[CHICAGO]– I’ve stayed now a half-dozen times at this hotel, originally designed by famous hotelier Ian Schrager and opened as the PUBLIC hotel, it’s now called The Ambassador “Chicago’s original boutique hotel”. It still ranks as one of my favorite places to stay in Chicago and certainly my favorite Ian Schrager hotel. It’s now run

This is one of my favorite lobby designs I’ve seen — that great combination of classic architecture and modern design — and everything was white-on-white, with good looking people dressed in black as props. It still feels as fresh as when it opened more than a decade ago.

It’s now a Hyatt boutique brand and they’ve added a little more color, but still retained a lot of the same core design. You can check on there website to see how it looks now.

I love the location the best, in the very neighborhood-y Gold Coast, surrounded by brownstones in Chicago’s swankiest neighborhood. Come in at night and all the wealthy black-dressed Chicagoans are silhouetted against the perfectly lit white whiles. It’s almost an optical illusion.

There was a great Jean-Georges Vonginrichten revamp of the famous Pump Room, but now is called The Ambassador Room, which I think is run by Lettuce Entertain You, but still retains a lot of the cool features of the Pump Room.

They have a great sound system pumps it up at night, all throughout the lobby and, my favorite touch: they convert the night-time boom-she-boom library lounge into a bright barista/snacks station during the morning, so you don’t have to hunt down a Starbucks or blow a half-hour ordering from the restaurant. More hotels should do this.

This cool hotel was originally designed by famous hotelier Ian Schrager and opened as the PUBLIC hotel, it’s now called The Ambassador “Chicago’s original boutique hotel”.

Ian Schrager has re-envisioned the PUBLIC brand with a fabulously different location in in New York City. I loved that one, too. Will do another post.

The rooms are really big, with huge windows and awesome amount of sunlight. Gigantic baths. Love the quiet stretch of upper State Parkway, quiet with gorgeous townhouses lining the blocks. And if you’re a Tablet Plus member, they’re really good about upgrading you to a larger room.  

— Last Visited 2011, 2012 (2x), 2014 (2x) —