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Chicago in July

Windows (detail)

Warwick Allerton Hotel Chicago

formerly: Allerton Hotel

701 North Michigan Avenue

 

Designed by: Walter W. Alschlager

Construction: Started, 1922 + Finished, 1924

Stories: 25

warwickhotels.com/allerton-hotel-chicago

 

When the Allerton Hotel first opened, it had fourteen floors of small apartment-style rooms for men and six similar floors for women, with a total of 1,000 rooms. The hotel also boasted social events, gold, sports leagues, a library, solarium, and an in-house magazine. An early resident was Louis Skidmore, founder of the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

 

In the 1940s and 1950s, the hotel housed a swanky lounge on its top floor, called the "Tip Top Tap". Although the lounge closed in 1961, the sign proclaiming its existence is still displayed on the Allerton Hotel.

 

After the Allerton Hotel was declared a Chicago landmark, it closed in 1998-1999 for a $40,000,000 renovation. The firm of Eckenhoff Saunders Architects oversaw restoration work which restored the hotel's bygone grandeur and upgraded mechanical systems. When the hotel reopened as the Allerton Crowne Plaza Hotel, the twenty-third floor, which previously housed the Tip Top Tap and the Cloud Room, became the Renaissance Ballroom.

 

In March 2014, Warwick International Hotels, a New York-based hotel chain, purchased the Allerton and renamed it the "Warwick Allerton Hotel".

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Uploaded on October 18, 2014
Taken on July 29, 2013