Updated details have been revealed for the hotel development at 150 W Hubbard Street in River North. Located at the corner of West Hubbard Street and North LaSalle Drive, the project has undergone multiple iterations over the years, with various hotel flags previously attached. Most recently, YIMBY reported when Detroit-based developer Porritt Group applied for initial construction permits a year ago.
Rendering of 150 W Hubbard Street by NORR
Rendering of 150 W Hubbard Street by NORR
Originally announced as a 19-story Andaz hotel from Hyatt, the plan has been downsized over time and has also changed design teams. Now led by NORR Architects, the building’s overall aesthetic has remained largely consistent since our last update. It is set to rise 15 stories and reach a height of 186 feet, with no on-site parking.
Rendering of 150 W Hubbard Street by NORR
Changes from earlier proposals include the removal of event spaces and one of the ground-floor retail spaces. In its place, a single 3,800-square-foot restaurant will be included, while the previously planned rooftop bar is now designated as a private, guest-only space. The remaining floors will house 297 hotel rooms, each averaging 278 square feet.
Rendering of 150 W Hubbard Street by NORR
The hotel will become the second U.S. location for Cloud One Hotels, a lifestyle brand by Germany-based Motel One Group. The boxy glass tower will feature light blue accents and a relatively simple design. For now, the development team still needs zoning amendment approval, with the developer currently targeting a 2026 completion date, according to their website.
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It is nice to see an empty lot filled but isn’t this a whole lotta BLAND.
This uninspiring glass box with no rounded ornamentation increases stress in the city and is not peaceful or beautiful. What kind of visual language is this? It is unchallenging and meaningless.
While I do think its a slight upgrade on the previous design, you are so right about the general climate of building design these days. It’s a plague on both small and larger sized projects like this one.
Lana is exactly right. Increased stress in the city. It’s so ironic that the concept of Hōgyō is being ignored–at a hotel no less. It dossociates from the rest of the city in nearly open contempt. The architects need to do the work and design buildings that embrace the esoterica of a multi-layered oeuvre that is Chicago…built up collectively by the masters of both a lost and contemporary nature.
I really don’t know what he said at the end of that sentence. I don’t think he knows what he said either.
Guilty.
I’m here for the uproarious comments and admonitions.
As architect Lucien LaGrange would say-these new glass type structures lack character and the owners of these buildings don’t demand a structure that they can be proud of -cheap buildings make more money I guess.
I find it interesting that on a YIMBY site, where we want to increase housing and quality of life for all, that we spend so much time critiquing design. I was just in Barcelona, where there is some great architecture, but the vast majority of building there is workaday ordinary design that would be slammed by many on this site. The biggest difference between there and here was the density of local businesses and the quality of street life. The architecture doesn’t matter as much when you can walk a couple of blocks and you have a local florist, hardware store, bakery, grocer, shoe repair, etc., all small businesses owned by neighbors and not national chains. There was a density that only exists in handful neighborhoods in Chicago. Not every building is going to be an exquisite masterpiece architecturally, but that doesn’t matter when the quality of life is so rich otherwise. If we rejected every project because we didn’t like the design, we’d have nothing built here.
This is such an important point! I’ve thought similar things to what you said here for many years. We can encourage both, but the experience at the street level is 90% in my opinion. And that means getting rid of parking podiums and making buildings cater to the pedestrian experience first, many times over. We live in cities for the human-to-human interactions enabled by the design of buildings, and not in an abstract architecture gallery.
Chicago is not historical and charming like Barcelona, your comparison doesn’t work. You are also separating true architecture into pieces not the whole. Good development and architectural design incorporates street level design for activities that you want, it’s not one or the other. Good architecture makes a healthy and better quality of life. Soviet era architecture follows your thinking, it doesn’t make livable cities. Let’s be pragmatic here, architecture doesn’t have to be an icon or expensive, this city needs to have forward thinking attitudes that improve life. Sitting in a lazy boy chair while watching Lawrence Welk on TV is not healthy (acceptable for the 80+ crowd) and shouldn’t be thought of as a great quality of life.
Ironically it is because modern companies lack single owner who’d want to be proud of their building and make a statement and collective owner it’s all about profit over beauty. In this climate the beautiful design only reappears when there’s huge competition on the market (NYC) and unfortunately Chicago downtown is anything but competition these days.
Everyone’s an architecture critic, huh? What actually increases tangible stress on cities is underutilized land and car centric development. This is a great development tackling both of those issues. Build it now!
Yeah, this is deathly boring but we’re talking about replacing a parking lot here, not an 1890s masterpiece. There are classic loft buildings on 2/4 corners here and a nice postmodernist building on the 3rd- if you’re into that stuff 🙂
Completely agree. When we have dense and vibrant neighborhoods full of businesses of all sizes and empty lots filled with buildings that contribute to the vitality of the city, we can then nitpick about architectural styles and people’s subjective views on “beauty.” This project is perfectly fine.
Whining online about building design will never change a damn thing.
I understand it’s only just a vent, and not meant to bring about any real world change, but if folks actually wanna see more beautiful buildings get built in Chicago, then they gotta get in the game and go build some.
You must be the change you wish to see in the world!
100%, well said! Now’s the time with our fare public transit system at risk! Without our system, we may start tearing down our buildings to build more parking lots, because everyone’s going to need a car. Please get involved in small and big ways!
I’m happy to see all the proposed hotel developments. Not only do hotels bring in a lot of revenue to the City (something desperately needed right now), but old hotels are one of the easiest commercial uses to convert to residential uses, particularly affordable housing.
If you also follow NYC YIMBY, Interesting contrasts in opinions between hotels: a River North glass box vs the quite literally over-the-top of “The Torch” going up near Times Square (equally loathed and championed.) Granted the River North project won’t be skyline defining nor have any wow-factor, while dubiously or not, The Torch certainly will be. At its humble height, I’d rather see an empty lot here becoming a hotel hopefully filled with guests supporting businesses.
I love NYC (and will hopefully live there someday) but their building placement amuses me. It’s like I want to build a building and put it here – it doesn’t look good here but I’ll put there any way.
@Patricio What do you mean Chicago isn’t historic and charming like Barcelona? Chicago easily has as much if not more architectural history and significance than Barcelona. And his point still does work, you just don’t like it. Regardless of if you live in a glass skyscraper or a 1920’s 2 flat, if you’re a 2 block walk from your grocery store or restaurant etc, it won’t make much of a difference to you.
Why do people think that every new development can be painstakingly hand crafted and ornamented like its the 1920s still? I’m sorry to break it to you but we need housing, and frankly it would take too much time and money to have stonemasons sitting 500 feet in the air chiseling stone by hand.
I understand its not an insanely unique or spectacular design, but you just gotta bite the bullet sometimes. There are still plenty of nice buildings going up in the city if you took your head out of the sand.
Y’all these other cities is building taller they showing up and showing out I’m from Chicago I love Chicago
Will they finally tear down English with this? That building has been vacant for over 13 years