Artist Judy Chicago logs out of Google renovation project over artistic differences

The celebrated visual artist Judy Chicago has walked away from a major commission at Google's headquarters project in the Loop, comparing an aspect of working with the tech giant as "a nightmare."

"We're really profoundly disappointed that we couldn't produce something that the people of Chicago would be happy with," said Chicago, who was born Judith Sylvia Cohen and later adopted the name of her hometown.

Chicago and her husband and collaborator, architect and photographer Donald Woodman, were picked in September to create a new terrazzo tile atrium floor at the base of the building.

Chicago's works, from small to large scale, have been exhibited in galleries, museums and corporate spaces across the planet.

Along with the floor, the Google job included a new decorative skin — possibly a mix of vinyl and stained glass — to adorn the atrium's exposed 17-story elevator system.

But Chicago and Woodman said they left the project after four months and while the artwork was still being conceived.

In a Thursday interview with the Sun-Times, Chicago and Woodman said a litany of problems with Google prompted their departure. Chicago first brought the issues to light last week in an opinion piece on Artnet.

The disclosures come as renovation work shifts to the interior of the former James R. Thompson Center; the exterior construction crane was taken down Friday.

The troubles described by the artists (along with the images they supplied for this column) are the public's first look behind the glass walls of the $300 million conversion project, beyond the news releases and architectural renderings released by Google.

"There are a lot of people in Chicago who feel very attached to that building," Chicago said. "You know, I think if Google is going to do a building in a city like Chicago with its architectural history, they should be respectful of that history."

Google spokesperson Ryan Lamont said the company sought to collaborate with Chicago on an interior art installation but couldn't agree on the project's specifications and timeline.

Lamont wouldn't address the specifics of what Chicago and Woodman said but trumpeted Google's art curation program.

A Google ‘nightmare’

Chicago and Woodman were selected for the project more than a year after renovations began on the former Thompson Center.

The artists met with Google's Chicago team, which includes architects at Jahn, the successor firm of Murphy/Jahn, the building's original designers who are handling the renovation.

Chicago said the first problems arose when Google failed to provide construction drawings needed to help the couple figure out sizing and dimensions of their proposed work.

"Getting the renovation plans and accurate architectural drawings was a nightmare," Chicago said. "Donald had to do most of that himself from his photographs that he took when we were there."

The artists said another point of difficulty was Google's desire to lay the new terrazzo title over the existing one.

The approach would require a thinner mix materials, but Google nixed letting Chicago and Woodman work directly with the terrazzo company to work out fabrication and other details.

And along the way, Google and the company's art consultant, without explanation, reduced the size of their floor design, the artists said.

What would have been an expansive retiling of the floor space was cut down to just a rosette replacing the one currently there.

Also, Chicago and Woodman said one project member complained Chicago's colors were too bright — an odd take given bright tones have been a hallmark of Chicago's work for more than six decades. The floor's design is based on the 1973 acrylic-on-canvas work "Through the Flower," one of the artist's best-known paintings.

But the color intensity of the finished product might have looked different once it's taken through the detailed dance between artists and fabricators that involves things like material selection, and coatings.

What you see on a monitor or printout isn't always what you get.

"It's much [like] a construction project [than buying] a painting and putting it on the wall, or to have a mural in a conference room " Woodman said. "This is a very unique project. I don't think Google has done this kind of thing very often."

What’s next?

Ever since Google released renderings of the renovation in 2024, there's been more than a little concern the building's unforgettable atrium, while not ripped down, would wind up blanded-out and ordinary.

Google didn't say if the job would now pass on to another artist. But here was a chance to make a bold move to make sure the new work retained color and life — albeit in a different form — to a space that will still function as kind of a town square.

Whether the atrium floor and elevators winds up being a blown opportunity or not depends on who or what Google tees up next.

Chicago told me the existing floor could be moved outside and made a part of the building's new outdoor plaza.

I think leaving the floor in place and restoring it would be a good idea at this point.

As for Chicago and Woodman: "I started [as an artist] when I was a little girl and ... used to go downtown to the Art Institute of Chicago, where I started taking art lessons," said Chicago, 86, who lives in New Mexico. "And so to come back to Chicago, at the end of my career would have been, like, completing a circle. And a wonderful kind of ending to what started in Chicago."