After its selection process generated controversy, the city of Chicago on Thursday announced it has signed a contract for the $8.5 billion expansion of O’Hare International Airport with a design team headed by Chicago architect Jeanne Gang.
The contract is worth up to $160 million.
In March, then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced the selection of Gang’s team, called Studio ORD. Its plan calls for a curvaceous, Y-shaped Global Terminal, which will handle domestic and international flights. The Global Terminal, which will replace O’Hare Terminal 2, is scheduled to open in 2028.
The Studio ORD design beat proposals by four other finalist teams, which were headed by London-based architect Norman Foster, Zurich-based architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava, Denver-based architect Curtis Fentress, and the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architects.
Citing a need for confidentiality, city officials never made public the names of the committee that evaluated the plans, nor did they reveal the committee’s report.
Gang’s working relationship with Emanuel — she designed some of his signature projects, including boathouses along the Chicago River — also drew criticism. Chicago architect Helmut Jahn suggested that Gang, whose projects include the Aqua Tower and the under-construction Vista Tower, won the job through connections, not on merits.
Following her team’s selection, Jahn, whose firm designed O’Hare’s Terminal 1, issued an open letter that called the choice premeditated and said it was “not justified by design or experience.”
As if to respond, the Chicago Department of Aviation said in a news release Thursday that members of the Studio ORD team have collectively designed hundreds of projects in Chicago and more than 150 airport terminals around the world.
Previously, city officials dismissed Jahn’s letter as sour grapes, citing the fact that his firm was not selected as one of the five finalists for the O’Hare expansion.
The Studio ORD joint venture is made up of Studio Gang Architects, Corgan architects, STL Architects, Milhouse Engineering & Construction and Solomon Cordwell Buenz architects.
City officials indicated that they are getting close to selecting a team that will be responsible for designing two satellite concourses that will be built as part of the O’Hare expansion. That team, which will follow Studio ORD’s overall design for the expansion, is expected to be one of the four other finalists.
The satellite concourses will be built before the Global Terminal.
Advocates for people with disabilities and travel experts criticized the Studio ORD plan for its heavy reliance on escalators. They predicted the escalators will lead to bottlenecks and cited accidents and injuries that escalators have caused in other airports.
Now that Studio ORD is officially under contract, the team will work with the aviation department and airlines to “adjust designs as needed to ensure the needs of every traveler are met,” said Matt McGrath, a department spokesman.
Blair Kamin is a Tribune critic.
Twitter @BlairKamin
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