Midway Airport Security Checkpoint Expansion

This major expansion of Midway International Airport was recognized from conception as a unique opportunity to create an iconic gateway to and from the City of Chicago. The new space sits atop a wide bridge structure that spans across Cicero Avenue, as well as the airport arrival roadway while passing below the departures roadway. The expansion structure provides a wholesale reorganization of the checkpoint security process and dramatically improves the passenger experience. Confusing layouts and stressful congestion has been replaced by intuitive wayfinding and spaces designed to elevate the process of travel. The new space seamlessly integrates new and existing buildings to create an intuitive sense of progression and heightened experience of travel. Passengers moving from the main ticketing hall circulate through connector bridges featuring integrated lighting in sculptural ceilings, that create a calming aesthetic before entering into the new grand queuing hall. Passengers can look upward to the soaring, cathedral-like ceiling and extensive clerestory window wall offering views to the sky, referencing air travel ahead. Operable glass walls feature multi layered super graphics shielding unused security lanes from view adding to the sense of calm within the space. The dramatic clerestory window-wall plays theatrically with light throughout the day. 27 screening lanes queueing are logically organized for efficient passenger processing while paying attention to the human spirit, eliminating the cattle-call of typical airport check-ins.