This holiday season The Magnificent Mile isn’t the only place to find a dazzling display of lights! What do you think of the filigreed light fixtures that take center stage in our lobby? Share your thoughts with us on Facebook and Twitter!
Category: Design
Our Unique Retractable Roof
You’ve likely seen the news coverage about the torrential rain, storms and tornadoes around the Illinois area. While Chicago is mostly safe, our thoughts are with those towns primarily in Central Illinois that are affected the most, including Peoria, Nashville and Washington, IL. We do find it inspiring to see how the communities came together to support and help one another.
The photo below was taken from our fourth floor space – a little wet outside from the recent rain. I|O Urban Roofscape will be approximately 15,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, with 10,000 square feet of lounge and event space. The exciting part is the retractable roof, which you can see is being erected in the image below. This unique design makes for unobstructed views of Chicago’s skyline.

Fortunately, all this rain doesn’t mean “rain delay” – we’re still right on schedule for a spectacular opening in February 2014.
Stay warm and dry.
Gettys Hospitality Design Shares the Blogs We Must Follow
Happy Halloween! We thought we’d share this “treat” with you – a roundup of great blogs. GETTYS, the minds behind our interior design, shared an interesting list of blogs to follow. We agreed with a number of them as great blogs to read and watch, and a few that we certainly will check out.
We appreciated GETTYS thoughts on why they follow blogs as some of the best ones give us:
- Great information
- Inspiration
- New insight
- Maybe even just a giggle to lighten your day
And of course, here is a link to GETTYS’ blog along with GETTYS Blogs You Must Follow list.
Gettys News Blog | Gettys Hospitality Design, Procurement & Branding.
Hard Hat Tour
We’re pleased to conduct our first Hard Hat tour yesterday. The tour was led by George Jordan, area general manager, and Adam Schomaker, director of sales and marketing. Our guests included hospitality and design-focused media, Chicago media, along with the astute input from our partners.
Chris McDonough from GETTYS added great insight into the design elements and inspiration. Katie Soven, of Valerio Dewalt Train Associates, shared background on the architecture. Our hotel is owned and developed by Oxford Capital.
The tour included a first-look at our lobby, guest rooms, suites and I|O Urban Roofscape. Matthew McCahill, food and beverage director, provided background on the much-anticipated I|O. It will be the largest indoor/outdoor, all-season rooftop lounge and bar in Chicago. I|O will offer two full-service bars and lounge seating at the roofscape’s two-level fire pit, which will also serve as a beacon to guests above bustling LaSalle Street. It certainly will be a must-see and must-visit in Chicago for travelers and Chicagoans alike.
Most importantly, George Jordan said he hopes the hotel “delights” the guests.

Trivia Tuesday
Below we have photos of different wall treatments throughout the hotel. Can you guess where each treatment appears on the property? The answers are below. Good luck!
A:
B:
C:
Answers:
A – Textured wall treatment inside our spa rooms.
B – Marble tiling along the walls that encompass our lobby.
C – Natural wood that lines the hallway behind the front desk.





