Michigan Ave. Marriott_ Ballroom Addition and ReClad

Winter, Summer 2012

Studio Gang Architects

Located on Chicago’s famous Michigan Avenue, Marriott commissioned Studio Gang Architects to add 3,000 sf ballroom space and to design a new facade that would rejeuvenate its image as a first class Chicago destination. The original building was designed by Holabird and Root and built in 1930, and it was added onto by Harry Weese in 1978. Our concept was to restore Weese’s now buried minimalist concrete facade, punching openings through in select locations, to allow for daylighting, as well as to create a visiual relationship between the life of the hotel and the life of the street. The form of the ballroom was conceived to maximize views up and down Michigan Avenue and Ohio Street and dramatizes this experience with two adventurous cantilevers over the sidewalk. Its flower shape was invented by considering existing structural assets, views from within, and the view of the ballroom from neighboring highrises looking down from above. The aesthetic and structure of the roof was given special consideration, given the need for the space to be column-free, as well as to provide an exciting image to the street below (as the ceiling would be the only view allowed when looking up from the street) Much study of ribbed and vaulted structures was undertaken, and much inspiration was gained from the work of architects like Pier Luigi Nervi. A design challenge arose in considering transport to the 9th floor, where the ballroom is to be, as the entire 8th floor was given over to mechanical. A solution was found in carving into the building once again to allow for a glass escalator box to be inserted on the back