5-Oct-16 – Turning a 93-year-old building in the Loop – and the parking lot next to it – into a 452-room hotel got the attention of Landmarks Illinois and LondonHouse will be one of three Chicago buildings honored for historic preservation.

An award ceremony scheduled for October 22 will recognize, says the organization, “extraordinary efforts to save, restore, rehabilitate and reuse historic places in Illinois.”

“LondonHouse completes the rejuvenation of one of the nation’s most important commercial and historic corridors,” says Bonnie McDonald (right), president and CEO of Landmarks Illinois, the nonprofit advocate for the protection of historic and architecturally significant properties in the state. “An elegant contemporary addition proves that preservation and modern design can go hand-in-hand and be approved by the Landmarks Commission.”

The hotel was built from the 93-year-old London Guarantee Building on East Wacker Drive. Restoration work included repair of the monumental cast-iron windows on the lower floors, restoration of ornamental limestone facade, and stone repair and reconstruction. LondonHouse is located on floors 3-22 of the original building and all 22 floors of the Modernist glass tower next to it. Designed by Goettsch Partners for Oxford Capital Group, it was constructed in space that was once a parking lot between London Guarantee Building and Mather Tower.

McDonald called the LondonHouse rehab “stunning, gorgeous, luxurious, classic, all adjectives used to describe the transformation grounded in the principles of preservation, adaptive reuse, and contextual design.” LondonHouse officially opened on June 1, less than two months after it was sold to a German company for $315 million. (Left) Construction of the addition between London Guarantee Building (left) and Mather Tower (right) on April 5, 2015.

Also being recognized are two Chicago projects, Stony Island Arts Bank, south of the Loop near Jackson Park, and Strand Apartments, rebuilt from a 101-year-old hotel that was once part of a vibrant jazz scene in the Woodlawn neighborhood.