Palmer House Renovation

1920s Chicago Icon Restored to Original Opulence

by Paula Widholm

The Palmer House Hilton is the longest continuously operating hotel in the nation, and the $150 million renovation under way on this 1.64-million-sq-ft marvel won’t be interrupting that record.

There have been three Palmer House Hotels at State and Monroe streets in Chicago. The first opened in 1871, but burned down just 13 days later in the Great Chicago Fire. Potter Palmer immediately began rebuilding, and by 1873, a new seven-story hotel opened on the corner, which boasted many “firsts” for a hotel, including elevators, light bulbs and telephones.

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The roaring 20s ushered in modern architecture and enough downtown business to support a larger hotel, and the Palmer Estate erected a new 25-story hotel adjacent to the 1873 structure on Monroe Street. Upon completion in 1927, guests from the old structure moved into the new one, and not a single day of business was lost.

Working Around Guests

Today’s multiple-phased restoration and renovation is also happening with guests onsite.

“To do the renovation with 1,500 guests in the building takes teamwork, planning and communication to new levels,” says Russ Farrar, senior superintendent for Chicago-based Pepper Construction Co., the contractor. “It is critical to isolate our work from the staff and guests.”

Renovation of the 1,639-room hotel began in November and is scheduled to be complete in the summer of 2008.

“Doing the work in the building, installing new services and switching from old to new have been nothing less than a real-life chess game,” Farrar says. “One key is advanced planning, developing and understanding interim conditions, having a contingency plan and having a team that is able to shift gears at a moment’s notice.”

This communication includes letting the hotel operators know at all times what to expect so they can communicate changes to their staff and address guest concerns as quickly as possible.

Despite the banging, drilling and pounding, the Palmer House Hilton has maintained high occupancy rates, according to Elizabeth Hedgcock, project assistant for Thor Equities, the owner.

“If someone wants a quiet room for a meeting, we try to divert work somewhere else for a few hours,” she says. “We’re lucky because people know the end result will be exciting and most people understand.”

Rich Tilghman, Pepper’s senior vice president, says that in addition to phasing the work around hotel operations, one of the first tasks was keeping the existing mechanical and electrical systems operational while renovating them.

With these upgrades mostly complete, Tilghman says it’s now a “hop-scotching” project, with renovation occurring in various places.

Another challenge is the dense downtown location. Construction access is limited to an alley off Wabash Street.

Repositioning the Hotel

Thor Equities bought the Palmer House Hilton from Hilton Corp. in 2005. The New York-based firm redevelops mixed-use and retail in urban-core areas.

While Chicago recently has slid into third place in the convention business, trailing Las Vegas and Orlando, the McCormick Convention Center’s new west wing is expected to attract more large conventions to the city by 2008. The convention trade business accounts for approximately 40 to 50% of the hotel’s business, with leisure and other business travelers accounting for the remaining 50 to 60%.

Before it sold the property, the Hilton Corp. had already restored the landmark Empire Room and the Red Lacquer Room. But many of the 14 hotel floors (approximately 1,400 rooms) had not been renovated in more than a decade. There had been no significant improvement to the main infrastructure of the building. The building’s plumbing and mechanical chases had been in place from the 1920s.

The exterior of the building had been well maintained but still had antiquated exterior fire escapes covering much of its most prominent State Street façade. These will be removed and new fire exit stairs are being carved out on the inside of the building.

Ironically, when Holabird and Root designed the Palmer House in 1925, it had planned for the section on State Street to be a five-story shopping mall, but the stock market crash later that decade prevented the building from that use.

“If it would have been merchandised that way, it would have been the first mixed-use building in the U.S.,” says Jim Pritchett, a principal of Chicago-based Loebl Schlossman & Hackl, the project architect.

Hedgcock says that the new retail space will target high-end retailers to revitalize that area of State Street. “This part of the Loop could use some upgrading and some cheering up,” she adds. “We’re renovating this hotel to be a jewel again on State Street.”

A basement level will be converted to guest parking, and back-of-the-house space is being converted to retail venues. Also being added are an international-quality, three-meal restaurant; contemporary club bar for late-night entertainment; 5,000-sq-ft spa; and 10,000-sq-ft fitness center.

Homage to the Past

The lobby’s original terrazzo floor, which has been hidden for decades by carpeting, is being restored. Off the lobby is the Honoré Room (formerly the French Quarter). This 3,500-sq-ft room is also getting its terrazzo floor restored.

Pritchett says the real priceless asset is this room’s decorative, ornamental plaster ceiling, which has been hidden behind a ceiling for decades.

Upon the site where the 1873 structure stood at State and Monroe, a C.D.Peacock store, founded by Elijah Peacock, was built and opened in 1928. The brass Tiffany-designed peacock doors of that store were saved and folded into the hotel’s Monroe Street entrance. The peacock theme runs throughout the hotel interior—on the drapes, bed covers, furnishings, signage, rugs and carpeting.

The peacock theme is also a nod to the late 19th Century’s Peacock Alley, a term penned in a book by Mark Twain as he observed social elites promenading down a grand corridor in a Washington hotel.

“The peacock was associated with luxury and opulence,” Pritchett says. “It’s a coincidence that Elijah Peacock used the State and Monroe peacock as a branding feature for his store.”

Pritchett says the restoration and renovation combine the character of the 1920s with the elegance of 1873.

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