citizenM Chicago Downtown

citizenM Chicago Downtown opened in September 2022, the fifth hotel the Dutch brand opened that year and its first in Chicago. It has 280 rooms and fills the lower floors of a 47-storey tower at 300 North Michigan Avenue, between the Chicago Riverwalk and Millennium Park. The tower is a joint development by Sterling Bay and citizenM. Above the hotel sit 289 residential units, and the ground level holds about 25,000 square feet of retail.

The place

The address is 300 North Michigan Avenue, on the Loop side of the Chicago River. The Riverwalk runs along the water a few steps north, and Millennium Park lies to the south along the same avenue.

The site suits short stays built around walking: the lakefront park system, the river path and the Michigan Avenue shopping strip are all close, and the hotel's own pitch is a central base at a mid-range price rather than a destination in itself.

The concept

The building was designed by Chicago firm bKL, architect of record for the whole tower, together with Concrete, the Amsterdam studio that has designed citizenM hotels since the brand began. Hill Group handled mechanical and electrical engineering, WSP the structure, and Linn-Mathes built it.

Rooms follow the brand formula: compact, built for up to two adults, with an extra-large king bed, a wall-to-wall window, a power shower and a tablet that controls lighting, blinds and television. Check-in happens on a touch screen in the lobby, which the brand says takes about a minute, with staff on the floor to help.

Art is part of the brief. Nina Chanel Abney, a Chicago painter, covered the 2,000-square-foot exterior terrace and the entrance walls with an abstract work that draws on the city and touches on race, gender and politics. Inside, a neon piece by Daniel van Straalen titled Ding Dong Your Opinion Is Wrong hangs in the bar area, and shared spaces carry works by Muntean/Rosenblum, Yngve Holen and Rainer Fetting. The in-room pictures come from Chicago artists, selected with ArtLifting, an organisation that supports artists the contemporary market has under-represented. Furniture is by Vitra.

Dining & wellness

There is no restaurant in the usual sense. The ground-floor canteenM serves snacks and drinks around the clock, and the lobby living room doubles as bar and workspace.

Three societyM meeting rooms can be booked by guests and by outside groups, with coffee included. The gym is open 24 hours.