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The full-service hotel with the world’s best-designed guest rooms isn’t a Hyatt Regency, W, Hilton or a flashy Las Vegas property. It’s The Allerton Hotel Chicago, the historical landmark-designated 1922-24 Chicago property that helped spur the redevelopment of North Michigan Avenue into the Magnificent Mile. Fresh off last summer’s $10-million remodel as part of $85 million in renovations since 1999, the Allerton was singled-out for having the best-designed guest rooms of any full-service hotel in the world in the HotelWorld Global Hospitality and Design Awards, announced March 3, 2009, in Las Vegas.
The Allerton lead this year’s field of 28 hotel and restaurant finalists with three separate “Best Design” nominations – in the full-service guestroom, full-service lobby/public space and full-service restaurant / lounge categories, the later for the hotel’s sleek new M Avenue Restaurant. No other hotel in the world was nominated in three categories, and only two other properties received two nominations. The Allerton’s competition in the guest room category included Las Vegas’ Mirage Hotel and the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel & Spa in Northern California.
The HotelWorld Global Hospitality and Design Awards recognize excellence in hotel and restaurant design and leadership, and celebrate the accomplishments of the true leaders in the hospitality industry. Twenty-five hospitality and design awards will be presented during a dinner ceremony March 3, 2009, in Las Vegas during the city’s International Hospitality Week.
“Our intent with the redesign of The Allerton was to blend the hotel’s famed Italian Renaissance exterior with a sleek, modern-contemporary interior, thereby re-establishing it as the uniquely Chicago destination it has been for most of its 85-year history,” explained Andrea Mayer, general manager. “It would appear by the award for our guest rooms – and the sheer number of nominations we received – that our vision has become a reality.”
Working with Hager & Associates of Vancouver, British Columbia, hotel owners completed a top-to-bottom remodel of the property in August 2008 – encompassing a dramatic redesign of all guest rooms and public spaces, relocation of the hotel lobby back to its original second-floor setting, where it was combined with the new M Avenue restaurant and lounge, and creation of elaborate new ballrooms and meeting spaces.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
