Interior Remains
[Auditorium Annex (1893) Clinton J. Warren, architect /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
Yesterday we mentioned that we'd step inside the Congress Plaza Hotel to see what we'd
be able to find of the original interior. (It's so hard to take photos inside buildings these days, what with security and all. Even on guided tours - guides and docents warn, "No Pictures!") Luckily though, in this case, you get to see in the pic above an example of the kind of worksmanship that existed in 1893 when this portion of the hotel was built.
[Auditorium Annex/ Congress Hotel (1893/2010) /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
This is what remains of the original lobby. Although the smoked glass panels in the arches,
the chandeliers, sconces, as well as the furniture, are from a more recent era, there are remnants of the hotel's glamorous, glory days still remaining. I guess it's amazing that anything still survives from those times since during the intervening years the hotel went from owner to owner and name change to name change. Starting out as the Auditorium Annex, the hotel soon became the Congress, then the Pick Congress, and finally today's Congress Plaza Hotel. At the beginning of the Second World War the military actually took over the building to provide temporary housing for soldiers. During their tenure they covered marble floors with linoleum for easier maintenance and turned the ballrooms into mess halls.
[Congress Plaza Hotel, 520 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago /Images & Artwork: designslinger]
After the military left the Congress had several upgrades and modernizations. Yet through
it all some of the shining, stunningly beautiful surfaces of tile, marble and bronze have survived - though barely, as you can see in the photo on the right. Other spaces weren't so lucky. One of the most spectacular interior spaces, in a city of spectacular interior spaces, was the hotel's Pompeiian Room. Now long gone, it is preserved for posterity in photos and old postcards.
See our related post about the Congress Hotel at: Hotel Annexed.
Posted by designslinger at 10/21/2010 1:37 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Decorative Arts
Tags: Michigan Avenue mosaic tile hotels Clinton J. Warren
Categories: Architecture, History, Decorative Arts
Tags: Michigan Avenue mosaic tile hotels Clinton J. Warren
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