Art Deco Apartment Hotel in Hyde Park Chicago
Chicago Beach Hotel, Chicago Illinois
The Chicago Beach Hotel it is the only Hyde Park Apartment Hotel designed in the Art Deco style. It is also one of the last of the apartment hotels to be Built in Hyde Park before the Depression halted most all major construction. The building's entry and lobby offer an outstanding example of intact, art deco ornamentation which appears to have changed little since it was installed. The romantically inspired bas reliefs, fluted pilasters and decorative ceilings, all contribute to a quintessential late 1920s aura reminiscent of a Hollywood movie set of that era.
This twelve-story, Art Deco-style building is rectangular in shape (46' x 116') and is built of buff brick with a black glazed tile-faced base. Above the base, the brick-faced shaft rises nine stories to a decorative terra cotta belt course, above which are two more stories trimmed in terra cotta, including fluting on spandrels and pilasters and rosettes at the cornice level. The north and east facades of the building are given a vertical emphasis with a series of applied pilasters (brick to the belt course and terra cotta above), in between which are set double-hung (3/1) windows in various groupings. At the lower level there are several shops with fan-shaped terra cotta trim over the large plate glass windows. There is a metal framed canopy that extends from the main entryway of the building to Cornell Street.
The vaulted interior entry has marble wainscoting, acanthus leaf ceiling coves that conceal lighting, and a basrelief opposite the front entry of a mother and two children. The lobby is paneled in wood veneer and has a fireplace opposite the check-in counter. The fireplace mantel is paneled to match the walls with marble trim around the opening. There is a recessed basrelief in the center of one wall featuring a romantically styled nude playing a lyre. The decorative ceiling of the lobby is formed of plaster in a waffle weave pattern. There are fluted, concave pilasters at the corners of the lobby and a shaped marble apron in front of the check-in desk.
The Chicago Beach Hotel contains 95 apartments, mostly studio and individual guest rooms. There are also 5 2-BR units.
Looking southwest (1985)
