IN CELEBRATION OF A THOUSAND-YEAR TRADITION

Situated in the heart of Chicago China Town, the existing podium building hosted the old China Chinatown Library. (  New Chicago Public Chinatown Library moved not far away from this site designed by SOM).  A hotel addition will raise the value of this premier site and give this landmark building a new life.  

Red is a deeply symbolic element in Chinese culture, associated with happiness, prosperity, and great fortune. Here a red dancing ribbon—using laser-cut metal to revitalize a traditional Chinese motif—rises from the side wall, flies over the top, and then wraps around the building, evoking happiness and motion, while balanced and rooted in the building’s other elements, creating a dynamic harmony. 

A rich red also reinvigorates the old podium storefront, with its crimson canopies providing a much-needed face lift and refreshed identify for this most important building on Wentworth Avenue, the heart of Chicago’s Chinatown.