The Chicago Athletic Association opened its doors at 12 S. Michigan Ave. in 1893, just in time for the World’s Columbian Exposition. In contrast to the Beaux-Arts classicism of the fabled White City, architect Henry Ives Cobb designed the 11-story clubhouse in a polychromatic Venetian Gothic idiom. In late May, John Pritzker, chairman of Commune Hotels + Resorts and son of prize-founders Cindy and Jay, reopened the doors after a sensitive renovation by Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture and überfashionable design firm Roman & Williams. The result: a 241-room boutique hotel called, fittingly, the Chicago Athletic Association Hotel.
Michigan Avenue Redux
A Chicago landmark by Henry Ives Cobb gets a second life as a boutique hotel, in the caring hands of Roman & Williams and Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture.
Nicholas James