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Drake Hotel (Chicago)

1920 establishments in IllinoisHilton Hotels & Resorts hotelsHistoric Hotels of AmericaHotel buildings completed in 1920Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Chicago
Hotels established in 1920Hotels in ChicagoUse American English from November 2019Use mdy dates from November 2019
Drake Hotel Chicago postcard 1920
Drake Hotel Chicago postcard 1920

The Drake, a Hilton Hotel, 140 East Walton Place, Chicago, Illinois, is a luxury, full-service hotel, located downtown on the lake side of Michigan Avenue two blocks north of the John Hancock Center and a block south of Oak Street Beach at the top of the Magnificent Mile. Overlooking Lake Michigan, it was founded in 1920, designed in the Italian Renaissance style by the firm of Marshall and Fox, and soon became one of Chicago's landmark hotels, a longtime rival of the Palmer House. It has 535 bedrooms (including 74 suites), a six-room Presidential Suite, several restaurants, two large ballrooms, the "Palm Court" (a club-like, secluded lobby), and Club International (a members-only club introduced in the 1940s). It is known for the contribution that its silhouette and sign on the lake (Oak Street) façade make to the Gold Coast skyline.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Drake Hotel (Chicago) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Drake Hotel (Chicago)
North Michigan Avenue, Chicago Near North Side

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Wikipedia: Drake Hotel (Chicago)Continue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 41.900463888889 ° E -87.62425 °
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Address

One Magnificent Mile

North Michigan Avenue 940-980
60611 Chicago, Near North Side
Illinois, United States
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Drake Hotel Chicago postcard 1920
Drake Hotel Chicago postcard 1920
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Palmolive Building
Palmolive Building

The Palmolive Building, formerly the Playboy Building, is a 37-story Art Deco building at 919 N. Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Built by Holabird & Root, it was completed in 1929 and was home to the Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Corporation. The Palmolive Building was renamed the Playboy Building in 1965 when Playboy Enterprises purchased the leasehold of the building. It was home to the editorial and business offices of Playboy magazine from that time until 1989 when Playboy moved its offices to 680 N Lake Shore Drive. Playboy had sold the leasehold in 1980 and signed a 10-year lease that expired in 1990. The new leaseholder renamed the building 919 North Michigan Avenue.During the time that Playboy was in the building, the word P-L-A-Y-B-O-Y was spelled out in 9-foot (2.7 m) illuminated letters on the north and south roofline. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2000, and it was added to the federal National Register of Historic Places in 2003. In 2001, the building was sold to developer Draper and Kramer who, with Booth Hansen Architects, converted it to residential use with the first two floors dedicated to upscale office and retail space. High-end condos make up the rest of the building. The new owners restored the building's name to the Palmolive Building. The business address remains 919 North Michigan Avenue; however, the residential address is 159 East Walton Place. Notable residents of the building include Vince Vaughn, who bought a 12,000-square-foot triplex penthouse encompassing the 35th, 36th and 37th floors for $12 million. In February 2013, Vaughn offered the penthouse for sale as a pocket listing for $24.9 million. However, after multiple price cuts he chose in May 2016 to divide the unit in two, offering one for $8.5 million, and the other smaller unit for $4.2 million.

900 North Michigan
900 North Michigan

900 North Michigan in Chicago, in the U.S. state of Illinois, is a skyscraper completed in 1989. At 871 feet (265 m) tall, it is currently the ninth-tallest building in Chicago and the 31st-tallest in the United States. It was developed by Urban Retail Properties in 1988 as an upscale sister to Water Tower Place, one block southeast, and was the second vertical mall built along the Magnificent Mile. The building features a large, upscale shopping mall called 900 North Michigan Shops. Bloomingdale's occupies the rear of its wide, six-story atrium, with other luxury shops and restaurants filling the remaining spaces. For this reason, it is commonly referred to as the "Bloomingdale's Building". The mall opened with Henri Bendel as a "junior anchor". The layout of the retail area reflects lessons learned from Water Tower Place; the anchor's placement at the rear draws shoppers through the space and creates leasable space with valuable Michigan Avenue frontage, while the arrangement of escalators in parallel, rather than in zig-zags, directs foot traffic past more shops. Offices originally occupied floors 8–28, but floors 21–28 were converted to condo units in 2007, leaving offices on floors 8–20. The luxurious Four Seasons Hotel occupies the middle floors (30–46) of the tower. Floors 48–66 are part of the 132 East Delaware Residences, these 106 condominiums were part of the original building plan. A large 12-story parking garage, with retail on the ground level and a medical clinic atop, occupies the rear half of the block, facing Rush Street. The exterior of the tower is clad in limestone and green glass which reflects the light. The building has a steel skeleton on which a concrete frame was erected for the upper floors. Because the building materials changed, cranes used to work on the lower floors could not be used for the concrete portion and new cranes had to be erected to complete the building. Four lit "lanterns" atop the structure give it a distinctive skyline presence. They change colors for the Christmas season.