And all of this construction will help set Chicago apart from most other US cities. Of the 41 markets studied by JLL, Chicago is the only one they predict will be tenant-friendly, meaning less pressure to pay higher rents or give up lease concessions, in both 2016 and 2017.

Still, whatever the ups and downs, “Chicago does not swing with the volatility of a New York or San Francisco; there's just not the same huge valleys and peaks.” For one thing, the city's economy remains quite diverse, without an over-dependence on one industry. And unlike Manhattan and San Francisco, Chicago is not landlocked, giving developers more options to create new office submarkets. Steinmeyer points to the sparkling new offices filling the Fulton Market area. “Five years ago, most people would not have known where the heck that even was.” He adds that although few law firms will leave the CBD for a former meat-packing district, plenty of high-tech, design and creatively-focused firms will move, “and create holes in the more traditional market.”

But the current tendency among many corporations to shrink their footprints by ditching single offices for more efficient and collaborative spaces, thereby loosening up whatever market they're in, has not really taken hold in the US legal world. “They have not evolved in the way they use space; you don't see that as an emerging trend.” And Chicago lawyers may be even more reluctant than coastal firms to embrace the trend, Steinmeyer says, since the relatively lower cost here decreases the pressure to change. “I think it's easier to justify that in the Midwest. It allows those less efficient but enjoyable practices to continue; everybody likes to have their own office.”

Some Chicago law firms have shrunk their office footprints by switching to single-sized offices or adding interior offices, but these modifications have been modest compared to changes instituted at other downtown companies.

“I'm not optimistic that there will be much movement on that,” he adds. Changes to improve efficiency “are not revolutionary in any sense; other industries have been looking at this for decades.” But many firms worry that radical changes will hurt recruiting with prospective associates.

If the law firms want to tilt the landlord-tenant balance further in their direction, the question must be, “which markets will truly take the lead in transforming the use of space for increased efficiency? It's hard to imagine they won't eventually gravitate that way.”