Confidential Top 100 Am Law firm

A confidential top 100 Am Law firm selected NELSON to design a 53,000 SF workplace spanning two full floors and a partial third floor in Chicago. The firm sought an environment that would support a hospitality-forward client experience and accommodate a wide range of work styles across the practice.

NELSON led visioning sessions designed to ensure every voice carried equal weight in shaping the outcome, allowing the design to reflect a shared identity of two organizations coming together. Out of that process came four guiding design principles: welcoming, polished, flexible, and comfortable.

These anchored every decision from planning through finish selection. Immersive renderings and fly-throughs at every milestone brought the firm into the design as a true partner, building confidence at each decision point and deepening the relationship that ultimately defined the project. That sustained engagement, earned through transparency and shared problem-solving, is what carried the design from intent into a built environment the firm could fully stand behind.

The client-facing areas were envisioned not as transactional touchpoints but as moments of connection, with a café open to clients, a fireplace lounge, and self-serve beer, wine, and coffee taps that encourage face-to-face conversation over screen-based interaction. Dedicated guest workspaces and amenity-rich gathering areas extend the same level of care to clients that the firm extends to its own people, reinforcing the practice’s relationship-driven culture. The reception area was designed as a sequence rather than a single zone, allowing the experience to flex from a quiet morning arrival to a hosted client gathering without reconfiguration.

NELSON suggested reimagining the building’s existing emergency egress stairwells as connective amenities in their own right, introducing new finishes, lighting, and feature wall treatments to transform purely functional spaces into ones that invite movement between floors.

This Chicago office unlocks long-term value through design, creating a workplace that supports growth, reinforces hospitality, and reflects a unified culture from day one. By listening closely, planning with precision, and shaping an environment around how the firm operates, NELSON created a workplace that highlights the practice’s strength in delivering thoughtful, hospitality-forward solutions for legal clients.