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LondonHouse's Three-Level Rooftop Bar Could Be Chicago's Coolest New Spot

By David Matthews | February 11, 2016 5:49pm
 The LondonHouse at the corner of Michigan and Wacker is a new hotel inside a 1920s Beaux Art building. It features a three-level rooftop bar, including a chance to drink and eat in the building's distinctive rooftop cupola.
The LondonHouse Hotel and Rooftop Bar
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DOWNTOWN — What's being billed as the city's only "tri-level" rooftop bar will open this spring at the future LondonHouse hotel — allowing people to drink atop one of Chicago's most distinctive Downtown buildings. 

A rendering of the swanky outdoor bar crowning the riverfront hotel is posted to the website of the LondonHouse, a 452-room conversion of a landmarked Beaux Arts tower at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive.

"LH rooftop features classic cocktails, small bites, and the perfect mix of everything you'd expect to take it all in," the website says. 

The rooftop will also offer "private drinks and dinner" in the distinctive cupola atop the 23-story tower, according to the LondonHouse website.

LondonHouse takes its name from the first owner of the 1923 tower: the London Guaranty & Accident Co., an insurance company, as well as the London House jazz club that once occupied the building's ground floor.

Crain Communications and other office tenants filled the building until developer Oxford Capital Group acquired it in 2013. 

RELATED: LondonHouse Hotel To Open in Landmark London Guarantee Building Next Spring

The rooftop bar at the LondonHouse, at the corner of Michigan and Wacker. (LondonHouse)


The London Guarantee Building, 360 N. Michigan Ave. Its Beaux Arts style is similar to that of the "White City" constructed during the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.  [Flickr/iceninejon]

Once open, the hotel will also include a 2nd-floor lobby bar called "Bridges" and a street-level retail tenant that has yet to be announced. In December, LondonHouse announced that former Godfrey Hotel chef Riley Huddleston would handle food and drinks at the new hotel. A spokeswoman for the hotel project declined to provide more details when asked Thursday. 

The new hotel will also include a new, 22-story glass tower next door at 85 E. Wacker Drive. Check out the slideshow above or scroll down below for more images: 


[LondonHouse]


Looking south from Michigan and Wacker in the 1920s. [LondonHouse]


The distinctive cupola at the three-level rooftop bar. [LondonHouse]


The top of the London Guarantee Building with Mather Tower in the background. [Flickr/David Grant]


A rendering of the hotel's 21st-floor bar, which leads up to the rooftop bar. [LondonHouse]


The hotel also includes a 22-story glass tower next door. [LondonHouse]

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