O’Hare Global Terminal
Our team provided baggage handling system and technology services for O’Hare Global Terminal in Chicago, Illinois.
Our team is serving as the Prime Technology Integration Services Consultant and Prime Baggage Handling Systems Consultant (T3) for the design of the new O’Hare Global Terminal. The Terminal celebrates Chicago’s history as a city shaped by lines of movement and extends that legacy to the 21st century. Like the confluence of the branching Chicago River, the design’s converging three branches create a central hub that establishes a vibrant new neighborhood in the heart of O’Hare’s campus.
Smoothly bending to increase efficiency, wayfinding, and connectivity, the tripartite design merges the terminal and concourse into a single building that is uniquely evocative of the city of Chicago. At the branches’ confluence, a dramatic Oculus welcomes visitors under a six-pointed glass skylight whose geometry references the Chicago flag. Surrounding the Oculus is a rhythmic, pleated roof of long-span steel trusses. Clad in wood and emphasizing the building’s curving form, the pleats are spaced and oriented to maximize natural daylight and energy efficiency. From inside, their directionality gently guides passengers through the space. When seen from above, the building’s form greets passengers with an easily recognizable, distinctly Chicago icon: the city’s “Y symbol,” or Municipal Device, that represents the branching Chicago River.
Image Credit: © Mike Hardiman