The owners of the Loop's Virgin Hotel are moving forward with plans to install a retractable glass and metal enclosure over the property's 26th-floor rooftop bar.
On Thursday, the Commission on Chicago Landmarks Permit Review Committee signed off on the proposed change to the historic building located at 203 N. Wabash Avenue.
The committee ruled that the addition would have no adverse effect on the existing structure and approved the project with the condition that the retractable roof's aluminum framing is coated in a non-reflective finish matching the color of the building's brick exterior.
A rendering showing the proposed rooftop enclosure in its closed and open positions. Commission on Chicago Landmarks Permit Review CommitteeCompleted as an office building in 1928, the Old Dearborn Bank Building was designed by architects Rapp and Rapp—the same firm behind the nearby Chicago Theatre. The tower was designated a Chicago Landmark in 2003 and converted into the current 250-room hotel in 2015.
The glass canopy was designed by Chicago-based BTL Architects and will wrap around the north, west, and south sides of the building's existing rooftop terrace. The space is currently home to the hotel's bar, called Cerise, which shut down in October and is expected to reopen sometime this spring, according to its website.
Hotels bars with retractable roofs were all the rage in Chicago before the pandemic and are now more popular than ever—for obvious reasons. Notable examples include the J. Parker atop the Hotel Lincoln, ROOF at theWit, IO at the Godfrey, and the Kennedy at Wicker Park’s Hyatt Place Hotel.
