Woodlawn Apartments, Loop Hotel, Grand Crossing Art Space Get Preservation Award
Three Chicago buildings are among nine statewide that have been selected for this year’s Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award. The award is given annually by Landmarks Illinois, the advocacy group dedicated to preserving the state’s important landmarks. The Stony Island Arts Bank at 6700 South Stony Island Avenue won the award for restoration. You’ll remember this is the building that used to be the...
Work to Resume at Stalled Michigan Avenue Hotel Conversion
The transformation of the North Michigan Avenue corridor between the Chicago River and Millennium Park is about to get kicked up a notch. Long-stalled work on the building at 168 North Michigan Avenue is expected to resume soon. A trio of dead permits have been reinstated allowing construction crews to fix the exterior terra cotta on the 12 (should be 16) story building. Right now the building’s exterior is a pockmarked mess...
Status Update: WAY UP-dates
We’ve already told you our feelings on Aon Center stealing the show at Open House Chicago 2015. One of our favorite features of Aon’s 71st-floor vantage point, as well as the one high atop the Kemper Building‘s 41st-floor observation deck (new windows!) was being able to look out across the city and check on the progress of several construction projects. It’s one thing to stand at street level and look up to...
Status Update: Glass More Than Half Full at 360 North Michigan
The transformation of the London Guarantee and Accident Building, at 360 North Michigan Avenue, into the LondonHouse Hotel, continues in earnest along Upper Wacker Drive. “Wait”, you say. “What do you mean, ‘along Wacker’ when you just told us it’s on Michigan Avenue?” Well, that’s a legit query. As part of the LondonHouse remodeling project, what used to be a gap facing the Chicago...
Status Update: LondonHouse Spreading Down Wacker
The transformation of the London Guarantee and Accident Building at 360 North Michigan Avenue into the LondonHouse Hotel is well underway. For months we’ve been teased by scaffolding on its exterior, hinting at the magical demolition going on inside. Now we can see the new glass tower addition rising to the building’s west. The glass tower, designed by friends-of-the-blog Goettsch Partners, fills the space between the...
ICYMI: London Guarantee Building Gets a New Flag
Here’s a little piece of news that may have flown under your radar if you’re not snuggled deeply in the 800-thread-count world of the hotel industry. The new hotel being crafted inside the landmark London Guarantee Building (360 North Michigan Avenue) will be a Hilton. Earlier this month we reported that the new hotel would carry the name LondonHouse Hotel, a nod to livelier days when the London House jazzery still...
New Loop Hotel Pays Homage to Its Jazz History
Chicago is one of the few American cities where a man can still commute to work by train, buy a paper at a newsstand, get his shoes shined, relax for a hot straight-razor shave, and meet the fellas for a game of handball at the club at the end of the day. In spite of backpacks* and “casual Friday,” a ribbon of old-school Mad Men-style swagger still runs through downtown. A bit of that is coming back to life, if in name...
