The Blue Cross/Blue Shield building, located at the north end of
Grant Park in Chicago, is a prominent landmark on the City’s
lakefront. The building is comprised primarily of office space, but
also includes a large conference/training facility, food service, retail
areas and other employee amenity areas.

Blue Cross/Blue Shield’s leadership role in health care made careful
balancing of design and budget a priority for this high profile
development. The demanding programmatic requirements called
for the ability to nearly double in program area, in relatively small
increments, over a ten to twenty year period. In response, the team
integrated design, development, and construction disciplines early
in the development process resulting in a building designed
to expand vertically by an additional 12 floors in two separate
phases without disturbing the existing occupants.

Higgins Development Partners was selected from more than forty
competitors to provide full design/build Development Management
services on a progress payment basis. In this capacity, Higgins
Development Partners served as a fee developer on the project and
provided a guaranteed maximum price for the client with 50% shared
savings that accrued to the client.