Tours
Driehaus Museum
Date: June 13
Time: 10 a.m. — noon
CE Credit: 2
Fee: $53.00 (includes private transportation, museum admission, and private home and neighborhood tour)
It was Mark Twain who called the late 19th century the Gilded Age. The Richard H. Driehaus Museum immerses visitors in one of the grandest homes of 19th-century Chicago, the Gilded Age home of banker Samuel Mayo Nickerson. In 1879, Samuel Nickerson commissioned a new house from the architectural firm of Burling and Whitehouse of Chicago. Completed in 1883, the Marble Palace, as the house became known, cost a staggering $450,000 to build and was the largest private residence in Chicago at the time of its completion. Stylistically, the exterior of the house reflects a monumental yet restrained classicism, while the interiors represent a masterful balance of Renaissance Revival and Aesthetic Movement design. According to the Inland Architect of February 1883 the house "Reached a standard of excellence never before attained in Chicago."
Chicago philanthropist Richard H. Driehaus established the house as a museum on April 1, 2003, with a vision to influence today's built environment by preserving and promoting design and architecture of the past. To realize his vision, Mr. Driehaus commissioned a five-year effort to preserve the structure and its magnificent interiors. Today, the Museum is a premier example of historic preservation, offering visitors an opportunity to experience how the prevailing design philosophies of the period were interpreted by artists, architects, and designers at the waning of the 19th century and the dawn of the 20th century.
The Museum features major works by artists and designers such as Louis Comfort Tiffany, Herter Brothers, Emile Gallé, and Louis Majorelle. Highlights from the Driehaus Collection of Fine and Decorative Arts include a Tiffany & Co. silver punch bowl made for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, a chandelier originally from the billiard room of California Governor Milton Latham's Thurlow Lodge, and a 19th-century marble sculpture of Cupid and Psyche from the studio of Orazio Andreoni.
Hotel Felix and Public Chicago
Date: Monday, June 11
Time: 2:00—4:00 p.m.
CE Credit: 2
Fee: $38.00 (includes private transportation and private tour)
Ian Schrager's new brand PUBLIC is an entirely new class of hotel. For PUBLIC Chicago, Schrager has opted for a restrained, refined and classically cool approach to design. It is a new simplicity—a "sincere chic" that is tasteful and under¬stated without attitude, where quality and comfort are paramount. It is confident, self-assured, genuine and grounded, with no gimmicks or tricks, and a rejection of "design on steroids". This "new look", or "no look", encompasses an effortless and timeless purist design, providing a relaxed vibe and familiar atmosphere that feels like home.
PUBLIC is the first comfortable, stylish, and affordable hotel with luxury service, in the world. PUBLIC Chicago is a transfor¬mation of the fabled 285-room Chicago institution, The Ambassador East, built in 1926. The original Pump Room restaurant opened on October 1, 1938 as a "seen and be seen" venue for such famous people as Queen Elizabeth, Tina Turner, Frank Sinatra and the rest of the Rat Pack, David Bowie, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Cary Grant, Dustin Hoffman just to name a few.
The spacious, oversized guest rooms and suites (some with spacious outdoor terraces and gardens), as well as all of the public spaces, possess an enduring look and exemplify this “sincere chic.” A smart mix of modern and classic pieces in unexpected combina¬tions are a montage of colliding forms that undermine the very notion of a specific "design" or "look". The placement of the wildly eclectic pieces and furniture appears random and jumbled, as if personal possessions, gathered over a lifetime, were reas¬sembled in one place; and the only principle of selection was guided by the personal and idiosyncratic taste of an individual. As a result, the hotel reflects an aesthetic that cannot be classified or imitated, as it is so personal.
Opened in 2009, the Hotel Felix is the first hotel in Chicago designed to be Gold LEED certified. The boutique style hotel balances natural elements with behind-the-scenes technologies and boasts an impressive list of eco-friendly elements:
- Preserved building structure in re-development, which prevented non-biodegradable materials going to landfills
- Upcoming "Green Roof" project is in progress
- Low energy-use lighting, such as compact fluorescent & LED throughout building
- Natural southern exposure aids in heating building in winter months
- Carpet made of recycled material; cork flooring in meeting rooms and business center
- Motion sensor heating, ventilation and air conditioning throughout building
- Water waste reduction valve
- Florescent lighting throughout the building
- Laundry does not use bleach
- Products low VOC & Green Seal certified
- Low voltage lighting
- Front desk paperless to reduce waste
- Recycle trash cans located at the desk and in all offices
- Newspapers available in lobby daily with limited supply to reduce waste
The Bedford, Roka Akor, Sepia
Date: Tuesday, June 12
Time: 10:00 a.m. — noon
CE Credit: 2
Fee: $38.00 (includes private transportation and private tour)
The Bedford
Inspired by the Supper Club experience of a bygone era, The Bedford (a reclaimed landmark bank) puts a modern-day twist on the concept by offering more than just a restaurant.
Banking on the fact that diners would want to hang out in an impossibly fun and unique space — the bank's gleaming copper vault is now used and an intimate cocktail lounge.
Built of Bedford limestone, the historic 1925 building first housed Chicago's Home Bank & Trust and later an MB Financial bank. The group wanted to celebrate the building's history without turning the 9,000 square-foot space into an 'era piece' or a Capone gangster speakeasy.
The Bedford is smartly laid out in three main zones: an immense lounge/bar area, a smaller dining room and the intimate vault lounge. (There's also a small private party room in back.) The owners kept the stunning original terrazzo flooring; the patterned beige, forest green and terra-cotta-colored panels run throughout the entire space and unify its three distinctly different areas. The main dining room shows off an original glass and brass entryway, terrazzo flooring and plaster crown moldings.
Roka Akor
Architect and designer Dwayne MacEwen was inspired by the simple, natural ingredients chef Ce Bian incorporates into his artfully presented dishes. The result was a unique understanding of how to create an end product that is greater than the sum of its parts. Some of the most humble, natural materials — wood, rocks, old nails — are artfully used to create highly distinctive features.
The immense restaurant is carefully divided into unified yet unique zones that take guests on an amazing journey that begins right at Roka Akor's entrance. Here, diners step into a box-like pavilion composed of teak slats. The foyer opens directly onto the gorgeous but unpretentious lounge/main bar area. The intricately detailed room juxtaposes a series of focal pieces with a number of quieter elements.
Structural columns are hidden under sculptural sleeves constructed from thousands of small teak blocks and rubber cording. The columns resemble high-art Jenga towers and are designed to change shape if someone moves them. Other distinctive elements include the room's Asian-inspired patterned teak ceiling and the 3-D "scissor wall" at the rooms far end. Composed of dramatically lit scissored teak panels, the wall is meant to represent a stylized sunrise/sunset.
The lounge has been furnished with "clubby" pieces. There is a cool built-in wood and upholstered sofa that divides the entry and lounge areas, as well as funky wood bundled twig cocktail tables. But the majority of the custom furnishings are unfussy wood tables paired with contemporary blocky wood and upholstered chairs.
Sepia
Since its inception, Sepia has been lauded for its beautifully designed dining room and lounge, created by Gary Lee Partners. Built in Chicago’s thriving Warehouse District in a former print shop from the 1890s, Sepia's sensibility echoes bygone eras throughout both its space and dining experience. The oversized, shade-wrapped chandelier light fixtures have become an iconic symbol of the Michelin-starred restaurant, and the warm, earth-toned interior offers an inviting dining atmosphere, with quirky touches such as a vintage camera set-up in the lounge, and black-and-white photography of Chicago street scenes and denizens from bygone eras.
Private Dining by Sepia:
Located next door to the restaurant, in the prior home to fashion designer Maria Pinto's eponymous boutique, Private Dining by Sepia is warm, inviting and stylish without being sleek. For Private Dining by Sepia, Gary Lee Partners was tasked with translating the restaurant's sexy, shadowy interior into a stylish, versatile event space with a distinctly related but individual aesthetic. The high ceilings and open layout are wrapped in a palette of silver, slate, and chrome, with details such as stunning, oversized Tony Duquette "sunburst" light fixtures; a turn-of-the-century Argentine walnut and pewter bar with a tiled back bar and dramatic display shelving; etched antiqued metallic wall coverings; and an oversized antiqued mirror in a gilded frame spanning the entire back wall. Whimsical art features 19th-century black and white photography of wedding couples.
