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Greater Chicago Food Depository

Chicago, USA

º£½ÇÊÓƵ supported a leading non-profit organization to tackle food poverty in the United States’ third largest city, significantly increasing the capacity of its commercial kitchens in a major expansion of its operational base.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository, Chicago’s food bank, was established in 1979 with a mission to end hunger in the community. Founded by six individuals, the organization has expanded to support a network of 850 partners, pantries and meal programs.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository, Chicago’s food bank, supports a network of 850 partners, pantries and meal programs.

A glass-fronted, light-filled lobby presents a hopeful and welcoming new entrance and acts as a beacon to the community.

The functional needs of the industrial kitchen led the design.

Our experts carefully coordinated insulated wall systems with the structure, ceilings and MEP infrastructure to enable a series of temperature-controlled food storage spaces.

Challenge

In 2019, the Food Depository completed Phase One of the Nourish Project, which involved enhancements to cold storage, upgrades to the warehouse, and the creation of new volunteer spaces. These improvements, led by architect Partners by Design (PBD), proved essential during the pandemic when there was a significant increase in the demand for food assistance. Phase Two of the Nourish Project, completed in 2023, further expanded the facility, increasing its capacity to provide nutritious prepared meals while also generating economic opportunities in historically underserved communities.

º£½ÇÊÓƵ was engaged by PBD to deliver structural engineering design and consultancy across Phase Two of the development of the facility.

One of the key challenges was around maximizing the available space, while delivering a range of environments for food storage, including sizable freezer and cold room spaces. This would include a series of insulated walls, metal panels and range hoods. Our experts would be required to carefully coordinate the heavy loads that had to hang from the roof structure.

Another key challenge during the initial post-Covid period was working within an uncertain landscape around the delivery of materials. The design team would have to carefully consider any mitigations necessary around the procurement of materials to ensure against project delays, while also keeping project costs to a minimum for the non-profit client.

Solution

The completed 38,000ft² expansion includes Chicago’s Community Kitchens, which enhances the organization’s ability to produce up to 10,000 prepared meals daily for vulnerable populations, including older adults, people with disabilities, and individuals living with chronic health conditions.

The majority of the additional space created as part of Phase Two was dedicated to the new industrial-grade kitchen and food preparation facility. Our structural engineers designed the structure to support a series of insulated wall systems, which enabled whole rooms to be dedicated to cold storage and freezer space. This helped to make full use of the new area being developed.

The heavy loads required were carefully coordinated with the roof support systems to maximize the capacity for insulated walls and extraction hoods. We also liaised closely with the design team’s building services engineers to coordinate the structures with the MEP systems. A ceiling-level catwalk-like gallery structure was also created to enable full maintenance of the systems.

Our experts supported the design of a new glass facade lobby to provide a statement entrance to the facility, envisaged to promote pride in the importance of the organization’s mission. This included designing a challenging, deflection-sensitive glass cantilevered canopy to provide a resilient and efficient mount for the glass wall systems. We worked with the wider design team to deliver the project to a tight timescale, to ensure the new facilities would be commissioned and certified in time to be used for the creation of thousands of meals for Thanksgiving in November 2023.

Value

The Greater Chicago Food Depository’s expansion and redesign reflect its ongoing dedication to ending hunger and strengthening the community. The new kitchen enables the capacity to produce up to 10,000 meals a day, by the end of 2023, the expansion also enabled the Food Depository to deliver a further 20,000 culturally appropriate meals daily to asylum seekers in city shelters. Funding from the State of Illinois and private donors allowed the organization to partner with 17 minority-owned restaurants, boosting local economies and addressing urgent food needs.

The project achieved LEED Silver certification. Our experts supported this process by quantifying and assessing the embodied carbon of the new structure.

A testament to technical innovation, as well as close coordination and cooperation across the design team, the project was completed ahead of schedule and to budget. Consequently, the new facility was producing nourishing meals for the community ahead of Thanksgiving 2023. It continues to produce thousands of warm meals each day.