London Guarantee Building

The London Guarantee Building or London Guaranty & Accident Building is a historic 1923 commercial skyscraper whose primary occupant since 2016 is the LondonHouse Chicago Hotel.[1] Formerly, for a time named the Stone Container Building,[2] it is located near the Loop in Chicago, and is one of four 1920s skyscrapers that surround the Michigan Avenue Bridge (the others are the Wrigley Building, Tribune Tower and 333 North Michigan Avenue) and is a contributing property to the Michigan–Wacker Historic District. It stands on part of the former site of Fort Dearborn. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark on April 16, 1996.[3]

London Guarantee Building
London Guaranty & Accident Building
The London Guarantee Building. Behind it is Mather Tower, to the left is 333 North Michigan, and to the right is 35 East Wacker. View looking south from across the Chicago River.
Location85 E. Wacker Drive at North Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates41.888°N 87.625°W / 41.888; -87.625
Built1922
ArchitectAlfred S. Alschuler
Websitehttps://londonhousechicago.com/
DesignatedApril 16, 1996
Location of London Guarantee Building in Chicago metropolitan area

History

The London Guarantee & Accident Building was designed by Chicago architect Alfred S. Alschuler and completed in 1923 for the London Guarantee & Accident Company, an insurance firm that was then its principal occupant.[1] The top of the building is noted to resemble the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates in Athens, but it was modeled after the Stockholm Stadshus.[1] It is located in the Michigan–Wacker Historic District. The building stands on the property formerly occupied by the Hoyt Building from 1872 until 1921.[4] The LondonHouse Hotel name is an homage to the first owner of the 1923 Beaux Arts tower.[5]

From the 1960s through the 1980s, the studios of Chicago's WLS (AM) radio were located on the fifth floor of the building.[6] For several decades, Paul Harvey performed his daily syndicated radio show from studios on the fourth floor. The building was also famous from the 1950s through the early 1970s for The London House, a Chicago jazz nightclub and steakhouse that was located on the west side of the building's first floor; it had its own entrance on Wacker Drive. It was one of the foremost jazz clubs in the country, once home to performers including Oscar Peterson, Ramsey Lewis, Bill Evans, Dave Brubeck, Marian McPartland, Cannonball Adderley, Erroll Garner, Ahmad Jamal, Nancy Wilson, Barbara Carroll, Bobby Short and many others.[7]

In the 1980s and 1990s TV show Perfect Strangers, the building's exterior was used as the home of the fictional newspaper Chicago Chronicle.[8]

In 2001, the building was acquired by Crain Communications Inc. and was referred to as the Crain Communications Building. Crain Communications and other office tenants occupied the tower until Oxford Capital paid $53 million for the property.[5] Crain sold the building during the summer of 2013 to a Chicago hotel developer, Oxford Capital Group, which remodeled the structure into a 452-room hotel, with the addition of a modern glass addition on an adjacent plot.[9][10] Goettsch Partners-designed the new 22-story addition on a parcel immediately west of the structure.[11] On April 15, 2016, Oxford Capital Group sold the 452-room hotel, but also agreed to a 25-year contract to lease back and manage the hotel. Oxford, however, retained ownership of first and second floor retail space.[12]

After an extensive renovation project, the building reopened as the LondonHouse hotel on May 26, 2016.[13]

Notes
  1. "London Guarantee Building". Emporis. 2007. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  2. J. Linn Allen. "Not that Stone Container Building, this one-got it?" Chicago Tribune. February 23, 1993. 1.
  3. "London Guarantee Building". City of Chicago Dept. of Pl. and Devpmt., Landmarks Div. 2003. Archived from the original on June 7, 2007. Retrieved May 19, 2007.
  4. Mayer, Harold M. and Richard C. Wade (1969). Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis. University of Chicago Press.
  5. David Matthews LondonHouse Hotel To Open in Landmark London Guarantee Building Next Spring Archived March 14, 2016, at the Wayback Machine dnainfo.com February 12, 2015
  6. "WLS Chicago Radio Timeline Page" Archived November 27, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Radio Timeline.com. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  7. curiocollection.com Hilton Worldwide Welcomes Chicago’s “LondonHouse” to Curio – A Collection by Hilton March 5, 2015
  8. Selvam, Ashok (February 12, 2016). "'Chicago's First Tri-Level Rooftop' Lounge Heading to Loop Hotel in Spring", Chicago Eater. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  9. "Hospitality Watch: London Guarantee Building". Curbed Chicago. July 29, 2013. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  10. "Development Watch: London Guarantee Building Will Contain 450 Hotel Rooms". Curbed Chicago. April 4, 2014. Retrieved August 30, 2014.
  11. Maidenberg, Micah and Ryan Ori (February 12, 2015). "LondonHouse, Hyatt Centric hotels are coming downtown". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  12. Ori, Ryan (April 17, 2016). "LondonHouse hotel sells for record price". Crain's Chicago Business. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  13. Kamin, Blair (May 25, 2016). "Michigan Avenue Classic Comes Back to Life with a 21st Century Twist". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved May 26, 2016.
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