The Cer­mak- McCormick Place sta­tion serves the country’s largest con­ven­tion cen­ter and a stretch of the Green Line that was with­out a sta­tion since 1978. Like many infill sta­tions in the sys­tem, a nar­row right-of-way cre­at­ed chal­lenges for build­ing a sta­tion to bet­ter serve this diverse and grow­ing community. 

A res­o­lu­tion of the demands of the project; Low-cost, speedy con­struc­tion, no track relo­ca­tion, nar­row right-of-way, and a mem­o­rable gate­way – was the devel­op­ment of a per­fo­rat­ed stain­less steel tube over Cer­mak Road that cov­ers the plat­form and tracks. The per­fo­rat­ed stain­less steel and poly­car­bon­ate tube per­forms mul­ti­ple duties: wind and rain pro­tec­tion; with no struc­tur­al sup­ports on the plat­form, a wider usable space cre­ates com­fort for train users; mate­ri­als are moved out of easy reach of van­dals; and the sta­tion is easy to iden­ti­fy from a distance. 

Glass, poly­car­bon­ate, and per­fo­rat­ed stain­less steel are used to max­i­mize vis­i­bil­i­ty, views, and nat­ur­al light in the sta­tion hous­es and on the plat­form. For ease of main­te­nance and dura­bil­i­ty, glazed mason­ry units and gran­ite are used for the inte­ri­or walls and floors. Sus­tain­able mate­ri­als include local­ly sourced prod­ucts and fly ash con­crete, which uses near­by waste mate­ri­als to make it dense and stable.

With access and views to Chi­na­town, McCormick Place, and Chicago’s Loop, the sta­tion has helped gen­er­ate bil­lions of dol­lars in devel­op­ment and sits at the cen­ter of a bur­geon­ing enter­tain­ment dis­trict. With a new events are­na, con­ven­tion cen­ter expan­sion, hotels, retail, and res­i­den­tial, Cer­mak McCormick Place serves over a half-mil­lion pas­sen­gers a year; pro­vid­ing sur­prise and delight to a util­i­tar­i­an experience. 

Client: Chica­go Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion, Chica­go Tran­sit Author­i­ty
Pro­gram: New ele­vat­ed train sta­tion with at grade facil­i­ties
Size: 480 ft plat­form, 12,000 sf sta­tion hous­es and cov­ered walk­ways
Cost: $50,000,000

Select­ed Awards/​Honors:
Mies Van Der Rohe Award for Inno­va­tion, Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects Illi­nois, 2017
Dis­tin­guished Build­ing Award, Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects Chica­go, 2015
Trans­port Award Short­list, World Archi­tec­ture Fes­ti­val, 2016
Divine Detail, Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects Chica­go, 2015
Project of the Year, Amer­i­can Pub­lic Works Asso­ci­a­tion Chica­go, 2016

Project Fea­tures:
Chica­go Tri­bune — ​“McCormick Place ​‘L’ sta­tion needs help to make a neigh­bor­hood“
Archi­tiz­er — ​“CTA Cer­mak-McCormick Place Sta­tion“
Arch­Dai­ly — ​“Cer­mak McCormick Place Sta­tion“
The Plan — ​“CTA Cer­mak-McCormick Place Station”

Col­lab­o­ra­tive Part­ners:
T.Y. Lin Inter­na­tion­al
Singh & Asso­ciates
OSA Engi­neers
H.W. Lochn­er
Muller+Muller
F.H. Paschen
S.N. Nielsen
Arup

Pho­tog­ra­phy Cred­it: © Kate Joyce Studios