United Airlines

Beginning with a fifth-floor pilot, the restack established a repeatable approach to welcome areas, collaboration spaces, pantries, wellness rooms, furniture, and wayfinding. Interconnecting stairs promote movement between departments, while consistent planning and color-coded quadrants make large floors easier to navigate. Authentic aircraft components and familiar aviation details—engine-inspired lights, a turbine coffee table, a winglet divider, decommissioned seat belts, runway patterns, and illuminated batons—turn United’s story into discoverable moments. Hoteling, varied teaming settings, and structured vacancy support hybrid work and growth. Reuse diverted 55,675 pounds of furniture from landfills and avoided 240,000 square feet of ceiling-tile waste; updated fixtures also reduce water use by 30 percent and energy by 23 percent.

As the final phase of the transformation, the 28th-floor Tech Hub takes the established workplace strategy in a deliberately new direction. Darker materials, higher contrast, exposed concrete, and refined industrial details reflect the energy of United’s technology teams. A linear light installation leads to a flexible café and gathering space overlooking Chicago, while an adjacent auditorium shifts between presentations, workshops, meetings, and open work. Coordinated acoustics and lighting support live broadcasts, and a recording studio with a cyclorama and control room enables professional production. Experiential graphics and locally commissioned murals translate data, movement, and connectivity into an immersive expression of innovation.