Virgin Hotel Chicago

Facts

Notes

• This location was formerly part of the South Water Street Produce Market.
• When this building opened, it had 24 floors. When it was converted into a hotel in 2013, a floor was added to the top.
• This was the world's first Virgin Hotel.
• When this building was converted to a hotel, it had 250 guest rooms.
• Virgin Hotels received an estimated $6,500,000 in reduced city property taxes as an incentive to renovate this building.
• During the conversion of this building into a Virgin Hotel the process drew attention to itself because the scaffolding was covered in red. This is very unusual in Chicago, where scaffold sheeting is almost always blue, and sometimes green. The barricades and even the tape on the windows were also red.
• In 2013, when this building was renovated into a hotel, it was given a 2,584-square-foot green roof.
• This was the home of U.S. Robotics, one of the pioneering companies of the microcomputer age.
• This is one of only two office buildings designed by Rapp and Rapp, and the only one in Chicago.
• Look for medieval and mythological themes in terra-cotta panels on the facade, including griffins, squirrels, birds, bats, dragons, lions, eagles, horses, and human heads.
• This building was built for The Lake-State Bank, which was founded by James L. Kraft; the same person who started the Kraft cheese company.
• When this building opened in 1928, its flat roof was considered unusual.
• The Lake Street side of this building has five architectural bays. The Wabash Avenue side has 14 bays.
• The balcony-like projections near the top of the building are supported by brackets shaped like animal and human heads.

Timeline