A storied Chicago hotel with a modern spirit of play

Chicago

BUILT by its elite members to convince visitors to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair that this was not a hick town, the elegant Chicago Athletic Association languished in recent decades, notable for its Venetian Gothic facade on a landmarked stretch of Michigan Avenue. But in 2013, Commune Hotels & Resorts and developers AJ Capital Partners began its resurrection, restoring the terrazzo floors, stained-glass windows and carved stone fireplaces.

In May 2015, the former men's club reopened as a 241-room hotel, so thronged with sightseers since then that the Chicago Architectural Foundation now offers tours there.