| Address | Various |
|---|---|
| Built | Various |
| Architect | Various |
| Status | Designated Chicago Landmark District |
| Designation Date | February 27, 2002 (Final) |
| Neighborhood | Loop |
| Type | Commercial district |
Interior spaces protected by this designation
- staff recommends that all exterior aspects of all structures, all important lobbies and other significant interior spaces (to be decided during the designation process), and the entire street right-of-way of Michigan Avenue between Randolph Street and Roosevelt Road be identified as significant historical and architectural features.
Historic Michigan Boulevard District, Preliminary Summary of Information, p. 85.
Direct quotes from the Chicago Landmark Designation Report
“The hotel was named after Timothy Blackstone, a family friend and president of the Chicago and Alton Railroad, whose home had once stood on the site. The architecture firm of Marshall and Fox was famed during the first three decades of the twentieth century for grand theater, hotel, and apartment designs (see description for 910 S. Michigan Ave.).”
“The Straus Building (1924; 310 S.) was the first structure to be built along the Michigan Avenue streetwall following passage of the city's new zoning ordinance. The 1923 law had maintained the maximum building height at 200 feet, but permitted taller towers if they were set back from the building mass.”
“One of the pioneer high-rise structures along Michigan Avenue, it predated both the Auditorium and the Fine Arts Building. It was designed by Solon S. Beman, the designer of the Pullman industrial community on the city's South Side.”
“The building was built on the site of the company's earlier headquarters, the Brunswick Hotel. Prior to the hotel, several historic residences had occupied the site, including those of prominent early Chicagoans H.H. Honore (whose daughter, Bertha, married hotelier Potter Palmer) and William H. Brown, in whose white-marble mansion Abraham Lincoln was entertained just prior to his election as President in 1860.”
“As Michigan Avenue became a popular nighttime recreational automobile thoroughfare in the 1920s, the combination of the ornamental light poles and the moving lights of passing automobiles created a unique effect that was extensively mentioned in written accounts of the period.”
“Also important are John B. and Tracy C. Drake. developers and proprietors of the Blackstone Hotel. Another family prominent in the hotel business, James W. Stevens and his son Ernest J., made a substantial contribution to the development of Michigan Avenue with the building of what is now the Chicago Hilton and Towers.”
“This is in contrast to other buildings in the Loop that have a strong east-west orientation such as First Chicago National Bank, whose tower is far less noticeable behind the streetwall. significant change, when the Stone Container Building Michigan Avenue had to wait until 1984 for its next was built at the northwest corner of Randolph and Michigan.”
“Adler & Sullivan, considered one of the most important architectural partnerships in late-nineteenth century Chicago, designed the Auditorium Building. In addition, this section of Michigan Avenue includes an example of Louis Sullivan's work as a solo practitioner: 18 S. Michigan Ave., part of the Gage Group. 821 Benjamin Marshall, who with his partner Charles Fox would give the city some of its most luxurious apartment buildings and hotels, is well represented by the Blackstone Hotel and the Karpen-Standard Oil Building.”
“Ornamental storefront bays on the ground floor are a later, sympathetic alteration. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. The interior light court was remodeled in 1985-87 by Eckenhoff Saunders Architects. 33.”