Omni Ecosystems Headquarters

After outgrowing its previous corporate headquarters in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood, Omni Ecosystems sought a new office facility that could support a diverse array of functions performed by its multidisciplinary team; communicate its brand as a leading green infrastructure company; and live out its vision to democratize nature. In 2019, Omni purchased a 2.5-acre block in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood to house its new headquarters that consists of 65,000 SF of connected buildings and 1-acre of open land. The team officially moved into the building in the summer of 2020. At the time of purchase, the property included 3 live trees, and today more than 70 trees flourish on site.

Omni’s HQ at 4131 S State St now includes an ADA accessible rooftop, deck, and green roofs along with open offices, meeting spaces, outdoor yard space, an indoor plant library and conservatory, material library, warehouse, and R&D space. Omni Infinity Media and air-spaded trees allowed the green roof loading to total 60 pounds per square foot at full saturation & size. A typical green roof growth media and root ball approach would have totaled more than 240 lbs/sf, and typical topsoil would have been more than 500 lbs/sf; both of these options would have required cost prohibitive structure upgrades.

Omni converted the 1-acre brownfield on the north portion of the site into the Sidewalk Share: Seed a Lot project as a part of the 2021 Chicago Architectural Biennial.

Omni’s headquarters is intended to both build local community wealth and help reverse the historic levels of disinvestment the greater Bronzeville community has experienced. The industrial facility built in 1923 used to house a Bowman Dairy Company bottling factory until the bottler went out of business in the 1960s. The former site of the Robert Taylor homes stood along this stretch of State Street from the 1960s to the early 2000s.