Rock 'n' Roll McD's Could Have Rocked, Rolled

By Margaret Lyons in News on Aug 9, 2004 12:49PM

The Tribune most definitely does not want fries with that, Rock 'n' Roll McDonald's. We all remember that about a month ago, McDonald's unveiled plans for a redesigned location on 600 North Clark, plans the Trib described as a "super-sized version of a 1950s drive-in." It turns out that McDonald's rejected some more innovative, architecturally interesting designs that are actually pretty rad. Helmut Jahn, Dan Coffey, and Martin Wolf each submitted a contemporary and creative plan, and while Chicagoist doesn't exactly expect McDonald's to be the major sponsor of modern architecture, it would have been kind of cool.

Wolf's plan called for a gigantic glass and steel cage around a two-story oval-shaped McD's. Even though the Trib calls the design "elegant and wonderfully fresh," it laments that the building would be "too object-like, too much like a spaceship that's been plopped down on the site." Hm. A plopped-down spaceship as part of Chicago's architecture? How strange.

Jahn's design is a little ballsier. He incorporates 100-foot golden arches as a gateway for cars and pedestrians and includes projection screens that show "whimsical images -- everything from a cow that says "Moo," to cucumbers being sliced into pieces, to a Big Mac that disappears with each successive bite."

Even though the Trib doesn't like it as much as the other two, we're partial to Coffey's design just because it's such a departure. He raises the physical restaurant on stilts and surrounds it with rounded, heaving arches. The loopy drive-thru element is also extremely cool.

There also would be a ground-level amphitheater, a ground-level Ronald McDonald park and an elevated clover leaflike ramp that would allow drive-through customers to get their food at the second-floor level (avoiding homeless people who reportedly frequented the site at night).

In any case, McDonald's decided to go with a more traditional, if still palely "futuristic," plan. Even though these rejects won't be built, they're at least interesting to look at, sort of like concept cars. They raise the standard and encourage even well-recognized brands to branch out. The McDonald's brand identity is still intact in each of these designs, and yet they really are "fresh," they are daring; they're complex and modern in ways McDonald's isn't but apparently could be. Here's hoping that these designs prompt some kinda something.