LG’s HVAC Solutions Help Transform Historic Chicago Motor Club Building
Energy-efficient HVAC featured at newly-renovated, LEED-certified hotel
CHICAGO — The Chicago Motor Club building is a historic city landmark that still embodies the Art Deco design elements that have long been held as cultural treasures. The 17-story building, which first opened in 1928 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, was crafted with a terra cotta and limestone façade and features an iconic 29-foot mural in the grand lobby that highlights popular driving destinations of the building’s original tenants across a map of the United States. The triple-height, rectangular lobby features small mezzanines at both the north and south ends, alcoves against each wall, and is finely detailed throughout with Art Deco-style ornamentation.
In 1986, the Chicago Motor Club relocated its headquarters to Des Plaines, Illinois, leaving the original building to suffer through a tangled web of owners. When Hampton by Hilton approached the building’s then-owners with hopes of transforming it into a hotel, the hotel chain was met with the daunting task of undergoing a full renovation of the historic space that had been unoccupied since 2004. One of the developer’s key challenges was installing an updated, efficient heating and cooling system that would reflect the enhanced values of a lavish downtown hotel without disturbing or disrupting the building’s historic — and protected — architecture.
First and foremost, it was imperative that the renovated building maintain its original appearance as a tribute to car culture — a vital facet of historic Chicagoan life. Before the transformation of a hotel even began, State Mechanical Services, the installing mechanical contractor, was hand-selected to provide a heating and air conditioning system that would allow the Chicago Motor Club to keep its architectural integrity, while also serving its new purpose in a practical manner — providing the ultimate in guest comfort. It was also essential that any HVAC equipment installed in the Chicago Motor Club building address installation challenges due to limited interior and rooftop space and offer conditioning options that could efficiently respond to the exceptionally cold Chicago winters and warm summers.
The new owners also wanted to ensure the new system, as it would be operating on a 24/7 basis, would maintain low sound levels so as not to disrupt the hotel’s guests and individual room temperatures could be centrally monitored to help control and identify any guest comfort issues.