Client: LaSalle Investment Management

Overview

The LaSalle Investment Management Headquarters offers a lens into the company’s global presence with multi-cultural influence, acknowledging local connections and leveraging technology to create a unified and tailored industrial experience. With building construction being the backbone of LaSalle’s Investment Management Portfolio, while working in a tailored and high-end real estate investment industry, the space captures this dichotomy in LaSalle’s business through a neutral palette with pops of jewel tone color, hints at structure in limited and painted exposed ceilings, and a map motif carried through graphics and feature screens to layer character into the otherwise tailored space.

Goals

Custom perforated panels on either end of the main elevator lobby depict the map of Chicago in an abstracted way and become a discussion point when entering the space as an abstracted perforated image of a city landscape hovers overhead. The lobby panels are complimented with a cut-out feature screen that is a full map of Chicago with parks, landmarks, and the headquarter location highlighted in the Café, acting as a buffer between the office and the pantry zone. The conference rooms were named after LaSalle’s other office locations around the world and received a custom film on the glass with a map of each location.

Process

Mock-up drawings and weekly design presentations and renderings for the custom elements created a sense of comfort with the custom elements. Throughout the design process, all decision makers -- from the client to the design team and the fabricator -- were able to bring ideas to the table in order to create a successful solution.

Additional Information

The blend of a tailored yet industrial aesthetic makes the space innovative as a departure from the typically industrial tech or tailored financial office setting, creating a space impressive for visitors yet informal enough for employees to be able to take ownership of the office.