Architecture firms are lining up for the chance to design the city’s $8.7 billion expansion of O’Hare Airport.
A dozen firms submitted applications before this month’s deadline to lead the multi-year renovation, which is set to rebuild Terminal 2 and add new gates and a hotel to Terminal 5, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Competing firms include local heavyweights such as Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Perkins+Will, as well as Santiago Calatrava’s Zurich-based shop and Danish architect Bjarke Ingels.
City aviation leaders plan to award contracts to two companies. The first-place team will design the new terminal, and the runner-up will design a pair of new satellite concourses.
The city’s scorching industrial market has led firm after firm to invest in or lease warehouse space around the nation’s second-busiest airport. [Chicago Tribune]—Alex Nitkin