State Street Renovation

ABC-7/WLS-TV challenged five firms to create an iconic statement that would engage pedestrians in the station’s news programming while identifying North State Street as a destination on the way to and from Millennium Park and other nearby landmarks.

The competition-winning concept met the project’s complex technical and aesthetic challenges. The 5,000-square-foot renovation creates the first studio of its kind in Chicago. The project increases the station’s visibility and image while preserving the detail of the 1920s-era building.During every newscast, businesspeople, residents, and tourists gather outside the studio and peer into what ABC-7/WLS-TV describes as “a window into the world of television.”

A point support glass system, suspended from a beam that spans existing columns, encloses the studio. This contributes to the sense of floatation of the glass, which hovers three inches before the terra cotta columns. A 42-foot-tall video sculpture gently twists to achieve perpendicularity with the building and maximize visibility from all angles.