Relevant Radio Global Media Center Lincolnshire, Illinois

Relevant Radio is a Catholic radio station and global media center. In 2020, Relevant Radio decided to move its primary recording studios and corporate headquarters from Green Bay to the Chicagoland area. After exploring JNKA’s conceptual designs for a new building on a property in Chicago, they decided to purchase and renovate the former United Auto Workers Region headquarters building in Lincolnshire, Illinois. 

While this building was less than twenty years old and in good condition, Relevant Radio needed to convert significant portions of the first-floor offices and meeting spaces into their new recording studios, including adding a 70-seat chapel for televising their daily Masses and Rosary Across America programs. They also wanted to create a more welcoming public entrance and gallery space to showcase their mission and studios to visitors, convert the garage into a new workspace for their engineering team, and upgrade their kitchen and restroom facilities.

Circulation and security issues weighed heavily on the organization of the spaces, and all the public areas were updated for a more contemporary look.  A renovated lobby and new reception desk provide a welcoming entrance. A new opening from the lobby leads to a lounge space with cafeteria-style seating for events and staff lunches provided by a new commercial kitchen. A visitors’ gallery space incorporates state-of-the-art audio-visual equipment with touchscreen presentations of Relevant Radio’s programming, history, and mission.  Soundproof glazing in the side wall of the gallery provides views into the showcase studio, producers’ studio, and technical operations center. A nearby creative space provides a forum for collaborative group events and presentations.  At the center of this series of spaces is the Chapel of the Proclamation, intentionally transitional in aesthetic.  Historical forms and overall design emphasize the continuity of the Catholic Church’s theology and history, reinterpreted through a modern lens to align with Relevant Radio’s mission of “Bringing Christ to the world through the media.”