Loop Spy DS sent in a couple of photographs of what will soon become Lakeshore Sport and Fitness Illinois Center (301 North Stetson Avenue).
The sweat shop will open inside what was the Lakeshore Athletic Club until a couple of years ago when it closed. The space has been vacant since then.
According to Crain’s Chicago Business, the new owners plan to sink as much as four million dollars into renovating the space.
The building, tucked into a nook surrounded by the Fairmont Hotel (200 North Columbus Drive), Aon Center (200 East Randolph Street), and the Park Millennium (222 North Columbus Drive) is the work of famous Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. When it opened in 1986* as The Sporting Club, it was considered his finest work, and was a regular stop on architecture tours of the era. Since then, most people who aren’t in architecture circles have forgotten about the Metabolist Movement.
