People and Products

On Chicago’s stately Michigan Avenue, steps from the Art Institute, in a classically ordered ground-floor lobby with elaborate mosaic floors, Corinthian columns, and two grand marble stairs, office workers in “business casual” line up for burgers at Shake Shack. On the grand piano nobile above, amid the plutocratic splendor of a plushly furnished lounge with intricate paneling, monumental fireplaces, and leaded-glass windows overlooking Millennium Park, twentysomethings in T-shirts and jeans tap away at laptops and smartphones. In an adjacent game room, they down local craft beers while playing pool and bocce. This is not your grandfather’s Chicago Athletic Association (CAA), where Cyrus McCormick and Marshall Field used to exercise, dine, and dance. No, it’s the new CAA Hotel, for which the home of an august but defunct institution has been rescued, repurposed, and rebranded for a more diverse demographic.