Accenture, a global consulting organization, is taking its employees and clients on a wild ride with its new Chicago Innovation Hub, designed by leading design and architecture firm Gensler. From its first floor to its last, the newly branded Accenture Tower is a sensorial experience that takes visitors and clients on an immersive innovation journey through a digital and physical landscape. This “vertical city” offers workspaces, specialty labs, and hospitality areas, throughout the multiple floors.
Visitors are able to navigate this city-like office with their phones using an Accenture-developed app. Through QR codes, the app can activate the turnstiles located on each floor, track occupancy in realtime, and reserve various meeting rooms. Moving from the 20th floor to the 26th of the Accenture Tower, visitors follow a “safari” that begins with spaces that help facilitate with making. This features immersion rooms, labs, production spaces, and a broadcast studio.
Afterwards, the results of those previous spaces are put on digital and physical showcases that highlight the process and product. Finally, the top floors, surrounded by Chicago’s cityscape, are meant to be client-facing, with spaces to foster ideation, connection, and collaboration. To support this, meeting rooms, co-working lounges, and refuel stations are provided.
Throughout the seven floors, custom millwork, movable walls, and flexible furniture allow employees the Sims-like ability to design their own spaces as they see fit, based on their ever-changing needs throughout the day. Whether it’s for all-staff gatherings, community events, heads-down work, or impromptu meetings, these environments can be reconfigured and adapted with ease.
Expanding on the design, Sarah Adams, Design Director at Gensler shares:
The glittering spectrum of light the city reflects served as inspiration for the color and finishes throughout the space, with architectural elements and textures seen throughout the vibrant neighborhoods of Chicago, creating a unique human-centric experience on each floor.
Photography by Kendall McCaugherty.
