Sustainable Metropolitan Spaces

At 1,450 feet tall and 110 stories high, Chicago’s Willis Tower is one of the world’s tallest buildings and a symbol of engineering excellence. But as decades passed, the building began to feel exclusive, and not in a good way, says Benjy Ward, Design Principal and Global Creative Director at architecture and design firm Gensler. 

“The Willis Tower was originally built on a podium that became a fortress that kept the rest of the city out,” says Ward. 

Constructed in the 1970s when large parts of the population were leaving cities for the suburbs, the Willis Tower was designed to house office workers and deter anyone else from entering the building. Ward says fear of rising crime rates in the  ̓70s, as well as unwanted foot traffic, led the tower to be designed to wall itself off from the surrounding neighborhood. 

“The base of the building was made from big granite walls that kept people out,” Ward says. “Nobody ever felt welcome going into the building unless there was a purpose for being there.” 

Ward, who is also the design principal in charge of the recent repositioning of the iconic building, says the redesign changes that. 

The Willis Tower and Post Office projects are examples of how cities — and the companies that help them thrive — are working to be more inviting. 

It’s a much bigger challenge in the hybrid workplace era where millions of downtown office workers across the country will opt to continue working from home, which could reshape the defining characteristics of a vibrant city core. 

While 2020 was about leaving the office and urban centers, 2022 is expected to bring people back to those places and spaces. At least that’s the hope. Designers and architects will be called on to help rethink how space is built to make it a new, more inclusive experience in every sense of the word. 

“You might have 40% of your staff working in an office, and maybe offices get smaller, but they can have more space for client meetings, larger events, venues for things that are more public, and things that you can’t do at home,” Ward says. “You can really push the idea of brand, which is something I don’t think you can do online because everything done online is branded Zoom. Physical space can be branded in a way that reminds people [where they work] and creates an affiliation with the company.” 

When strategically designed, workplaces will highlight modifications brought on by the hybrid era and act as an experience rather than a space to do work. Buildings will also house a wider range of businesses and activities, from work to events to entertainment. 

Workplaces will remain hubs of idea exchanges, and by creating space that is less structured to enable creativity, many believe the workplace can become a destination rather than an obligation.  

Cities will need to follow suit, offering a compelling range of attractions for workers in their off-hours, as well as tourists — everything from arts and culture to retail, parks, and other public spaces.  

“Just as offices need amenities to get workers out of pajamas to drive or take the train downtown to hang out with co-workers, cities will need to build parks and other spaces filled with great art and lots of people,” Ward says. 

As Mary Daly, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco says, that would create “work-life integration” rather than “balance.” 

No matter how the post-pandemic era reshapes our cities, Ward believes they will survive and be sustainable if the right choices are made today.  

“I don’t think cities are going away,” Ward says. “they’re just going to have to transform to get the density that they need to be effective.” 

The challenge for designers, architects, and other decision-makers is to reimagine the city of the future that can adapt no matter what global disruption is thrown at it next. 

This article is part of a series on adapting for the human experience.