McCormick Place Convention Center West Expansion

At 2.7 million square feet, including 1.2 million square feet of exhibit space, downtown Chicago’s McCormick Place is one of the nation’s largest LEED^® certified buildings. When the convention center’s new West Building opened in July, 2007, hundreds of thousands of square feet of new meeting and exhibit space were unveiled. The McCormick Place West Building Expansion was delivered on budget and four months ahead of schedule.

Work on the $883 million expansion began in 2003, with ground broken in 2004. The McCormick Place West Building expansion added 470,000 square feet of exhibit space to the existing 2.2 million square feet at the convention center. The West Building also boasts 250,000 square feet of meeting space spread across 61 rooms and a 100,000 square-foot ballroom. McCormick Place is LEED Certified; among the environmentally-conscious features in the West Building are a green roof, storm water tunnel to Lake Michigan, and a high-efficiency HVAC system.

The overall goal of this project was to deliver a world class facility that would allow the owner to meet its objective of creating a great experience for every customer. Concurrent with accomplishing this goal, the owner and owner’s architect wanted a building that would fit within the existing neighborhood. For example, the large facade of the building was broken down into smaller elements of precast, brick and aluminum facade. A portal was constructed along the south edge of the campus that signals arrival to both McCormick Place Campus and the historically important Bronzeville area.