Developer: Sage Hospitality
Architect: Lucien Lagrange Architects
Location: South Michigan and East Balbo
Construction end: 2007

Maharishi finds buyer for transcendent mess
March 2, 2005
BY DAVID ROEDER SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

We've heard this before -- there's a plan to breathe new life into the landmark Blackstone Hotel at 636 S. Michigan. Only this time there could be real money and skill behind the deal.

The Blackstone, which has been closed since 1999, is under contract to be sold to Denver-based Sage Hospitality Resources LLP. A source said the contract is for around $24 million and will close in a few weeks and perhaps sooner.

The seller is Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the transcendental meditation guru whose strange ideas about Chicago real estate included trying to turn the building into a condo property posher than the Gold Coast. Without the Gold Coast location, he couldn't sell any units.

But it's really a three-way deal. Sources said Sage Hospitality is in talks with the city over a substantial subsidy for the project. The decrepit hotel needs a gut rehab and cost estimates for that have ranged as high as $100 million.

This time, the Blackstone would remain as a hotel. Art Burrows, the property's broker and senior vice president at NAI Hiffman, said any plan to make it residential would require expensive configuration for internal parking. He declined to discuss anything about the deal.

Sage Hospitality President Walter Isenberg couldn't be reached Tuesday and city officials were unavailable to discuss the subsidy talks. Isenberg's firm runs the Essex Inn at 800 S. Michigan, one of downtown's cheapest hotels. Its other hotels around the country include urban rehabs in Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Denver.

Strange.. condos would work wonderfully in that area as long as they weren't of the Gold Coast variety. Maybe the high cost of renovating details, etc. in accordance with the landmark status require something with a higher return?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0512230179dec23,1,6756778.story?coll=chi-business-hed

Deal completed for Blackstone
Published December 23, 2005

A joint venture that includes Denver-based Sage Hospitality Resources LLC has closed on the acquisition of the shuttered Blackstone Hotel at 636 S. Michigan Ave., and plans to reopen the property in less than two years. A non-profit group headed by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi owned the 22-story building. After an unsuccessful attempt to convert it into condominiums, the group hired Oakbrook Terrace-based real estate firm NAI Hiffman to market the property. Sage's joint-venture partner in the $112 million project is JPMorgan Fleming Asset Management, said Kenneth Geist, a partner in Sage. The 327-room property will be part of the Marriott Renaissance chain but will retain its historic name.

Hope the Sage developers restore the Blackstone Hotel to its original glory.

I guess Lucien is doing the renovation.

http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/1790/blackstone2zu.jpg

What a crime...

Looks good to me! What's wrong w/ it spyguy?

No, I'm happy about the redevelopment. But it's sad that it was left to crumble until now.

..

http://www.globest.com/news/554_554/chicago/145850-1.html

McHugh Lands $112M Blackstone Renovation

Denver-based Sage Hospitality Resources has hired James McHugh Construction Co. to renovate the historic Blackstone Hotel at 636 S. Michigan Ave. The $112-million project is expected to bring 330 hotel rooms to the South Loop next fall, eight years after the last guests checked out.
In the intervening years, plans were announced for a condominium conversion, which failed to materialize. Maharishi Royal Residences, LLC sold the Blackstone Hotel in December for $18 million. The hotel will reopen as a Marriott Renaissance property, with a restored lobby, ballroom and second-story restaurant overlooking Grant Park. The restaurant will be built in space that was part of the old Mayfair Theatre.

Because of its landmark status, the Blackstone Hotel project will include restoring the terra cotta facade and mansard roof. The city is committing up to $18 million in tax increment financing to Sage Hospitality Resources as an incentive.

McHugh has established itself in the hotel sector, building or renovating 4,000 rooms during the last 10 years. Its projects include the Crowne Plaza Chicago Metro, Hotel 71, Hotel Monaco and Hotel Allegro.

The next Friends of Downtown Brown Bag presentation

Thursday, December 7th at 12.15
Chicago Cultural Center
Millennium Park Room, 5th floor southeast

Blackstone Hotel Renovation

Representatives from Sage Hospitality will discuss the history, acquisition and renovation of the Blackstone Hotel. As announced in 2005, the hotel is undergoing a $112 million renovation with a planned opening in 2007 in a deal between Marriott Renaissance and Sage Hospitality, a Denver-based company. Named for Timothy B. Blackstone, a prominent railroad executive and the founding president of the Union Stock Yards whose mansion had stood on the site, it is planned that the new building will retain its historic name.

---------------------------

Anyone know if they're going to restore the roof to the original green color or not? That would make quite an impact from different skyline views.

Are you sure the roof was green? I would have assumed zinc or lead rather than copper for the mansard.

^Well I'm basing this off of old postcards that I've seen before, like:

http://patsabin.com/illinois/blackstone.jpg

or

http://www.historicchicagohotels.com/BlackstoneHotel.jpg

I asked about the roof at the Brown Bag today. The original mansard was green terra-cotta (!). The replacement roof will be standing-seam metal, and once again will be green.

^Then it is confirmed. It'll be quite different seeing this building with green at the top.

what other details about the renovations/restorations were given? are they restoring the ballroom and or lobby area?

did any one ask if they could buy the vacant land to the west of their building on Wabash and build the second tower that was originally proposed? actually, im sure noone asked, i wold have, but went up to the observation deck of sears for the first time, then went to milwaukee.

Total project cost is $112m. Exterior renovation is $10m of that. $18m comes from TIF district. Finished project will have 332 guestrooms and 13,000 sq ft meeting space. Opening is fall 2007.

The original city landmark designation specified several public spaces to be protected, including the lobby and entrances. The city's TIF contribution allowed them to add several more, so now there are 7 or 8 protected elements, including the marble-lined barber shop (will be a meeting room), the Presidential Suite, and the "smoke-filled room." The SHPO has also been pushing on corridors, but this is essentially a gut job that's completely reconfiguring the guestroom floors. For one thing, the original bathrooms were along the outside walls (for ventilation, I guess). They're building out the guestroom floors with a more conventional modern layout, so I guess they've run all new stacks.

They mentioned the planned second tower in telling the building's history.

what other details about the renovations/restorations were given? are they restoring the ballroom and or lobby area?

did any one ask if they could buy the vacant land to the west of their building on Wabash and build the second tower that was originally proposed? actually, im sure noone asked, i wold have, but went up to the observation deck of sears for the first time, then went to milwaukee.


I thought I heard rumors that an aloft hotel was proposed at that site. The article I read said they were close to completing the deal. And I think if you go to the site today, there is a rendering of a different building there - more of a squat glass office type building (but it has been there for a LONG time).

I saw plenty of these mansard-type buildings in Washington recently. They looked amazing, and really added to the streetscape, so I'm glad that OUR best example is getting a makeover.

I wish some of this hotel renovation momentum would make its way over the Congress Hotel. That building has excellent history, architectural bones, and location to be a real stunner. But, as it stands now, it is a total rat hole.

..

I dunno. But I bet Buddy Guy could have made it part of the deal if he was concerned that he could not find a new home. Here is an article from 8/2/06.

Hotel deal may lift the blues from Buddy Guy
Chicago blues legend Buddy Guy could be singing a happy tune with a deal to sell a site near his famed South Loop night club for a trendy, but moderately-priced hotel.

Developer Scott Greenberg confirmed that he has contract to buy a site on the northeast corner of Wabash Avenue and Balbo Drive, where he proposes to build a 160-room aloft hotel, a new brand and style of hotel by industry giant Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.

He declined to identify the seller, but property records show that the site is controlled by Chicago-based Checkerboard Productions Inc., whose president is George "Buddy" Guy. The site is about a block away from Buddy Guy’s Legends, 754 S. Wabash Ave.

Brian Moravec, the club’s manager and a corporate officer, could not be reached for comment.

Advertisement


Related Article Topics | Related Industry News
Land prices in the South Loop have exceeded $200 a square foot, which would make the site worth roughly $3 million, real estate experts estimate. The site, which includes a small restaurant building, is about 9,500 square feet, property records show. Mr. Greenberg, president of Lincolnshire-based ECD Co., also declines comment on the price.

The site is along a stretch of Wabash Avenue that hasn’t benefited from the building boom that has hit elsewhere in the South Loop.

“That one little nook isn’t yet switched over, but it’s not that hard to imagine connecting up what’s happening both further north and further south of it,” says Mr. Greenberg.

Unveiled last year, aloft is expected to be a limited service version of Starwood’s hip W Hotels division, an alternative to traditional business hotels.

The site is adjacent to the giant Hilton Chicago, the huge convention hotel at 720 S. Michigan Ave., and the Blackstone Hotel, 636 S. Michigan Ave., which is being renovated as part of the Marriott Renaissance chain.

Plans for the aloft must still be approved by city officials, but Mr. Greenberg expects construction to begin in early 2007.

Meanwhile, Mr. Greenberg says he also has plans for another 130-room aloft hotel, expanding his City Park lifestyle center in Lincolnshire, with construction to begin later this year. Meanwhile, he is still in the planning stages on yet another hotel project at State and Lake Streets, he adds.

An aloft is also being planned for a site at 505 N. State St. by Chicago-based John Buck Co.




http://chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/news.pl?id=21579

http://midwest.construction.com/features/archive/0702_cover.asp

Chicago's Blackstone Hotel

Redo Removing Grime from Inn
Famous for 'Smoke-Filled Room'

by Jim Sulski

Off to the side of an otherwise gutted and cavernous ninth floor of the historic Blackstone Hotel on South Michigan Avenue is a solitary hotel suite, its hardwood trim, fireplace and furniture intact.

This is the famous "smoke-filled room," the one where numerous presidents and politicians supposedly plotted and schemed back in the heyday of the Blackstone. The room's political cliché label was applied when Warren G. Harding was picked as the compromise Republican presidential candidate for the 1920 elections.

The preserved suite illustrates the work that has been taking place on the Blackstone since May and will finish up late this year. It's a $112 million job in which developers at some points are gutting the South Michigan Avenue structure and at other places gingerly chipping around its historic pieces.

"The challenge here was to keep the hotel's history but bring the building into the 21st Century," says Brian Hardy, project manager of Chicago-based James McHugh Construction Co., the general contractor.

The nearly century-old 22-story Blackstone is being converted back into a world-class hotel-on a tight 18-month schedule-after sitting dormant for about eight years. When it reopens as part of the Marriott Renaissance chain, it will offer 330 guest rooms, a restored ballroom and lobby, conference and boardrooms, a Michigan Avenue bar and a second-floor restaurant with views of Grant Park.

"It will once again be a diamond," Hardy says.

The property was purchased in 2005 by Denver-based Sage Hospitality Resources, known for rehabbing historic hotels, and reports two years ago say it was listed for $31 million. Chicago's Lucien LaGrange Architects is the designer for the project, and the engineering firm handling the exterior renovation is Chicago-based Wiss, Janney Elstner & Associates.

Refashioning the hotel into modern destination place has presented some problems, says Jared Hoeflich, Sage's project manager for the Blackstone.

For example, a landmark designation by the Commission on Chicago
Landmarks that came in 1998 has meant that numerous aspects of the hotel had to be preserved-ranging from its facade to large sections of its interior.

"We want to be respectful of the space and of the history and the design of the period, but we also want to provide what the market demands," Hoeflich says.

Hence the preservation of the famous smoke-filled room on the ninth floor, which will now be know as the Vice Presidential Suite.

There is also a preserved Presidential Suite on the floor above in which 12 U.S. presidents (from Theodore Roosevelt to Franklin D. Roosevelt to Jimmy Carter) stayed. It will be restored and updated.

Exterior Work

One of the biggest jobs of the project has been restoring and shoring up the hotel's terra cotta exterior. So that work can progress through the winter months, the building was clad in a blue plastic sheath so that temperatures could be controlled, Hardy says. "That will also us to do the terra cotta work throughout the entire winter," he says.

From the 17th floor up, there was a vast amount of terra cotta work to do, Hardy says. "There was also deterioration of the steel behind it, and there was a lot of strapping to hold it all together," he adds. "We were pulling a lot a brick and terra cotta down, repairing the steel, cleaning the terra cotta and with new pieces, putting it all back on."

Hoeflich says the $9 million exterior job is not typical, "but we were extremely pleased we were able to do the restoration work quickly considering the complexity of the job."

The hotel's mansard roof is also being rebuilt with much work to the substrate below, and new, double-hung fixed windows are being installed on the exterior.

Inside Renovation

The interior renovation's focus has been on the first few floors and basement-known as the public areas-which will be meticulously restored to their original charm.

In the main lobby, McHugh will restore the grand fireplace, mahogany accents and plaster detailing. The Crystal Ballroom, the Art Hall, the English Room and the lower-level barbershop will also be brought back to their former state of grandeur.

There was also a good amount of cannibalizing existing materials to patch and replace, Hardy says. For example, in the hotel's woody English Room-which will now serve as a boardroom-wooden pocket door panels were used to patch wooden wall paneling that had been damaged or removed over the years, he adds.

To ensure they were on track with the restoration efforts, McHugh engineers used a number of sources-from the original 1909 blueprints for the hotel to advice from the Blackstone's maintenance director.

McHugh engineers also wrestled in the interior of the building with the installation of mechanical systems. To install needed ceiling sprinkler systems, workers had to drill down through 19-in.-thick floors.

On the sixth floor, the developers will get around massive trusses that hold up the ceiling of the fifth-floor ballroom by building a workout room around them.

"It will be a workout room with a great view of Grant Park," Hardy says.

New stairs are being added in the building's northwest corner.

The sixth through 23rd floors will feature completely new guest rooms.

Former "back of house" space located under the porthole-accented double-high mansard roof will be used for sweeping luxury suites with lakefront views as well as a concierge service area

Urban Mission

Developers also faced a logistical challenge with the location of the Blackstone at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Balbo Street. For example, demolition was slated as a six-month project, and McHugh wrestled with the amount of debris that had to be removed from the Blackstone.

"We had to close down the alley between Michigan and Wabash and we went to the neighbors first," Hardy says. "We wanted them to be OK with it."

The resurrection of the Blackstone as a luxury hotel is only fitting, its developers say. When the hotel (which was named after Timothy Blackstone, the inaugural president of the Union Stock yards) was built in the early 20th Century, it joined a growing league of luxury hotels in Chicago that included the Palmer House and Hilton Towers. The hotel also has been used in such movies as "The Untouchables," "The Babe" and "The Color of Money."

Even though the Commission on Chicago Landmarks gave the Blackstone the designation of landmark status in 1998, it was closed a year later after city inspectors issued numerous building violations to the hotel's owners.

The hotel sat dormant for a year or so until the building was targeted for a condo conversion project of ex-Beatles spiritual adviser Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Ohio-based Heaven on Earth Inns Corp. planned to turn the Blackstone into a "peace palace." The top end prices, however, scared prospective owners away and the Blackstone languished in the dark for several more years while its exterior began to crumble.

"To see this building slowly come back to life is rewarding," Hoeflich says.

"This is one of the most history-rich hotel properties in the U.S."

Reading this article about the wonderful restoration going on made me smile. It reminds me of the one that took place next door in the eighties at the Chicago Hiltion and Towers.

I only wish that the incredible, but currently 100% dilapitated, Congress Hotel would get sold and restored. It is a joke right now.(If you want a good laugh, read the comments on 'Trip Advisor'!) I wouldn't let my enemies stay there. It location, public spaces and history would befit a Ritz-Carlton or the like.

Reading this article about the wonderful restoration going on made me smile. It reminds me of the one that took place next door in the eighties at the Chicago Hiltion and Towers.

I only wish that the incredible, but currently 100% dilapitated, Congress Hotel would get sold and restored. It is a joke right now.(If you want a good laugh, read the comments on 'Trip Advisor'!) I wouldn't let my enemies stay there. It location, public spaces and history would befit a Ritz-Carlton or the like.


I agree in that a major renovation/overhaul to the Congress Hotel, similar to that of the Blackstone Hotel, would be a really great project given it's location and history.

Yes, I think the lobby of the Congress Hotel is the ugliest big city hotel lobby I have ever seen.

Yes, I think the lobby of the Congress Hotel is the ugliest big city hotel lobby I have ever seen.

What? You need to look again and more carefully. After a historical renovation, it could be the most grand in the city. The public spaces in that hotel are incredible....just currently in disprepair.

July 14, 2007

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/1055/dsc0230copymq4.jpg

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8938/dsc0232copyco0.jpg

:applause: :cheer: Wow! New sparkle for the Michigan Avenue wall.

[QUOTE=spyguy;11645241]http://midwest.construction.com/features/archive/0702_cover.asp

[B]Chicago's Blackstone Hotel

Thanks for sharing;

1. Building Use - Were it not for 9/11, this would have been a condo building
by now.

I doubt some of the 'regular' developers would have went through the
same depth and detail in restoring, especially with some of the
substructure repairs required while fixing the facade. Kudos to this group.

2. This should be a model for all developers to achieve in terms of quality,
committment, cooperation, communication. Wow.

3. When you look at some of the recent restoration work in Chicago and
the results like this, the Allerton, Carbon & Carbide building, etc. it
makes you wonder what the city is thinking on some of these other
preservation debates like the Ritz Carlton project, Lake Shore athletic
club, etc. These are incredible structures that have not been taken
care of by the owners, so why should the city let the owners off of the
hook so easily?

4. Movies - I think they were basing, at least the story and some of the
scenes for the CBS show, "Early Edition" in the late 1990's

The roof didn't turn out like I thought, however the brick looks quite clean. Also, I don't think this is officially complete until sometime in October.

What don't you like about the roof? I think it looks fantastic!

..

This morning, a crane was lifting HVAC units to the roof. This must be right at the limit of what you can do with a truck-mounted crane rather than having to bring in the Skyhook.

Anyway, the view from the west gives a nice before-and-after for the roof:

http://img459.imageshack.us/img459/4958/blackstonerenovationto1.jpg

..

No, the portals were part of the original design. You can check the EMPORIS
pictures.

..

Please please please tell me that you're positive the mechanicals are getting screened in!!!! They look horrendous!

At today's CAF lecture, Lucien Lagrange said the Blackstone might not open until January or February of next year.

I noticed over the weekend that the west-side mansard roof has been completed and all scaffolding removed. Still no screening on the mechanicals, though.

Interesting. The hotel's website (http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/chirh-the-blackstone-a-renaissance-hotel/) still says "Opening in December 2007."

I guess I'm more interested in how the restored common spaces now look.

Lovely building, it looks like they put alot of work into cleaning the exterior.

http://www.timeout.com/chicago/articles/restaurants-bars/25057/hello-my-name-is-

Hello, my name is ________________
Big chefs are coming in 2008; here’s a primer to help get you acquainted.

By Heather Shouse

Jose Garces
Best known for the two-year-old tapas restaurant Amada and the brand-new Spanish wine bar Tinto, both in Philly. Prior to opening these, he worked for years under Douglas Rodriguez, considered by many to have fathered the Nuevo Latino movement in America.
Big plans for a spacious Spanish tapas spot called Mercat a la Planxa. The menu is inspired by Catalan cuisine, so expect dishes like crispy bluefin tuna with ham-olive escabeche and black cod confit with blood sausage potatoes. Sangria supplements the Spanish wine list, and the design is said to reference the hexagonal shape of Barcelona’s famed outdoor market Mercat Boqueria.
Look for it in the soon-to-be renovated Blackstone Hotel at 600 S Michigan Ave in March.

Nice.. I would really love to see updated photos of the renovation..especially interiors!

..

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/realestate/commercial/13hotel.html?ref=business

A Chicago Hotel’s New Life in a Rising Area

By ROBERT SHAROFF
Published: February 13, 2008

The restoration of the Blackstone, a fabled but long vacant hotel on South Michigan Avenue here, is evidence of a reviving lodging market in one of the country’s largest convention cities. It also reflects the newfound vitality of the South Loop neighborhood in the wake of the development of nearby Millennium Park in the early 2000s.

http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/716/13sqft190lk9.jpghttp://img521.imageshack.us/img521/120/13sqft2190ev7.jpg
Walter L. Isenberg, Sage Hospitality’s chief executive, left, and Fletcher Mayes, the Blackstone’s general manager, in the restored ballroom. Below, a west-facing view of the hotel.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/realestate/commercial/13hotel.html?ref=business

It also reflects the newfound vitality of the South Loop neighborhood in the wake of the development of nearby Millennium Park in the early 2000s.
[/I]

I don't know why but that line makes me laugh. I mean couldn't they have said a few years ago. It makes it sound like the year is 2108 instead of 2008. Maybe I just weird, idk.

The Blackstone is open. I talked to the doorman this afternoon. The hotel opened last weekend, the Starbucks on Michigan is open, and the restaurant, Mercat, is scheduled to open this coming weekend. All the construction barriers are down, and from a peek in the door it looks like the restaurant has a bar on the ground floor and a cool spiral staircase up to the restaurant itself on the 2nd floor. Entrance to Mercat on Michigan, and the main hotel entrance on Balbo.

Blackstone Hotel reopens after major renovation

By Kathy Bergen
2:44 PM CST, March 6, 2008

The historic Blackstone hotel, a Beaux-Arts architectural landmark at 636 S. Michigan Avenue, reopened Thursday after a $128 million restoration.

The long-dormant 23-story hotel, which will operate as a Renaissance brand, provided lodging for many 20th Century presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to John F. Kennedy, and such stars as Rudolph Valentino and Lena Horne. Its most famous suite is the infamous "smoke-filled room," where cigar-smoking Republican politicians brokered the nomination of Warren G. Harding during the 1920 convention.

http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/5681/36458693kz1.jpg

http://www.nearwestgazette.com/Archive/2008/0308/News0308e.htm

Grant Park street wall, surrounding buildings examined at GPAC meeting
By Hayley Carlton

http://img259.imageshack.us/img259/7961/picture2ob0.jpg

Very schnazzy. It's always great when classic hotels get a second lease on life. Projects like this one and Spertus help make South Michigan Avenue a more viable corridor for tourists and residents alike.

I sort of like the lobby carpet, but the best I can say about the one in the ballroom is that it will usually be covered with tables and chairs!

Very schnazzy. It's always great when classic hotels get a second lease on life. Projects like this one and Spertus help make South Michigan Avenue a more viable corridor for tourists and residents alike.

Now if only the owners of the historic Congress Hotel would sell to a high end hotel chain, such as Ritz-Carlton. The place is in dire need of an extreme makeover.

And to think of it, our lovely Drake is a bit natty these days. It needs a NYC's Plaza-like makeover S.T.A.T.!

I sort of like the lobby carpet, but the best I can say about the one in the ballroom is that it will usually be covered with tables and chairs!

Interesting...I think the lobby carpet is terrible. While I find the ballroom carpet amazing.

The first truckload of carpeting disappeared after it left the factory, so they had to have it rewoven. Imagine the guy in (where? North Memphis? Little Haiti? Querétaro?) opening up the rolls of carpet his brother-in-law somehow "acquired" for him and finding this.

Interesting...I think the lobby carpet is terrible. While I find the ballroom carpet amazing.


Well, I do need to admit that lurching up the steps after a big night on the town and being confronted with that swirly lobby carpet probably is a recipe for disaster.

We'll be there tomorrow evening as I've made a reservation for Mercat and I'll send in a full report.

Well, I do need to admit that lurching up the steps after a big night on the town and being confronted with that swirly lobby carpet probably is a recipe for disaster.

We'll be there tomorrow evening as I've made a reservation for Mercat and I'll send in a full report.

As promised. We enjoyed Mercat last night and will go back. It is nice to see some nightlife on this part of S. Michigan. Unfortunately, you don't really notice the change on the street, since the restaurant is tucked away upstairs and there is only a small door on Michigan that one could easily walk right past.

I was worried that the room would be very loud - open kitchen, tile walls, wood floor, etc. - but the found the level to be very bearable. We were promptly greeted in the downstairs bar, which was HOPPING, the shown right to our table upstairs, keeping a reservation time on the first night was a very good sign.

Service was great, although it lapsed a little in the middle. Great, reasonably priced wine list, heavy on the Spanish, of course, but many good selections in the $35 to $60 dollar range. The menu is HUGE and a bit confusing since it isn't laid out in any way that gives you a sense of direction. The server walked us though it, and being a confident enough diner to say "OK, help us out here" saved the day. She led us through a progression of small courses.

Starters include charcuterie plates that we didn't have, tapas like various croquettes (the serano ham was delicious), sizzling garlic shrimp, and other small plates. There are 3-4 rice based dishes - we had the delicious one with crab cake and lump crab mean, a similar number of pastas (pastas? are they Catalunyan?), and then grilled seafood and meats. The diver scallops and seared tuna were great, with the later tasting of sea salt. There are several pricey steaks, which we did not try, and the desert menu looked interesting but we were full.

Total bill for 2 with a $55 bottle of wine was $130, so not someplace one could just wander out to every evening.

In summation, I'm glad to see them in the 'hood, but it really isn't a neighborhood hangout kind of place.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/art/chi-0309_blackstone1mar09,0,4216143.story

Garish accents mar Blackstone's grand restoration
Renovation adds fresh oomph to South Michigan Avenue

By Blair Kamin
March 9, 2008

If not for some atrocious contemporary accents in its public rooms, the $128 million renovation of the Blackstone -- home of the original "smoke-filled room," host to presidents and celebrities, a grand setting for Chicago's social rituals -- would be cause for full-fledged celebration. After all, the project adds a new jolt of vitality to a reviving South Michigan Avenue and showcases the fabulous eclecticism of turn-of-the-century architects Marshall & Fox. But its screeching furnishings, such as the lobby carpet that resembles a psychedelic lollipop melting in a cascade of candy-colored stripes?

--------------------

Kamin makes a good point, though, that the carpets and furniture can and will be replaced fairly soon into the future. At least this building has been saved and most of the major renovation work is complete.

Kamin makes a good point, though, that the carpets and furniture can and will be replaced fairly soon into the future. At least this building has been saved and most of the major renovation work is complete.


The lobby carpet is awful! Why do you say it will be replaced soon, though? Like, in a few years you are saying?

Hotels routinely rotate their interior decorations. The historic stuff can/will be kept, but stuff like the lobby furniture and carpeting will be replaced.

Hotels routinely rotate their interior decorations. The historic stuff can/will be kept, but stuff like the lobby furniture and carpeting will be replaced.

Got it... the question is WHEN.

Has anyone else noticed that the roof top is ringed by 'globe' shaped streetlights on poles? I saw it last night and they were lit up. It looked OK, but some of the poles were not perfectly vertical.

Presidential suite
http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9374/2515592724512c1319c6pr8.jpg
hozjan DESIGN/ flickr

Ok I love how the room looks but I would feel like I was looking out of a small ship window. I hope there is more then just the 2.