Google's Thompson Center renovation in Chicago reveals its new glass facade
The Thompson Center in downtown Chicago has a new face. Photos taken in early August 2026 show the largely complete facade of the building, now wrapped in a sleek, uniform curtain wall — the outer skin of glass that encloses a building — as part of a renovation for Google by architecture studio Jahn (Dezeen, 18 August 2026).
The original 1980s facade, with its slightly darkened patterned glass, is gone. In its place sits a triple-glazed wall designed to sharply cut the building's energy use. Early renderings released in December 2023 showed a transparent facade with clear views into the building, but the August photos appear to show a more reflective finish on the glazing (Dezeen, 18 August 2026).
Below the sloped glass, the photos reveal a concrete and brass colonnade replacing the original red and beige stone finishes. The renovation also replaces the building's internal systems and will overhaul the central 17-storey atrium, which is expected to be open to the public. Renderings show a stepped, circular space with restaurants, cafes and workspaces (Dezeen, 18 August 2026).
The Thompson Center was originally designed by Helmut Jahn, the German-born architect who founded the studio now leading the renovation. Jahn died in a bicycle crash in 2021, aged 81. The building, constructed for the Illinois state government and named after former Illinois governor James R Thompson, was considered one of the most significant pieces of post-modern architecture in the United States (Dezeen, 18 August 2026).
Its survival was not guaranteed. Plans to sell the building were made public in 2015, and demolition loomed until protests helped save the structure (Dezeen, 15 December 2021). In 2022, Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. bought the building. Google announced on its blog that the company was "deepening its investment in Chicago" with plans to purchase what it called an "iconic" building — its word, not a neutral description (Google Blog, 27 July 2022).
The Thompson Center is set to become Google's Chicago headquarters, with office space on the upper floors and shops and restaurants on the lower floors. The City of Chicago issued an US$85 million permit on 17 December 2025 for interior renovations (Chicago YIMBY, 6 January 2026). The full renovation is planned for completion in 2027, when the building's official name will drop "James R" and become simply the Thompson Center (Dezeen, 18 August 2026).
What makes the project unusual is that the studio carrying it forward is the one Jahn founded. The same practice that drew the original plans is now rewriting them — keeping the building's bones while swapping its skin for something more thermally efficient and, to some eyes, less distinctive. Whether the trade-off between heritage character and modern performance is the right one is a question for architectural critics. What is verifiable is that a building once slated for the wrecking ball is weeks from reopening with a new tenant, a new name and a new face.
