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Hard Rock Hotel Chicago
Project
of The Year: Renovation/Rehabilitation
Designed by Daniel and Hubert Burnham, the 38-story Carbide
& Carbon Building in Chicago is a gem
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The 1920-era structure combines the elegance of Chicago design
and the drama of Art Deco, and legend has it that elements
are based on a gold-foiled champagne bottle seen at an office
party.
The building was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1996 and
is also part of the Michigan Avenue Historic District and
on the National Register of Historical Places.
The structure originally held the offices for the Union Carbide
& Carbon, and over time it became a multi-tenant building.
But the once stunning Carbide & Carbon Building endured
years of neglect and slowly lagged the technological advances
and modernization of office structures.
The decision was made to convert it into a Hard Rock Hotel.
Project goals included the restoration of interior spaces,
including the elevator lobby, first and second floors, 34th
level executive floor and exterior facade.
The scope included the full building renovation and construction
of an addition to house the public functions that make hotel
use for the structure viable.
The Hard Rock Hotel's site included the existing building
and an adjacent 7,920 sq. ft. immediately to the south, where
there were two low-rise buildings. These were acquired to
be demolished, and an addition was erected to connect to the
Carbide & Carbon Building.
The demolished buildings' exterior walls became party walls
to the adjacent buildings.
To the north, the Carbide & Carbon Building shared the
party wall, which was removed. To the south, it was necessary
to support the masonry party wall as the low-rise building
was demolished and then tie it back to its remaining building.
Weathering the Years
Converting the 345,000-sq.-ft. Carbide & Carbon Building
into the 381-room hotel included the creation of public function
space, achieving code compliance and incorporating a five-story
annex to the south.
The building's distressed envelope required attention. The
terra cotta's striking green coloring had surrendered to pollution
and grim.
There was evidence of corrosion of the embedded steel components
on both the terra cotta and brick facades, and this had caused
extensive cracking and displacement of masonry units. Accumulation
of compression forces from thermal and moisture expansion
added to the damage.
The building's envelope was inspected, analyzed, cleaned and
restored, and salvageable terra cotta pieces were removed
and repaired. Still, nearly 10 percent of the units were damaged
beyond repair and were replaced with new units.
The second and third floors' steel window frames were badly
deteriorated but because of the landmark status, they needed
to be maintained close to the original.
Aluminum frames were placed over the original steel frames.
Bronze storefront windows are on the first floor, and above
the third level, the windows were replaced with operable single-hung
windows to replicate the historic site lines.
The Interior View
The building's interior posed five primary issues:
Reconfiguring the existing office elevators to
accommodate
their use in a hotel
Incorporating a new fire stair to replace an exterior
fire escape
Retrofitting the mechanical system to support guest
rooms
Accommodating guest reception
Creating a public function space
Originally, the building had eight office elevators and one
executive elevator that would reach only the executive floor.
Five of these elevators are in use for guests today. Two others
were changed to open in the opposite direction to accommodate
the hotel's service staff, and the remaining shaft was cleared
to provide space for a vertical egress.
Adapting to hotel space called for major changes in the building's
mechanical system. New plumbing, vertical fan coil units and
electrical systems needed to be run through the building for
each guest room.
Because space for guest reception and the lobby was crucial,
the street-level space on the north facade - formerly divided
into individual retail spaces - was opened the full length
of the building. From this space, guests circulate into the
elevator lobby, which was meticulously restored.
Moving the main entrance to South Wacker Place entrance exposed
the arrival location to the elements. A new canopy was designed
and integrated into the facade.
The addition's design incorporated a green glazed curtain
wall and zinc detailing framed by black granite walls to harmonize
with the Carbide & Carbon Building's green hue. A full
floor Vierendeel truss spans the entire 60-ft.-long width
and allows for the ballroom to be visible from the outside.
The jury said, "This is a beautiful, old building renovated
for a modern use and given new life. The building was in bad
structural shape and brought it back.
The team also had to deal with a bad location for a major
renovation project."
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