McCormick Place Expansion

The McCormick Place expansion, featuring the new 2.5 million-square-foot McCormick Place West, opened in 2008. The facility includes 470,000 square feet of exhibition space, 250,000 square feet of meeting space, and a 100,000-square-foot ballroom, giving McCormick Place West more meeting space than any other facility of its kind.

GRAEF served as a subconsultant to A. Epstein and Sons, providing structural engineering services for the elevated truck apron and bridge to the existing hall. The 100,000-square-foot apron serves as the major access center for trucks setting up or tearing down shows. Semi-trailer trucks can access the facility through the apron and drive directly onto the exhibit hall floor or dock at one of 40 truck berths. GRAEF also engineered a bridge over Martin Luther King Drive to the McCormick Place South Building. The structure is designed to support numerous semi-trailer trucks simultaneously and resist the corrosive effects of harsh Midwest winters.