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Skidmore, Owings & Merrill staying put in historic East Loop offices
The world-renowned architecture firm has operated from the Railway Exchange Building for 28 years
Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has renewed its lease in the Railway Exchange Building with plans to renovate its three-floor offices.
The world-renowned architecture firm will continue to occupy 56,000 square feet in the building at 224 South Michigan Avenue after securing a long-term lease, according to Savills, which brokered the deal.
The new lease terms gave SOM an improvement allowance, and the firm plans a full renovation of its space, Jonathan Stein, managing partner at SOM, said in a statement. The firm has been a tenant in the Railway Exchange Building for 28 years and leases floors 5, 9 and 10.
“Staying in our current location and optimizing our workplace was the best outcome for us,” Stein said in the statement.
The Railway Exchange Building was built in 1904 by famed architect Daniel Burnham, who also had an office in the building. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2015, the University of Notre Dame endowment bought out Hamilton Partners’ minority stake in the building, after the joint venture bought the building in 2006 for $53 million, Crain’s previously reported.
SOM has designed some of the tallest and most notable buildings in the world, including Chicago’s Willis Tower, New York’s One World Trade Center and Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.
In Chicago, SOM is working on the $1 billion redevelopment of the old Cook County Hospital campus. The firm is also designing Thor Equities’ planned office building in Fulton Market and Related Midwest’s library and affordable-housing complex in University Village.
Savills’ Robert Sevim, Eric Feinberg and Joe Learner represented SOM in the lease renewal. The landlord was represented by JLL’s Gary Kostecki and Mark Goergas.