SEIU Office HQ

SEIU found a new home through the adaptive reuse of a former American Flyer factory located in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago. After it's selection, I was responsible for project drawings and construction administration, working closely with owner, tenant, contractor, engineers, and city agencies.

The interior design solution fuses the unique character of the industrial loft building with clean and bold interventions. The preservation of existing elements, such as sandblasted heavy-timber columns and exposed brick, carries the industrial aesthetic throughout the modern work environment. Repurposed original metal fire doors provide writable and magnetic surfaces at informal collaboration areas. In public spaces, bold graphics and digital media convey the organization's core values.

A first floor building addition provides meeting and training rooms accommodating up to 300 people in subdivisible flexible arrangements. The existing building's restrictive site, closely-spaced column grid, egress components, and poor soil conditions posed technical challenges. The solution involved structurally supporting the existing exterior bearing wall with 36" deep transfer girders in a new steel structure with caisson foundations to bedrock.

Construction was completed in 2013.