Few Chicago skyscrapers carry as much chromatic drama as the Carbide and Carbon Building on Michigan Avenue — its dark polished granite base, terracotta-trimmed tower, and gold-leafed crown designed by Daniel and Richard Burnham in 1929, reportedly inspired by a champagne bottle wrapped in dark foil. Pendry Chicago, which took over the lower floors of this 40-storey Art Deco landmark when it opened in 2021, had the unusual task of matching an exterior this vivid without competing with it. The 164-room hotel was fitted into the building by interior designer Gary Handel, with Pendry's in-house team shaping the guest experience around a dialogue between the tower's Jazz Age bones and a more contemporary residential sensibility. The rooms balance those competing loyalties well — ornate plasterwork ceilings and deep-set original window frames preserved intact, set against charcoal oak headboards, brass-trimmed millwork, and lacquered red credenzas that give certain configurations a mid-century graphic sharpness. The bar leans into darkness: black marble floors, fluted walnut panelling, and a herringbone brass screen behind the backbar create an atmosphere closer to a private club than a hotel lounge. The ground-floor café takes the opposite approach entirely, a double-height glass pavilion wrapped in hand-painted botanical murals, Thonet-style bentwood chairs, and sage green cabinetry that turns the corner of Michigan Avenue into something unexpectedly garden-like.

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