When the Soul of Chicago Moves into the Office: An Experiment in Freedom and Inspiration

On the banks of the Chicago River, there is an office that does not feel like an office.

It is not the kind of place where you swipe in through a door, sit in a gray cubicle, and stare blankly at a screen. There are no cold corridors here, no uniform rows of workstations, and certainly none of that oppressive feeling that makes you want to escape. Instead, it is like a city—a miniature, vivid, breathing Chicago.

This is Pinterest’s Chicago office, a 1765-square-meter space that the design team Partners by Design has turned intoanother possibility for the shared-space office.

When you walk in, the first thing you see is not a reception desk but a “Pin” wall—those thumbtack-like little squares, as if they had leapt out of Pinterest’s waterfall feed, two dimensions and three dimensions interwoven, with a touch of playfulness hidden inside the technological feel. The reception area draws its inspiration from Chicago’s elevated railway “El,” and the CTA tile wall reads “Pindy City,” as if saying to you: welcome to our little world, a playground for creators.

As you go further in, you will find that every corner here tells a story. The kitchenette looks like a Chicago pizza shop, and the IT service desk is simply a hot dog cart—yellow mustard, ketchup, neon signs, and it even seems as if the aroma of chopped onions and sausages is floating in the air. You cannot help but smile: sooffice environment design can be this unserious, and yet so charming.

But what really puts people at ease is the work area called Riverwalk. It is not a workstation zone in the traditional sense but a “meadow”—seats hidden among green plants, with overhead lighting like fireflies on a summer night, flickering on and off. You can hold a meeting in the grass, or sit idly with a cup in hand at the adjacent “The Bean” coffee bar. There is no rule here about “where you must sit,” only the freedom of “work wherever you want.” The core idea of theshared-space office is not a slogan here; it is every inch of turf beneath your feet and every lamp above your head.

The administrative business lounge is also great fun. It mimics Navy Pier—brass, sea blue, porthole-style arched doors, and a fireplace surrounded by rivet-patterned brick walls—like a ship moored by the river. You can make phone calls, hold small meetings, write proposals here, or do nothing at all and simply sit by the window watching the Chicago River flow quietly past.

Even more surprising is themaker space, called “Let’s Meet at MART.” It is inspired by Chicago’s iconic MART showroom, with classic chair designs displayed in the windows and Pin-up mood boards and textile display racks on the walls. This is not just a place for meetings but a place for making things—you can create content, hold events, try out new materials, or simply sit there surrounded by carefully selected furniture and samples, and inspiration will naturally come to find you.

Speaking of furniture, every chair, every table, and every pegboard in this office was not placed there at random. They areoffice furniture, but more like tools, used to support you in freely sitting, standing, lying down, chatting, drawing, and making. No one dictates how you must use them. You can drag a chair into the middle of the meadow, or turn a pegboard into your wall of inspiration. Furniture is no longer a constraint but an extension of your creativity.

There is also the all-hands gathering hall, like a warm barn. The arches imitate Chicago’s maroon bridges, and the ceiling fixtures are like fireflies on the lawn at dusk. There is a long bar counter where you can set out food, and also set out ideas. The space is fluid: you can turn it into a movie theater, a discussion area, a yoga room, or an impromptu pizza party.

The meeting rooms are not boring either. One pays tribute to Chicago sports, with an interactive scoreboard on the wall; one explores local food, with popcorn and Italian pickles serving as decoration; and another celebrates music festivals, with colors and lighting like a live stage. You will feel that walking into a meeting room is no longer the heaviness of “time for a meeting” but the anticipation of “which corner of Chicago shall I go and play in.”

Pinterest’s own design team took part in this experiment throughout. What they wanted was not a “pretty” office but a community that can grow with employees and inspire them to try and fail, to collide, to space out, and to create. There is no fixed script here, only countless possibilities.

So this is more than an office. It is an invitation—an invitation to explore, to play, and to make something different. The spirit of Chicago has been pinned to this wall, and your inspiration can be pinned up at any time too.