19-Apr-16 – When Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel needed to add 4,000 square feet of meeting and event space, it did not matter that there was not a single square foot of existing interior space to expand to. A third floor rooftop, most of which had sat empty and unused for 24 years, was promoted this year to ballroom. A $32 million two-phase renovation is complete. The hotel has new space. Chicagoans have a new rooftop bar.

Raised, its name a nod to the raising of bridges along the Chicago River that it overlooks, will open in May. The indoor/outdoor bar will offer 14 local beer options, a variety of wines, and seat 160 people. It will have fire pits and its own event space, Urban Blue, located adjacent to the bar.

In May 2015, the 520-room 40-suite hotel unveiled a new lobby and guestrooms, part of a first phase of renovation that cost $24 million. Another $8 million was spent adding a 3,000 square foot Looking Glass Ballroom that also overlooks the river, and expanding an existing Cloud Gate Ballroom from 4,000 to 5,000 square feet. That project started last October.

(Left) A mirror-covered wall in the distance at right makes this meeting space look bigger at first glance but even without it, this is the most interior space this part of the hotel has ever had. Until last October, this area was outdoors. It was, in fact, a rooftop over a three-story part of the hotel.

The Gettys Group, a hospitality design firm located one block west of the hotel, crafted the bar’s interior from iron, glass, and recycled wood.

(Above) Indoor half of indoor/outdoor bar. (Below) Seating behind a glass partition.

(Above) Area with game table and artwork. (Below) Seating with bar in background and doors to outdoor space at left.

(Above) Terrace with semi-private seating areas at right. In distance, Marina City, AMA Plaza, Trump Tower, and Wrigley Building. (Below) Terrace seating, looking northwest. Marina City in distance at right. At left, Merchandise Mart, 300 North LaSalle, Reid Murdoch Center, 321 North Clark, and Westin Chicago River North.

(Above) Seating along north edge of terrace. Chicago River and bridges in distance. (Below) Area with Marina City in distance.

When the hotel opened on November 1, 1991, it was called Stouffer Riviere Hotel. Its 565 rooms cost $102 million to build – the equivalent of $178 million today – at a challenging time for hotels in Chicago, with too much supply and demand down due to the Gulf War. In the mid-1980s, Hilton Hotels & Resorts tried to acquire the entire block on which to build a larger hotel but was not successful. After that deal fell through, the city owned the site and still wanted a big hotel for entire block.

William N. Hulett, president at the time of Cleveland-based Stouffer Hotel Company, helped talk the city into splitting the block into two sites. In 1989, while the hotel was still being built, construction finished of the 46-story Leo Burnett Building next door. (Right) Renaissance hotel at mid-day on May 27, 2008. (Below left) Construction progress on January 7, 2016, and (below right) March 15, as seen from Marina City across Chicago River.

(Above) Renaissance from across intersection at State Street & Wacker Drive on Monday.

The Renaissance Chicago Downtown Hotel is among the top 20 hotels in Chicago, according to U.S. News & World Report, and it’s ranked fourth among all 166 Renaissance Hotels worldwide.

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