‘In the very posh
old headquarters,
you never really
understood that
McDonald’s was
such a research-
focused, iterative
company’
CHICAGO — It’s quite possible that no
brand evokes an image as all-encompassing
as McDonald’s. Regardless of where in
the world you come from, you are almost
certainly familiar with its logo, its jingles, its
iconic menu items and its graphic packaging... perhaps even the distinctive and remark-
ably consistent smell of its restaurants. But
while this total recognition has long made
the company a marketer’s dream, McDon-
ald’s has more recently found itself fighting
an uphill battle in the face of new competi-
tion and an increasingly health- and image-
conscious culture.
In a valiant effort to claw its way back
to relevancy, the brand has spent the past
four years in the midst of a very conspicu-
ous modernization campaign. In addition
to streamlining its menus and improving
the quality of its food, it has prototyped and
implemented new service models and taken
steps to dramatically reimagine its previ-
ously dated physical spaces. Nowhere has this
been more visible than across the US, where
thousands of the archetypal painted-brick
and mansard-roofed McDonald’s restaurants
that defined the landscape for decades have
been replaced by a new generation of stark,
modular boxes in just a matter of years. And
as a finishing touch of sorts, the company has
uprooted its headquarters from a Chicago
suburb to a purpose-built new 45,000-m^2
complex in the city’s trendy downtown
West Loop, designed jointly by IA and San
Francisco-based Studio O+A.
The award-winning space covers nine
distinctive floors, each every bit as contem-
porary as you’d expect from firms known for
their work with Silicon Valley iconoclasts like
Uber and Slack. Exposed concrete and glass
dominate, offsetting monumental site-specific
works by artists such as Jacob Hashimoto and
Jessica Stockholder – the latter a swirling
agglomeration of the various kitchen tools
patented by company employees. But rather
than an unapologetically techno-futurist
control centre or a rehash of the utilitarian
minimalism on display at recent McDonald’s
restaurants, the overall effect of the complex
is a more textural modernity. The overarching
theme is of a bright and unfettered progress,
but there is also a clear reverence on display
for the company’s illustrious history and its
attendant iconography, from souvenir penny
presses to an abstraction of that unmistakable
mansard roof in the dining area – especially
refreshing in light of the brand’s recent tabula
rasa approach to design.
‘It was a really cathartic back and
forth with the client, where we got them to »The entrance to Hamburger University –
the company’s training facility – features a
custom-designed wall bearing the faces of
McDonald’s innovators.96 SPACES