Our swanky new Chicago Tribune newsroom at Prudential Plaza

It’s been a little more than a week since we were evicted from Tribune Tower, but it seriously feels as though it’s already been ages.

I worked from home last Sunday, then arrived at work bright and early for our first day in the new newsroom last Monday.

It was… overwhelming, to say the least.

But, we’re settled in and I am absolutely loving our new space. It’s bright, modern and slick, and is so much of an upgrade over our last newsroom.

Tribune Tower is a beautiful building on the outside… but on the inside? It was a complete and total dump. Our newsroom was stocked with laughably large stained cubicles from the 1970s, complete with built-in filing cabinets and adjustable keyboard trays — although mine was broken so it didn’t actually adjust. We also each had our own full bookshelf and tv set from the 1990s on our desk. The newsroom ceiling tiles routinely leaked and crumbled and we had a major cockroach problem. We kept cans of roach killer within arms-reach of everyone’s desk… along with several old AP Stylebooks and dictionaries relegated to roach smashing.

Our new newsroom? So much nicer. We’re in Prudential Plaza, which opposite of Tribune Tower, doesn’t look like much from the outside, but is wonderful and modern on the inside thanks to a 2015 renovation.

The giant video board in Pru’s lobby, giving us a grand welcome.

Our office sign from inside the Prudential lobby.

…and our own private entrance on Stetson.

Our offices are comprised of three floors, which can be accessed through all the Prudential entrances as well as our own private entrance on Stetson. We have a mezzanine, the editorial department (where the newsroom lives) and our marketing and advertising floor.

There’s a large set of Spanish steps leading from our Stetson entrance up to the top floor, with power and USB outlets embedded in them.

There are giant projectors over the steps, too, so feasibly a hundred or so of us could sit on the stairs and watch the TVs above them… while charging our iPhones and MacBooks.

From the bottom of the Spanish steps. The mezz is just off to the right, then the third floor newsroom, then the fourth floor marketing and advertising departments all the way up at the top.

Our street-level video lab behind Abe Lincoln. Just past our private entrance on Stetson with the Spanish steps beginning to the right.

Our new offices have more than 70 (yes, SEVENTY) conference rooms. To compare: our Tribune Tower newsroom had like, six. It was practically the Hunger Games any time anyone needed to hold a meeting.

Several of our conference rooms are also named after important people in the history of our publication, like the Colonel and our Pulitzer winners.

Another conference room with framed photos of the artifacts from the tower walls.

A seating area in the newsroom centered around a table made from an old press plate.

Our office designers did a really great job of making the newsroom an open space while still giving us designated personal areas. One of my biggest pet peeves about some “modern” newsrooms is that the open office concept gets taken too far for my taste. A publication I used to work at moved from its historic newsroom to a modern newsroom within the months after I left, and journalists didn’t get desks. They were given laptops and backpacks and were told to “sit wherever” in a shared community space. Yikes. I love that our newsroom has open seating areas while still letting us all retain our desks. I need somewhere to keep my snacks and dry shampoo!

Our office is set up with honeycomb-like pods comprised of desks that shift from sitting to standing at the push of a button. The digital team and breaking news team both sit in the middle under a massive TV mount hanging from the ceiling. Other departments — sports, lifestyles, food and dining, etc. — all cluster around us.

The digital team had a corner by the windows in Tribune Tower, so moving from my quiet corner cubicle to a noisy desk in the middle of a hub is already a huge transition. But hopefully, it encourages other departments to keep digital presentation in mind when creating content for the Tribune.

The newsroom, with the digital and breaking news teams sitting in the middle.

I also really love our mezzanine area. We have free tea and coffee (something Tribune Tower did not offer) and a “modern” vending machine, which is basically a mini-market stocked with supermarket-style refrigeration units and snacks. We can pay at a kiosk using a plastic keychain tab or fingerprints linked to our accounts.

The view from the mezzanine looking toward the lobby of Prudential Plaza.

I cannot get over the details here. Look at those light fixtures on the right over the mezzanine kitchenette!

Our newsroom kitchenette is a major upgrade over Tribune Tower… where we couldn’t use the microwave and toaster at the same time without blowing a fuse and discarded home refrigerators were swapped in and out as they broke down.

True story, all of these microwaves work.

The designers really took our publication’s storied history into consideration when decorating the space. We have tables made from old press plates, framed editorial cartoons, large brass recreations of historic fronts and some furniture — including our editorial board table — from the tower.

They even decorated our private entrance with modern versions of some of the quotes from Tribune Tower’s lobby.

A modernized version of the quotes from Tribune Tower’s Hall of Inscriptions.

Our old editorial boardroom table made it to the new newsroom.

And… omg. Can we talk about the Prudential common areas?! Like the rooftop?! WITH THIS VIEW?!

Not to mention the free gym and employee lounge area with a fireplace, bar and shuffleboard table!

A small corner of the rooftop, with couches and a firepit.

The shuffleboard table in the Prudential employee lounge.

Moving into our new digs was a complete sensory overload. The moving process itself was chaotic. My bus actually broke down on the way into the new newsroom, which really should have been the first sign I was in for one hell of a day. We have our own private entrance at Prudential, but it doesn’t open until an hour after my shift starts. I followed the building access email I received and I tried to use the main entrance, and then was redirected to our private entrance, and then I was sent to the wrong floor. It took me about 30 minutes to actually find my desk, where I was greeted by a pile of equipment and missing cables and, yunno, the overwhelming sense of urgency regarding the actual work I needed to do.

After ~~stealing~~ borrowing a power cable from another producer (sorry Tony!) and sending out an email, I promptly broke my sit/stand desk, which remained stuck as far down as it would go — lopsided and balancing on my under-desk cabinet with its legs off the floor — for about seven hours until I figured out how to reset it. Then my computer battery died because it hadn’t actually been charging. I realized my trash can was missing. IT brought the wrong cables for our monitors. Our TV channels couldn’t be changed. I was tempted to just go to the bathrooms and cry… but I couldn’t actually find the bathrooms to do so.

BUT! Totally and completely worth it.

Here are some more photos from photographer Brian Cassella, who does the space much better justice than I.

I really wish I could do this space justice, but photos really can’t capture how fantastic it is. And the best part is, it’s still being decorated! Every time I come in there’s a new seating area, new decorations on the walls and new finishing touches added to the space. I can’t wait to see what it looks like when it’s fully complete.

Anyway. I know I spent this entire post gushing, but I really and truly love our new newsroom. I really cannot wait to settle in and make it our home, and see what awesome journalism the Trib keeps kicking out.