McDonald's Global Flagship Chicago

2018

Dec 5

WHO

Architect: Ross Barney
Installer: Christopher Glass & Aluminum

  
WHERE & WHEN

Chicago, IL · 
Americas

Completed · 2020

WHAT & HOW

Hospitality · Renovation
30' wraparound lobby wall · VS1-A110 free-spanning facade with toggle fittings.

FROM THE ARCHITECT ROSS BARNEY

❝ With a building design rooted in environmental storytelling, the restaurant utilizes a series of prominent strategies to promote health and wellness. The hanging atrium provides calming views to a natural sanctuary planted with birch trees and an understory of edible plants.

The most sustainable building is one that already exists. The design team studied the environmental and economic value of retaining the existing kitchen and basement. In the process of re-cladding existing walls, the thermal value was improved significantly to enhance overall building performance. ❞

In 2020, McDonalds opened its new flagship restaurant location in Chicago. Built on the site of the classic Rock N Roll McDonalds, the new location is a 19,000-square-foot timber, steel, and glass building occupying an entire city block. The main facade of the new building is a 125’-wide by 30’-high VS1 glass wall with all-glass vestibules at either end. The 10” VS1 heavy mullion free-spanned the 30’ floor-to-roof opening. There are eight all-glass corners, a standard VS1 feature.

Inside the restaurant is an open-top floating garden with ferns and white birch trees. The garden is 20’ deep by 30’ wide, and surrounded by VS1 glass walls that open the restaurant to natural light from above. Adding even more natural light is a 3’ continuous VS1 skylight extending back from the main facade and wrapping around the entire perimeter.

The building is LEED Platinum certified: “McDonald’s corporate commitment to ‘make sustainability the new normal’ is at the core of the new restaurant design,” according to Ross Barney, the project architect. The site has 70 trees at ground level, and 1,062 solar panels on the roof.

FROM THE INSTALLER CHRISTOPHER GLASS & ALUMINUM

❝ VS1’s highly engineered simplicity delivers remarkable aesthetics for architects, developers, and building owners. It is the only curtain wall system where the floating glass façade is held away from an attractive aerofoil shaped mullion without the use of obtrusive bolt fixings or transoms. Its relative simplicity reduces the risk of component failure, improves constructability, and reduces costs of program delays in both construction and post-construction phases. ❞

❝
IN THE PRESS ARCHITECT MAGAZINE

The new McDonald’s, a sparkling 19,000-square-foot-glass box, is a dramatic replacement for the Rock ’n’ Roll version of the franchise that previously occupied the site. It is a surprisingly exuberant work of architecture. Ross Barney Architects, whose offices are five short blocks away, designed the building in close cooperation with the McDonald’s creative team.

The real attraction, however, is the dining area, an epic, light-filled room beneath a 27-foot-high wood ceiling.