Awards | Jun 18, 2019
All that urban jazz: Mixed-use center lends a zing to downtown Washington's skyline
Bureaucratic architecture, be damned!
Building Team Awards | Jun 18, 2019
Eyesore no more: People come together to expand a much-needed daycare center
Silver Award: Two problems quickly emerged: high concentrations of arsenic in the soil, and stormwater runoff into nearby wetlands and neighboring properties.
Building Team Awards | Jun 17, 2019
Campus renewal: Community effort saves a crucial healthcare resource
Silver Award: Taylor Design (architect) and SmithGroup (AOR) led an integrated design-build team anchored by McCarthy Building Companies (GC).
Building Team Awards | Jun 13, 2019
In the spotlight: Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts shines a new beacon on Houston’s downtown
Gold Award: Kinder High School, which can accommodate 750 9th through 12th graders, is one of only three public schools in the U.S. that offer programs for both visual and performing arts.