Former McDonald’s Campus in Oak Brook, Illinois

McDonald's developed a campus-in-park headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois, aiming for a nature-integrated design with winding paths and water features. The campus, completed in 1988, included a hotel connected to Hamburger University and featured some whimsical, 1980s-inspired kitsch. Driven by a desire to attract younger talent, McDonald's relocated its headquarters to the city, leaving the Oak Brook campus vacant and in disrepair. In 2023, Ace Hardware revitalized the main headquarters building, preserving its midcentury architecture while modernizing it and reinvesting in employee amenities. Much of the campus has since been resold, with some areas repurposed as public parkland and soccer fields. While most of the campus has changed hands, remnants of its McDonald's past persist. The street "Ronald Ln" remains, and statues still acknowledge the Ronald McDonald House charity. A memorial lantern gifted by McDonald's Japan can be found on a lake island. Water features and statues are largely intact, with the Hyatt Lodge hotel retaining signs pointing to "Hamburger University." Paintings within the lodge are clearly inspired by McDonald's, and the largest Ohio Buckeye tree in the U.S. stands outside the hotel entrance.