McCormick Place Lakeside Center has wrapped up its latest effort to keep its glass facade safe for birds. The upgrades come in time for the migratory birds currently passing through Chicago on their long journeys south.
The Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority, which manages McCormick Place, announced Tuesday it has completed installing bird-safe film to all of the building’s glass windows. The film is meant to deter birds from flying into the glass. The easternmost structure in the city has two football fields’ worth of glass and the $1.2 million project took three months to complete.
“MPEA has always strived to be a good neighbor and environmental steward, both inside and outside our campus,” Larita Clark, the authority’s chief executive, said in a statement.
“We have long participated in the Lights Out Chicago program, but when we learned of the reported mass collision event last year, we knew that we needed to quickly make additional improvements to protect local and migratory birds as they pass McCormick Place,” Clark added.
Annette Prince with the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors commended the authority for completing the project. Her organization rescues injured birds and recovers dead birds found in the city — many of which have collided into glass.
“We are excited McCormick Place finished its application, and we think it’s already yielding good results,” Prince said. “On days we have had hundreds of birds hitting buildings downtown, McCormick Place hasn’t seen as many collisions.”
Her organization has already been busy this season. On Monday morning, volunteers collected over 80 injured birds and over 160 dead ones from across the city.
McCormick Place sits along one of the major bird migration paths. In one night last fall, roughly 1,000 birds flew into the lakefront building and died. That deadly night drew widespread attention to the building’s threat to birds.
The Lakeside Center also participates in Lights Out Chicago, a voluntary commitment for buildings in the city to shut their lights off at night during the fall and spring migrations.
The center shuts off unnecessary external lights and keeps the lights off in rooms unless they’re occupied. The drapes are also closed unless the customer using the space requests them to be open, a spokesperson told the Sun-Times.
But a nearby resident wants a stronger commitment from McCormick Place to shut the lights and drapes at night during the spring and fall migrations.
Irshaad Goedar has a clear view of the Lakeside Center from his South Loop apartment. He recently saw the lights on and the drapes open at the center early in the morning on Sept. 14.
McCormick Place Lakeside Center is shown with the lights on and drapes up during an event in the early hours on Sept. 14.
Provided by Irshaad Goedar
“We need more public accounting. I think McCormick Place is undertaking the right things, but they’re not following through on what they’re saying they would do,” Goedar told the Sun-Times.
Before last fall, Goedar was familiar with the city’s Lights Out program and he was used to seeing dead birds on the sidewalks near the glass buildings in his neighborhood.
But he wasn’t aware of how deadly one building could be until last October after migratory birds collided into McCormick Place.
“Last fall, when 1,000 birds died down the street from me, it was horrifying,” he said.
He was further alarmed when, shortly after that night, the lights were still on at McCormick Place for the Chicago Marathon expo. From his apartment, he saw the lights on and no one was inside.
Goedar saw the lights on and the drapes open again during the spring migration earlier this year. One night in May, he saw the lights on at the southern end of the building, especially concerning given the migratory birds were heading north, he said.
“One of the easiest policies they could follow is to just draw the drapes at night,” he said.
The spokesperson with McCormick Place said the lights are kept on and the drapes are opened at night only when the customer using the space requests it.
“McCormick Place is in such a critical location that it shouldn’t be an option. For the safety of birds, it shouldn’t be a customer’s decision,” said Prince of the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors.
The fall migration hits its second wave in late September and early October, Prince said. Given the upcoming slate of events at McCormick Place, Goedar wants to make sure the building’s managers are doing their part to keep birds safe.
“We owe it to these birds,” he said.