The Past Informs The Future At InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile

The hotel’s lore runs deep, from Chicago's oldest pool to ties to the city's prohibition era

Oct 06, 2023

(The InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile)

Location: Chicago, IL

Perfect For: A luxury stay rich with history on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile.

The recent renovation work done at the InterContinental Chicago Magnificent Mile took inspiration from the property’s past, even while designing its future. Which makes sense, given the impressive history of the building at 505 N. Michigan Avenue.

In 1925, the Chicago Shriners Club purchased the land at Illinois Street and Michigan Avenue for $1 million. Following two years of work, the Medinah Athletic Club, designed by architect Walter W. Ahlschlager, was completed in 1929.

(A Chicago Shriners Club fez from the InterContinental’s days as the Medinah Athletic Club)

Elements of the prohibition-era social and athletics club are still present in the hotel today, from the gold dome atop the building that was originally designed to accommodate blimp travel to a hidden bootleggers compartment in the wall of the King Arthur Court event space.

“King Arthur Court...is truly an iconic moment that you walk in and it's dark woods and the entire ceiling is basically a painted timeline of King Arthur and his court's life and stories.” - Alexandra LaLoggia

The building would become a hotel for the first time in 1944, going by the name the Continental Hotel and Town Club. Fast forward across the century, and 505 N. Michigan Avenue took the Intercontinental name in 1990, following a year of renovations.

“The original architect intentionally designed the building with a mashup of decorative styles from Turkey, Persia, Egypt, France, Italy, and even Nordic countries walking through the space. Historic portions of this building are like walking through a museum. So there are beautiful...details and symbols everywhere.” - Sara Talleux

In the present, a new round of renovations that started in spring 2022 finished this past summer. Focusing on guest rooms in the hotel’s Grand Tower, the renovations were handled by Chicago-based design firm KTGY Simeone Deary Design Group. The current work on the property is actually a return for the agency, following previous guest room and suite renovations at the InterContinental in both 2013 and 2014.

“What we decided to do currently was really work more with the history of the building,” KTGY Simeone Deary Design Group Associate Principal Sara Talleux explains to A HOTEL PODCAST. “For all of our projects, we really start with research. Before we start looking at any imagery, we always dig into the history of the project. This one, it was almost hard to get into all of it. There's so much history at this building, but really digging into (the building’s) archives helps.”

“2023 was a huge renovation,” confirms InterContinental Director of Sales & Marketing Alexandra LaLoggia. “So we actually did 477 guest rooms, all that are in the Grand Tower. So our building…is two different towers. The historic building, which is our Executive Tower, (has) 315 rooms. And all of our meeting space. And then the other tower is 477 guest rooms. So all 477 guest rooms were completely renovated. Bathrooms, rooms. Down to the studs. You name it, they touched it. Which is very exciting for us. So it ended up being a $40 million investment by our ownership company. And I think it definitely shows. It's a stunning product.”

The revamped rooms incorporate an array of cultural design influences, including Moorish, Greek, Turkish, Persian, and Celtic styles, in a design mix that Talleux describes as a “Mediterranean melange.” Though it sounds like the differing influences could clash, the designer explains otherwise.

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“We brought them in kind of subtly to a lot of different things. So there's the patterns on the floor that are more Arabic inspired, and there's a tone on tone pattern on the wall,” Talleux details. “It's a white wall covering with a texture on it. We added Greek key detail to the window shade. So it's small, but it's not in your face. There's patterns on the headboard. There's even a little Moroccan detail on the knob on the nightstand. So we brought in that melange into all these different details within the space, but it still feels fresh and clean and not overly done.”

The hotel’s junior-size Olympic pool also served as an influence on the guest rooms. Now named after acclaimed Olympic swimmer and actor Johnny Weissmuller, who would practice in the property’s athletic club days, the pool is said to be the oldest in Chicago.

(The InterContinental pool. Photo via the hotel.)

“The color palette of it is so lively and fresh and it's just what you would imagine,” Talleux details. “It's whites and Mediterranean blues. So it's really what inspired that palette for the guest rooms. We made sure to keep them very bright. There's the pattern wall covering and some of those patterns and Spanish designs come into the room.”

“We have incredible blue Spanish tiles that were hand painted,” LaLoggia adds about the pool. “A Terracotta fountain of Neptune is on the east wall. So when you walk in, you're just met with, other than the pool itself, just a beautiful experience when you walk in. There's beautiful architectural details even in the ceiling itself. And it's just like completely unveiling literally this beautiful moment on the 14th floor that was just insane when you first thought about it in 1929 and here, we're just so lucky that someone throughout the years, almost a hundred now, have now preserved all of that. When you walk into the space, you're immediately kind of transported into a different time. I think, when I first look at it, I thought that I was going to see like synchronized swimmers and a whole musical act from like the 1920s and thirties.”

(The InterContinental pool. Photo via the hotel.)

Learn more about the InterContinental in two A HOTEL PODCAST episodes below.

Talleux delves into KTGY Simeone Deary Design Group’s renovation work on the hotel, in addition to speaking on the firm’s work with properties like the Thompson Austin Hotel, The St. Regis Chicago, and Crossroads Hotel in Kansas City, MO.