New Design

Thompson Center redesign: Google's plan for Helmut Jahn's atrium

Google's Thompson Center redesign cuts open Helmut Jahn's 1985 atrium with a stair down to the CTA. What the new renderings show — and what Chicago gives up.

By Samuel Baghramian6 min readChicago, United States

The Thompson Center in Chicago in 2021, before the Thompson Center redesign: a curved, banded glass facade sloping back above a salmon-and-grey colonnade, with Dubuffet's sculpture on the plaza
Photo: ajay_suresh / Wikimedia CommonsCC BY

The Thompson Center redesign has a new centre. On 16 September 2026 Google released renderings that cut open the floor of Helmut Jahn's 17-storey atrium in Chicago and drop a cascading stair, with terraced seating and shops, down to the CTA trains below. The company also named the artist for its plaza and pushed the opening of its Chicago headquarters back to 2028.

Key takeaways

  • The atrium becomes a route. An enlarged opening under the rotunda and a stepped stair link the plaza, the atrium and the Clark/Lake station, where six L lines meet.
  • The design team. Google developed the concept with Architecture Plus Information (A+I), now part of Perkins&Will. Jahn, the original architect's firm, is the redesign architect.
  • Restoration in places. The star-shaped floor rosette is to be re-poured in terrazzo, and the glass elevator wall and cabs restored.
  • New plaza art. Sanford Biggers' 30-ft terracotta Vector will stand near the spot Jean Dubuffet's Monument with Standing Beast occupied until 2024.
  • The skin is new. The original glass has been replaced with triple-pane, bird-friendly glazing, targeting LEED Platinum and an all-electric building.

What the Thompson Center redesign shows

The September renderings are the first close look inside since construction began on 6 May 2024. From the Randolph Street plaza, Google describes the atrium as "revealed through an oculus". Below it, the floor opening grows wide enough for a stair that steps down past tiers of seating to food, retail and the transit concourse.

Jahn designed the State of Illinois Center, which opened in 1985, as a glass state government building wrapped around a public room. Offices ring a cylindrical atrium under a sloping skylight, a gesture widely read as transparency in government. The new plan keeps that rotunda and gives it a second, vertical public route. The lobby used to be a place you crossed. It becomes a place you descend through, from street to train.

Looking up the Thompson Center atrium: curved balconies trimmed in salmon and blue rise to a round glass skylight, with a glazed elevator tower at the centre
The 17-storey atrium, photographed in 2022, is the heart of the redesign.Photo: Chris Rycroft / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Overhead view of the Thompson Center atrium floor: a black-and-white star rosette set in radiating bands of brown and cream stone, ringed by café tables
The floor rosette, which Google says will be re-poured in terrazzo.Photo: Chris Rycroft / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The idea isn't entirely new. In 2018, Landmarks Illinois published its own proposal for reusing the building, part of a long campaign that kept it on the group's Most Endangered list for three years and on the National Trust's list of endangered places in 2019. What has changed is the client. A government atrium is becoming the front door of a corporate headquarters that promises to stay open to the public.

A new skin, and a question of character

The most visible change has already happened. Dezeen's photographs from August 2026 show the building in a new, reflective envelope. The banded blue glass and salmon trim that made the "Starship" a postmodern icon give way to a cooler, mirrored surface, and the colonnade has been rebuilt in concrete and brass. According to Chicago YIMBY, every original panel is being replaced with bird-friendly glass.

The reason is performance. Google's 2023 plan committed to triple-pane glazing, new systems throughout, LEED Platinum certification and an all-electric building. Keeping the structure and the atrium while replacing the envelope is the standard bargain of adaptive reuse. The carbon already spent on the frame is saved, and the performance is brought up to date.

But the skin was the building's argument: a translucent, faintly theatrical state house with nothing to hide. Now it reflects the Loop back at itself. The preservation fight saved the form. Whether the character survived is a fair question to ask when the building opens.

The Thompson Center's reflective glass corner above blue construction hoarding, with a red crane beside the Dubuffet sculpture at Clark and Randolph
April 2024: renovation works begin at Clark and Randolph.Photo: Pokemonprime / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Two salmon-coloured columns frame the glass doors of the Thompson Center's plaza entrance under a raking glazed canopy
Jahn's original colonnade, since rebuilt in concrete and brass.Photo: Chris Rycroft / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Vector replaces the Beast

Outside, Google has commissioned Sanford Biggers to make Vector, a 30-ft sculpture in glazed terracotta from his Codex series. The series draws on 19th-century quilts held by Illinois museums. It will stand near where Dubuffet's Monument with Standing Beast stood before it went into storage in 2024. Quoted by the Chicago Sun-Times, Biggers said the quilt interests him because "it is sort of the repository of American culture, in a lot of ways."

Why it matters

For a decade the Thompson Center was the textbook case of a postmodern landmark too expensive to keep and too loved to demolish. The State of Illinois sold it on 27 July 2022 to JRTC Holdings, a venture of The Prime Group and Capri Investment Group. The state received $30 million in cash plus the office tower at 115 S. LaSalle, a package it valued at the equivalent of $105 million. Google signed on to occupy the redeveloped building, and a December 2025 interior permit now names it as owner. The total renovation has been reported at $280 million.

That is a better outcome than demolition. It also shows what it costs to save a building like this: a new envelope, a new owner and a new reading of what "public" means. The same tension runs through this autumn's other projects. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles lifts its galleries to give a shaded plaza back to Exposition Park. In Buenos Aires, the MALBA expansion goes under a public square without taking any of it. Among the buildings on the Stirling Prize 2026 shortlist, two of the strongest are retrofits. Adaptive reuse is now how much of the most interesting architecture gets made. More projects like this are in the Journal's New Design section.

What happens next

Google now expects to open in 2028, after earlier targets of 2026 and then 2027. The company has more than 2,000 employees in Chicago. The opening will show whether the new stair really works as a public route between the street and the trains, and how much of the atrium stays open to everyone.

FAQ

When will the Google Thompson Center open?

Google expects to open the redesigned Thompson Center in 2028, as announced on 16 September 2026.

Who designed the Thompson Center?

Helmut Jahn designed the Thompson Center, which opened in 1985 as the State of Illinois Center. The redesign is by Jahn, the firm that bears his name, working with Architecture Plus Information (A+I), now part of Perkins&Will.

What happened to the Thompson Center sculpture?

Jean Dubuffet's Monument with Standing Beast was put into storage in 2024. Sanford Biggers' Vector, a 30-ft glazed terracotta sculpture, will take its place on the plaza.

Sources

  1. Reimagining Chicago’s Thompson Center for the next generationGoogle
  2. Google Unveils New Renderings of Chicago's Thompson Center Redesign, Marking Its Escape From DemolitionArchDaily
  3. Google links with artist Sanford Biggers to create a major outdoor sculpture for Loop headquartersChicago Sun-Times
  4. Photos reveal new facade of Google's Thompson CenterDezeen
  5. Google Lands $85 Million Permit For Interior Renovations At The Thompson CenterChicago YIMBY
  6. A first look at the plans for our new Chicago officeGoogle
  7. Governor Pritzker Announces Sale of the James R. Thompson Center (JRTC), Google to Occupy Renovated BuildingState of Illinois
  8. Thompson Center Chicago: Gov. JB Pritzker, Mayor Brandon Johnson, Google officials mark start of constructionABC7 Chicago
  9. National Register Rejection Halts Thompson Center Preservation WorkDocomomo US
  10. Thompson CenterJahn
  11. Thompson Center ReimaginedLandmarks Illinois
  12. James R. Thompson CenterWikipedia

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