Ellison Bronze Doors Custom-Fit for Curved Glass at CME Center

FALCONER, NY...Ellison Bronze, manufacturer of premier custom balanced doors for entrances around the world, recently provided 16 custom balanced doors for the newly renovated CME Center, a 2.3-million-square-foot, LEED Gold, Class A office skyscraper in Chicago’s West Loop business district.

Renovations to the CME Center – located at 10 and 30 South Wacker Drive – included redoing the entire ground floor exterior on all four sides of the building. The first-floor lobbies and retail corridor are wrapped in a 24-foot-high curved glass curtainwall, and the project team needed doors that could be customized to fit the unique curvature of the wall.

“The beauty of this project is the way the Ellison doors could be slightly curved to match the waves in the glass,” said Richard Losch of Door Service, Inc., installer of the doors. “Ellison’s materials, workmanship, and design flexibility to help us create custom-curved doors was a tremendous benefit.”

The revitalization of CME Center aimed to transform the ground-level space built in the 1980s into a vibrant city lobby. Ellison Bronze helped create this look with custom-crafted stainless steel narrow stile with glass balanced doors, giving access to a full range of amenities, including conference lounges, fitness facilities, restaurants, retail establishments, and more.

The doors also helped the project meet ADA requirements for commercial entryways.

“One of the Ellison doors at each entryway is equipped with power operators and is ADA-compliant,” added Losch. “The project also features revolving doors, which aren’t nearly as efficient at getting people out of buildings, so including Ellison balanced doors next to them allowed us to implement additional entry and exit points and keep up with ADA requirements.”

Losch added that the doors’ balanced design was a major design feature. “Because they are balanced doors, they are so much easier to open than a standard hinge door.”

The innovative balanced hardware and inset pivot point at two-thirds width of every balanced door imparts effortless operation suitable for high-traffic spaces. Balanced doors effectively reduce opening force and door leaf projection and relieve air pressure at both sides of the door frame.

CME Center was completed in summer 2020. In addition to Ellison Bronze, the project team included door installer Door Service, Inc.; project manager the Roschmann Group; construction manager Lendlease; and developer and owner Tishman Speyer.