Chicago O’Hare’s New Satellite Concourse Design Unveiled by SOM-Led Team

The Satellite Concourse Design provides more than layout; it seeks to improve the airport’s efficiency while giving it a facelift. This partnership can deliver a best-in-class satellite concourse design to improve the facilities offered. Design mavens Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill (SOM), Ross Barney Architects, Juan Gabriel Moreno Architects, and Arup recently revealed plans to unleash a new satellite concourse at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

The new Satellite Concourse Design

The new Satellite Concourse Design that is in progress at Chicago O’Hare International Airport is the first building block of its $8.7 billion airport expansion that has made the most significant architectural advancement in 68 years in an effort to improve passenger experiences and gives them the feel of any new airport. Categorized as the fourth busiest in the United States, O’Hare offers an opportunity for the firm, awarded the project in 2019, to build two terminal annexes. The second half of a proposed three million square feet expansion is slated to be delivered by 2030.

“The new Satellite Concourse Design was made to create a fantastic impression of travelers and could be compared to the most significant airports around the globe,” cited SOM Design Partner Scott Duncan. “Results from the studies show that the gate lounges have an expansive, unique, and high separating height to allow easy maneuvering and authentication of views and escalated ceiling heights; the gate lounges also have a daylighting strategy that mirrors with the body chronology to make air travel less boring.”

This has allowed the satellite concourse design to have no interior columns by adopting a structural support system like a tree. The rest of Concourse 1 shall use internal structural projections to provide shading and include glazed roofed waiting areas in response to future Midwest climates, expected to consist of more heat than the architecture was initially designed to accommodate over the next thirty years.

The Satellite Concourse Design also features a green central atrium, which will act as a particular haven for passengers coming from Concourse C. However, the design team at SOM noted that the acoustic absorption factor was also incorporated into the project. Also, site preparation is much underway at an overall affordable cost and well synchronized such that by 2027-2028 these projects should be complete.

Carol Ross Barney enthusiastically wrote about the new O’Hare International Airport Satellite Concourse Design project with SOM, JGMA, and Arup. She stressed that each journey depends on the originating and terminal point in this constantly changing, connected world. Ross Barney took the opportunity to stress the significance of well-designed, quality public spaces, particularly in one of the leading global airports, O’Hare.

Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport is relatively new, and the extension to the terminal building has only been completed after five years. Further, off in Chicago, SOM is occupied with the construction of the replacement for 400 Lake Shore Drive in Streeterville, which is a continuous process of improving different sectors at this crucial transportation hub. The Satellite Concourse Design at O’Hare will continue this positive trend by further developing the airport’s framework.