McDonald’s Flagship

enhancing the customer experience through abundant green space & sustainable design elements

Located in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, McDonald’s Flagship celebrates the brand’s simplicity and authenticity while introducing modern design elements and enhancing the customer experience. Omni Ecosystems designed, supplied, installed, and previously maintained the green infrastructure elements at the restaurant, which opened in 2018.

A driver for the design was to illustrate McDonald’s commitment to sustainability through modern and environmentally friendly strategies. The 19,000 SF facility features abundant green spaces, including a mini arboretum. A woody-grove ecosystem that includes birch trees with an understory comprising ferns and sedges floats in an open-air glass atrium above self-ordering kiosks, and the suspended shade garden connects the inside of the restaurant with nature.

Omni Ecosystems' ultra-lightweight growing media, Omni Infinity Media™, enables the garden to exist with two columns and cross-laminated beams. Above the dining area, a 792 square-foot living well designed and installed by Omni Ecosystems is a visual amenity that improves air quality, dampens noise, and continues the connection between indoors and outside.

A rooftop apple orchard, visible to dinner through a clerestory window, is a third surprising landscape element. The orchard harnesses unused rooftop space, growing 15 apple trees of the Gala and Pink Lady varieties. Edible plants comprise the orchard’s understory, including a mix of arugula, broccoli, and carrots. Omni harvested apples from the rooftop in 2019.

Photos courtesy of Todd Crawford Studio