I walked into the W Chicago City Center and I felt that ‘WOW’ factor that I never got at the Chicago W Lakeshore.
W Chicago City Center at 172 West Adams Street is across the street from the JW Marriott hotel, a historical building renovation, scheduled to open sometime in the next few months opened November 11, 2010. The W City Center Hotel is a renovated building from 1910s or 1920s. The hotel opened as the W Chicago City Center in 2001, the same year the W Chicago Lakeshore opened.
The interior architecture is cool to walk around.
The lobby is dark and moody, but in a positive light.
In contrast to the living room space and low lit 3-D elevator space, the bedrooms reflected brilliant light.
The seating was not so traditional. This was a standard size small room facing West Adams Street.
In another room was a lounge chair.
All the mod cons present and accounted for in these rooms.
WORK space has a comfortable desk chair.
W Box of Wine
And of course every room comes with a bathroom!
The hotel had a hopping bar, but too crowded for photos. The restaurant IPO was preparing to open.
My Way Cool W Hotel Guide – V – comped me a drink after showing me around the W City Center hotel. I felt like I had put in a full day’s work after visiting 15 Chicago hotels in a single day. My feet hurt.
I hung out in the W Chicago City Center living room taking in the ambience. In the spirit of full disclosure I accepted a free Pilsner Urquell beer and drank it all.
Location:
This hotel is located right in the Chicago Loop. The advantage of this location is close proximity to Millennium Park, the Art Institute (free Thursday evenings with extensive Impressionist and Georgia O’Keeffe collections) and the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower to us older people). Â
The Loop is the section of the city where the elevated train winds through downtown. The trains are loud, clanking along the old elevated metal frame and wooden platforms. I give it a Disneyland C ticket ride (again for the older folks who remember Disney history).
Reviews of the W Chicago City Center hotel are positive about the atmosphere of the hotel, but less forgiving of the noise from the ‘L’ trains above Franklin Street one block away. Wikipedia actually has a good page on the Chicago Transit System and where the different CTA lines go around the city.
One great thing is this hotel is just about four blocks from the Monroe or Jackson CTA stops on the Chicago O’Hare Airport Blue Line. There is little difficulty paying $2.50 for a ticket and getting the blue line directly from the airport right into downtown Chicago. The inconvenience results in changing to a different CTA line like the red line to the Magnificent Mile area or the ‘L’. Make sure you can carry all of your luggage. You will not necessarily find an elevator or escalator once in the city in some of the transit stations. Be prepared to haul your stuff up and down stairs.
Related post: Loyalty Traveler – W Chicago Lakeshore Hotel review (Oct 26, 2010)
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