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McCormick Place Window Facelift Underway, Designed to Prevent Another Mass Casualty of Birds
Bird-friendly window film at McCormick Lakeside Center. The tiny white dots give birds a visual cue that an obstacle’s in their path. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)
McCormick Place Lakeside Center is in the midst of getting a facelift — one that humans might not notice, but birds will.
Bird-friendly window film is being installed on the convention center’s approximately two football fields’ worth of glass. Work on the $1.2 million project began in early June and is expected to take approximately three months, according to a spokesperson for the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA), which runs Lakeside Center.
The pattern of tiny white dots on the windows will provide birds with a visual cue that there’s an obstacle in their path, versus see-through or reflective glass that misleads birds into thinking the way is clear or that habitat is present.
The installation at Lakeside Center is a win for Chicago’s birding community, which has spent years pressing the MPEA to do more to mitigate deadly bird collisions at the lakefront convention center.
The issue came to a head last fall when images of a mass casualty event at Lakeside Center — nearly 1,000 birds were killed by the building in a single day — not only shocked Chicagoans but also made headlines around the world.
A team at the Field Museum processes birds killed in collisions with McCormick Place during a massive migratory wave Oct. 4-5, 2023. (Daryl Coldren / Field Museum)
Advocates from various birding organizations turned out for MPEA’s October 2023 board meeting and demanded action.
“A thousand birds in one day is staggering, but no less sobering is the tens of thousands that have died here through the years,” Annette Prince, of Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, told board members. “Just as (McCormick Place) seeks to welcome visitors to Chicago from around the world, please implement the long overdue measures that will ensure that millions of invaluable and irreplaceable avian visitors that we host each year will have safer passages through our city.”
Larita Clark, CEO of the MPEA, responded at the time, “We’re going to do our part,” and has made good on that promise.
In February 2024, Clark reported to the MPEA board that she had met with bird advocates as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and was following the advice of the latter in terms of which corrective measures to take. The top two improvements identified were bird-friendly window film and automatic drapes/shades that could be closed to reduce light spill at night (the center’s drapes/shades are currently manually operated).
A contract for the window film was awarded in March to NGS Films & Graphics, which uses Feather Friendly products that have been tested by the American Bird Conservancy.
Video: New window decals have been installed at McCormick Place to help reduce the number of birds colliding with the building. (Patty Wetli / WTTW News)
In a statement provided to WTTW News, Clark said, “As an organization that strives to be a good neighbor and environmental steward, the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority (MPEA) remains committed to minimizing McCormick Place’s impact on local and migratory birds.”
During migration seasons, MPEA will work with the Field Museum to monitor and track collisions daily, Clark added.
While Lakeside Center may have been one of the deadliest buildings in Chicago for birds, it’s far from the only threat in a city that’s been labeled the most dangerous for birds in the country. Advocates continue to push for bird-friendly building guidelines, a movement that’s been stalled in political limbo for several years.
To continue to raise awareness of the issue, the Chicago Bird Alliance recently announced its support for a large-scale civic project, “Bird Collisions in the Anthropocene.” The public is invited to take part in a series of workshops that aims to craft replicas of every one of the 10,000-plus birds killed in Chicago in 2023 — enough to create a “red carpet” the length of a football field, according to organizers.
Contact Patty Wetli: @pattywetli | (773) 509-5623 | [email protected]
