Shedd Aquarium

Shedd Aquarium’s new south entry transforms a once-dark, disorienting corridor into a calm, intuitive threshold for millions of visitors each year. Partnering with VDT, Turf customized its Swell ceiling — expanding the system with new tile types, integrating it around lighting and mechanicals, and engineering accessible mounting solutions — to express the project’s core idea of flow while meeting the challenges of a 100-year-old building. The result is a shallow, durable, recycled PET ceiling that looks parametric but installs with modular ease, improving acoustics, reinforcing wayfinding, and creating a moment of quiet that contrasts beautifully with the bustle of ticketing.