John Deere

John Deere opened a new location in Chicago’s vibrant commercial district, Fulton Market, to attract the skilled tech workforce the city offers. The office serves as an information technology hub, with the intention of creating nearly 300 tech jobs and offering an urban workplace to supplement its Moline, IL headquarters.

“There’s just a broader pool of technical talent that’s available in the Chicagoland area as compared to our core location here in the Quad Cities,” Ganesh Jayaram, VP of Information Technology at John Deere, says in a statement to the Chicago Tribune. “It’s an intentional choice on our part to really go where the talent is.”

John Deere was also intentional in its choice of partners on the project. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) comments, “John Deere’s historic reputation as an industrial pioneer is closely intertwined with celebrated architecture, including its Moline headquarters, which was designed by Eero Saarinen. Having been founded in rural Illinois, the company sought out another international firm with local roots, commissioning SOM to help them establish a presence in Chicago.”

Teaming up with Executive Construction, Inc.—the general contractor chosen for John Deere’s office buildout—Office Revolution and Teknion were selected to provide an array of architectural products, due to our extensive track record of successful projects together. The Teknion Architectural Interiors we specified throughout John Deere’s Chicago office accomplish many goals: complementing the client’s brand aesthetic; creating subtle space division; and offering visual transparency with acoustical privacy throughout conference and huddle rooms.

For this project, we utilized both Teknion Focus and Tek Vue Architectural Interiors. Focus is a demountable wall system which seamlessly integrates a variety of glass configurations to create effective, modern workspaces. It offers a tailored approach—its frame and trim components are light in proportion through seamless in-line and corner connections, delivering a minimal architectural presence.

Tek Vue is comprised of a single-center glass wall program and pared down, yet progressive, pivot and barn door program. The system is easy to install, uses materials efficiently and offers flexibility in specification. Tek Vue also offers a comprehensive articulating and electrical program.

For a talent pool of technical engineers with skills in data and analytics, e-commerce, cybersecurity and cloud computing, precision is the standard. The result of Office Revolution’s involvement on this project is an aesthetic that is crisp along with the acoustic attenuation that is craved from architectural products.