Relocate a financial planning firm into a new space that reflects their established brand standards and complements a recently completed office in another city, on a schedule with no room for error.

The timeline was forced. An expiring lease created a hard deadline, and the project had to move from design to occupancy without the buffer most projects rely on. The technical requirements added further complexity; AV, security, and low voltage systems heavier than a typical tenant improvement scope. And before a single line was drawn, the client walked EWP through their existing office to inventory what wasn’t working: conference room lighting that fell flat, finishes that hadn’t aged well. The brief wasn’t just about the new space. It was shaped by lessons learned in the old one.

Arrival carries the design. On the 46th floor of 320 S. Canal, lakefront views open the moment you step through the front door, unobstructed and immediate. The reception builds on that first impression with travertine-textured felt wall panels anchored by a panel of live greenery, and a complementing felt baffle system in warm wood tones overhead. The combination is refined without being loud. Conference rooms received their own design attention: patterned millwork trim walls painted in a bold accent color serve as a deliberate feature, doing the work that poor lighting and forgettable finishes failed to do in the previous space. Lighting throughout was treated as a design element, not an afterthought, calibrated to how each room functions rather than simply illuminating it. The result is a space that holds up to the standard of the firm it houses.