Google Reveals Thompson Center Redesign That Spares Jahn Landmark

Google has confirmed the redevelopment of Chicago's James R. Thompson Center as a space for work, culture, and community, releasing new renderings of a redesign that ends decades of demolition threats against Helmut Jahn's postmodern landmark.

The company announced the plans on September 16, 2026, working with Architecture Plus Information (A+I), now part of Perkins&Will. Google first opened a Chicago office in 2000 and now employs more than 2,000 people in the city.

Jahn completed the Thompson Center in 1985. Illinois Governor James R. Thompson commissioned the building, which reinterprets the classical state capitol by turning the traditional dome-and-public-plaza concept inside out. The structure occupies an entire city block in Chicago's Loop and features a multicolored, curved glass atrium and a sloping, transparent corner entry.

The building was controversial from the start. Critics attacked its poor climate control, high maintenance costs, and structural and leak issues.

Roughly 30 years after its opening, Illinois state officials cited those upkeep costs and repeatedly floated selling the site and demolishing the structure to free the valuable downtown land. After Governor Bruce Rauner pushed a sale plan in 2015, architecture critics, preservationists, and organizations including Landmarks Illinois and Docomomo campaigned to save the building. They argued it was a significant work of postmodern architecture and one of Jahn's major buildings, deserving landmark protection rather than the wrecking ball.

The campaign worked. In 2022, developer The Prime Group bought the building and committed to renovating it. That same year, Google announced it would purchase the Thompson Center once renovations were complete, effectively ending the demolition threat. Renovations began in May 2024, including removal of the building's original glass-and-metal exterior and portions of its atrium.

The redesign aims to integrate the building into the urban life of the Loop. Google plans "a curated mix" of food, retail, and space for seasonal events in the building's atrium and plaza. The scheme calls for expanding the central opening beneath the 17-story atrium and constructing a cascading staircase integrated with terraced seating and retail space.

The plaza will hold Vector, a 30-foot-tall sculpture by artist Sanford Biggers that reimagines traditional quilt patterns. Google is also partnering with After School Matters, a local nonprofit that provides paid after-school and summer opportunities to Chicago teens. Participants will contribute a large-scale commissioned piece to the building's atrium this year.

The Thompson Center is not an isolated case. The African Futures Institute (AFI) has completed its new headquarters in Accra, Ghana, transforming a former tile warehouse in the city's Osu neighborhood into a center for architectural education, research, exhibitions, and public programs. London design collective Assemble is converting the Grade II*-listed Bromley Hall into a creative and light-industrial workspace. And "Right to Housing! Now and Forever," an official European Citizens' Initiative calling for affordable, sustainable, and fair housing across the European Union — encompassing building renovation as well as financing tools and measures to ensure access — is now open for signatures.

As Google's 2,000-plus Chicago workforce prepares to move into a restored Jahn landmark, the project stands as proof that adaptive reuse can settle even the bitterest preservation fights.