Ross Barney Architects' McDonald's Makeover

摘要

A couple of decades ago, I had a boyfriend who liked to work at McDonald's. He didn't flip burgers for the global fast-food giant; rather, he adopted it as his version of Starbucks. He'd sit at a table with his computer for hours, absorbing caffeine from a monumental Diet Coke, maybe munching on some fries. At the time I was mystified by his habit, but I recently experienced a much-belated glimmer of empathy. In early September, I had a leisurely lunch at the new McDonald's flagship in the River North neighborhood of Chicago, which has long been a stronghold of flamboyant chain restaurant architecture. The new McDonald's, a sparkling 19,000-square-foot-glass box, is a dramatic replacement for the Rock 'n' Roll version of the franchise that previously occupied the site. It is a surprisingly exuberant work of architecture. Ross Barney Architects, whose offices are five short blocks away, designed the building in close cooperation with the McDonald's creative team and Sydney-based interior design firm Landini Associates, which has been conjuring up a future-forward version of the hamburger purveyor, mostly in Australian and Asian cities, since 2014.