At 203 North Wabash Avenue, the building that became Virgin Hotels Chicago in 2015 has a deeper story than its red neon sign suggests. Originally constructed in 1928 as the Old Dearborn Bank Building, the 27-floor terra-cotta-clad tower was designed in the Chicago Commercial style, its ornamental entrance canopy and brass-framed doors — visible in the images — preserved with evident care during the conversion. The architects of record for the hotel transformation worked within a structure whose bones already carried considerable architectural authority, and the lobby bar makes full use of the original double-height volume: a cascading pendant installation of bare-filament bulbs and glass drops falls above an oval bar clad in quilted crimson leather panels, its elliptical steel canopy holding suspended glassware in a gesture that is part aviation lounge, part Art Deco cinema. The 250 rooms were conceived around Virgin's proprietary Chamber layout, which divides each unit into a dressing vestibule and a separate sleeping area using a warm-toned sliding timber panel — a spatial idea that quietly solves the awkwardness of traditional hotel room entry. Beds carry a softly sculpted low-profile frame in off-white upholstery, paired with Saarinen-adjacent tulip tables used as desks, and patterned rugs in burgundy and navy that ground an otherwise pale palette. The rooftop bar, called the Everdine, takes a sharply different register — cross-cut timber log walls lit in deep red, a mounted elk head, blue velvet modular seating, and herringbone-tiled floors creating the atmosphere of a hunting lodge filtered through a downtown nightclub.

Formerly Virgin Hotels Chicago