The Ferris — 1 W. Monroe Street, Chicago

AI is in its earliest innings — and the most interesting work is being done by people who think like mad scientists. We built a place for you to do it.

The Ferris began the way good things usually do: a few people, a building in the middle of Chicago, and a stubborn feeling that the rooms most of us work in were not designed for the era we're now living in. Offices were built for a kind of work that AI is quietly making obsolete. The next great companies will be built by people who treat AI like a collaborator — and they need a different kind of room.

So we made one.

What we believe

We believe AI is too important to learn alone, and too new to learn from a textbook. The people getting good at it are the ones surrounded by other people getting good at it — sharing prompts at lunch, watching each other work, arguing about what's actually useful and what's hype.

We believe a building can be a collaborator. Not a backdrop. The rooms you work in should know when you've been heads-down too long, when the energy on the floor has shifted, when it's time to grab water or come back. A space designed by people who understand both architecture and intelligence can quietly give you back your best hours.

And we believe the future of AI doesn't belong to whoever buys the most compute. It belongs to whoever learns to use it well, together.

Who this is for

You come here because you're building something with AI and you want to be near other people doing the same.
You come here because you sense AI is going to reshape your work and you'd rather get ahead of it than be caught by it.
You come here because curiosity feels lonelier than it should, and you want a room full of people who take ideas — and each other — seriously.

You don't need to be a researcher. You don't need a finished company. You need to be curious, generous with what you know, and a little bit obsessed with what AI is about to make possible.

What you get

The Ferris is, first, a beautiful place to work — designed by some of the best workplace and hospitality architects we've ever met, in the heart of downtown Chicago.

It's also something more. The building runs its own AI infrastructure on-site. Every member receives a pair of headphones paired to a personal assistant we call Ferris — an AI that learns the rhythms of your day and the rhythms of the building, and nudges both toward your best work.

And because AI can be overwhelming, three companions sit alongside Ferris. Their job is to help you actually become great at this:

Mira

Prompt coach

Helps you write better prompts. Reviews yours, suggests reframes, and teaches you the patterns that separate good prompting from great.

Sage

AI educator

Surfaces what's newly possible — models, techniques, tools — so you spend less time hunting and more time building.

Otto

Automation partner

Looks at how you actually work and helps you decide what's worth automating — and what's better left to a human.

The Inner Circle

Behind the agents sits a small group of advisors we've quietly assembled — operators, researchers, and builders who've shipped real things in AI. They work with member companies on the harder, more bespoke questions: where AI fits in your business, how to architect it, who to hire. Every company is different. We treat it that way.

What we ask

Membership at The Ferris is reciprocal. You don't just use what we've built — you make it better.

Every member contributes back. Sharing what worked. Correcting Ferris when it gets things wrong. Teaching Mira a new prompt pattern. Telling Otto where it got the call right. The building gets smarter because you're in it, and the next member who walks in inherits the wisdom of everyone who came before.

The only real expectation: show up, and give before you ask.

The honest part

A covenant, not a disclosure

A building that responds to how you work needs to know how you work. The Ferris is instrumented — cameras at sightlines, sensors that read the rhythms of the floor, signals from how the space is used. Members opt in to this with a clear, written waiver. Private zones stay private. Data is aggregated, not personalized for surveillance.

In return, you get a stake. The AI layer that gets smarter because of you is a layer you helped build — and members are the first to benefit from it. We're building this with you, not on you. If that tradeoff isn't for you, there are plenty of other places to work. The Ferris is for people who want to be part of the experiment.

What we owe you back

Being part of The Ferris means being measured — and we hold ourselves to the same standard. We'll report openly, to the community, on how we're doing:

System quality: how much Ferris improved, and an honest count of where it still gets things wrong.
Time returned: hours the agents saved our members, handed back to the actual work.
Member wellness: movement, breaks, and the rhythms of a healthy workday.

If this sounds like your kind of room,

we want to meet you. Applications take about ten minutes. We read every one.

Apply to join

Rolling admissions · Limited memberships

I spent a career thinking about how rooms shape the work that happens in them. The Ferris is the room I always wanted to build, made for the moment we're finally in. Come see it.

Warmly,

David Dewane

Executive Director · The Ferris