Elysian - Chicago

Billed as bringing a new level of luxury to the Windy City’s affluent Gold Coast neighbourhood, the US$280 million Elysian welcomed its first guests in December 2009. Standing proud on a 28,000sq ft plot of prime real estate, the mixed-use hotel and residential scheme has proven to be a real labour of love for its owners, a young Chicago-based hospitality company led by CEO David Pisor and his partners, Mario Tricoci, Mary Beth Malone and Christopher Knable. During a preview visit by Sleeper, Pisor took time from his hectic schedule to outline his vision for the Elysian brand: “We have to walk before we run but our ambitions focus on owning other hotel assets that are intimate in style in gateway cities worldwide,” he says. “Luxury is overused as a word but we believe the only way to deliver this experience is to match great architecture, design and structure with a limited number of hotel rooms. Taking care of the individual means focusing on the detail and having a smaller operation.”

Pisor and his partners made personal investments to pull together the seed money. The idea was to find a desirable parcel of land from which to pre-sell a sizeable real estate component. “Our enhanced business model involved selling quality residences at high price points to offset expensive hotel construction,” Pisor explains. “Finding the best location was vital in terms of enabling us to offer substantial value to our high-end buyers.” This pre-opening campaign, which started in 2004, resulted in further financing being secured from Hypo Real Estate Capital Corporation in 2006. Of 52 private residences costing from US$3.9 million upwards, only four remain on the market.

The residential aspect of the project had had a direct impact on the building’s design, as Pisor explains: “When people buy a home, they want classic lines and architecture. We chose to work with Lucien Lagrange because some of the highest-priced condos in this city are located in the buildings he has designed.” Resembling a French estate, with its motor courtyard and classic structural colonnades and spires, the elegant building houses both the residences and 188 hotel rooms although each component has its own entrance. As with the residences, the hotel’s design, services and amenities have been developed with a discerning customer in mind. “We want to be a rate leader in the city,” says the Elysian’s General Manager Kevin Robinson. “Our demographic is a clientele looking for refinement, excellence and customized service, not the typical overnight business traveller.”

An Ambassador who takes care of check-in and orientation, and who is trained in all areas of hotel management so as to answer any questions effectively, is assigned to every guest on arrival. Similarly, rather than having different departments, such as housekeeping and food and beverage, guests ring down to one communications centre where the team is trained to understand all aspects of the hotel offer. “Our communications team has regular food tastings with the chefs and treatments at the spa, for example, so they have the product knowledge and can answer any question with intelligence,” comments Robinson. “We also have a central system to log in guest requests so we are aware of their preferences ahead of their next visit.”

The hotel’s interiors are also key to this luxury experience. Pisor’s brief to principal interior designers Lisa Simeone and Gina Deary specified a European ambience that was timeless yet very glamorous. He also pointed out that ‘Elysian fields’ were the resting place of the Gods in Greek mythology. This placed the two designers in an instant dilemma. “Immediately you think of Greco-Roman architecture but going down this route would have meant the interiors disconnecting with the very French exterior,” says Deary. Simeone adds: “Plus we were aware that the Elysian brand would have to work visually around the world but you can’t have Greek design in Miami, for example.”

Instead the pair dipped into Chicago’s history for inspiration, researching the turn-of-the-20th-century building boom in which 1920s Paris played an important role. “The buildings erected during this period were heavily influenced by the deco aesthetic originating from Europe in the 1920s and 30s,” Deary points out. “There was a celebration of this craftsmanship and the artisan movement right here in Chicago.” Keen to tap into this glamour period while giving it some edge, the designers turned to the fashion greats of the era, namely Christian Dior and Coco Chanel, for ideas about fabrics, fixtures and fittings. Simeone explains: “We asked ourselves what makes a Dior dress or Chanel jewellery timeless? Why are people still clamouring for these pieces over 70 years later?”

Set amidst a bold monochromatic palette, the hotel’s public spaces are adorned with luxurious fabrics and rugs in simple, striking colours that often shimmer gently thanks to the addition of a weave in Lurex. Rather than super-patterned carpets and walls, solid fabrics such as velvet, mohair, silk, leather and duchess satin have been selected for their texture. Kick pleats in the lobby drapes nod to Monsieur Dior, while Madame Chanel is channelled through standout, jewellery box lighting features. This includes a stunning Austrian crystal-cut glass chandelier in the lobby designed by Baldinger to mimic a Chanel broach and a jewel-encrusted egg-shaped light suspended in the spa.

Inspired by an early 20th-century metal gate, the designers commissioned a 27ft ornamental screen from Rareform to mask the lobby elevators, from which they borrowed several simple repeating patterns and applied to the marble flooring, carpet and drapery in the guest rooms, and to the edge of sheets and pillowcases; a technique employed to evoke a Modernist period of design.

Of the two restaurants, it is in the informal Balsan, the social hub of the hotel, where more eye-catching fixtures can be found, from a cluster of lights designed to resemble freshly cracked oysters to the monolithic bar decorated by a screen etched with a frieze detail taken directly from the marquetry of a French building. The monochromatic palette of the public spaces continues in the guest bedrooms although it is toned down with elegant greys and creams and occasional splashes of pink.

In homage to the origins of the Elysian concept, Simeone Deary has borrowed from Greco-Roman architecture to create a stunning spa. Greek mythology is also recognised in the two edgy resin sculptures by Mexican artist Javier Marín that watch over the lobby.

As the interior design firm’s first five-star hotel project, the overall result is nothing less than impressive, with Simeone Deary finding just the right balance between drama and craftsmanship.