The Edelman Chicago office is a people-first workplace, offering an enhanced hospitality experience, modular and adaptive workspaces, and a range of amenities to promote employee wellbeing and productivity.

Gensler designed a space with strong colors and warm materials for the Edelman offices in Chicago, Illinois.

This project integrates the amenities of hospitality into a new vision of the workplace. Built for lifestyle, the Edelman Chicago Headquarters provides as many workspaces as collaboration opportunities in a modular and adaptive vision of productivity.

Gensler and Edelman wanted to create an enhanced hospitality experience that you cannot get at home, focused on the wellbeing of employees and visitors. The space offers 257 focused desk seats and close to 800 other seating options throughout collaboration zones such as cafes, team rooms, library, and meeting spaces. Options for different ways of working were strategically designed within the neighborhood and within visual connection for all to see and experience.

Humble materials, forward momentum, and authentic emotions through color were key design concepts that pulled together the experience created for Edelman Chicago HQ. Gensler was able to apply post-pandemic research on workplace strategy to maximize the human-centric features that have been proven to improve output. The new headquarters includes elements such as a riverwalk, prayer room, test kitchen, production studio, interactive and immersive museum, café, multiple coffee points, integrated greenery, rooftop workspace, wellness rooms, and gender neutral bathrooms. Additionally, vintage Chicagoan magazines were used as inspiration for environmental graphics to weave in the local atmosphere.

Design: Gensler

Design Team: Todd Heiser, Lena Kitson, Clementine Dubourdieu, Riley King, Michael Parlett, Cindy Coleman, Vincenzo Centinaro

Contractor: Structure Tone and Leopardo

Photography: Tom Harris

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