Carved into the lower floors of the McGraw-Hill Building — a 1929 Art Deco tower by Thielbar and Fugard that rises above North Michigan Avenue with the characteristic limestone-and-terra-cotta authority of Chicago's pre-war commercial ambition — The Gwen takes its name from the sculpted female figures, known as the Gwen reliefs, that ornament the building's facade. The property's 311 rooms were refurbished in a renovation that brought interior designer Bill Rooney's vision of calibrated urban glamour to what had previously operated as a Marriott property, translating the building's period bones into a contemporary luxury register. The guest rooms layer geometric patterned carpets in warm grey with upholstered platform beds, brass-detailed nightstands, and custom wall murals featuring fluid botanical and figurative line drawings that echo the sculptural vocabulary of the building's exterior ornament. Blush barrel chairs and multi-arm black floor lamps in a mid-century idiom provide counterpoint to the neutral ground. Downstairs, the bar deploys bouclé lounge chairs alongside green velvet barstool seating with gilt cage bases, the back bar framed in arched rattan panels that soften an otherwise dark-lacquered surround. The rooftop terrace, with the Wrigley Building's illuminated clock tower composing the skyline behind it, arranges leather bucket chairs around fire pits beneath oversized drum-shade heaters — a layout that understands Michigan Avenue as the spectacle it has always been.

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