Hotel Julian

Hotel Julian opened in fall 2018 at 168 North Michigan Avenue, in a building completed in 1912 for the Federal Life Insurance Company and designed by Benjamin Marshall with his partner Charles Fox. Oxford Capital Group and Quadrum Global spent more than $75 million turning a long-vacant office block into a 218-room hotel. The conversion added five glass-clad floors to the original twelve, reaching the height Marshall had planned but never built. More than a third of the terra cotta facade had to be replaced.

The place

The address is in the Loop, on the west side of Michigan Avenue and across the street from Millennium Park. The Theater District is a few blocks away, and the building sits where the Cultural Mile meets the foot of the Magnificent Mile.

The concept

The building went through several lives before it became a hotel. After Federal Life it was known as the Maremont Building, then as the Atlantic Bank Building once the National Bank of Greece took it over. A Hellenic cultural center occupied upper floors from 1995 to 2004, and the tower then stood largely empty for more than a decade. A 2012 plan to turn it into a Hotel Indigo stalled over permits and an air rights dispute with a neighboring building.

The tower was never designated a Chicago landmark, so demolition was legally possible. Oxford kept it instead. The team went through the Benjamin Marshall archives at the University of Texas for the original drawings and used them to recreate the missing terra cotta. Cranes are not allowed on Michigan Avenue or Garland Court, so crews hoisted materials with pulleys. Hirsch Associates handled the renovation architecture, and The Gettys Group the interiors. The name refers to Saint Julian, patron saint of travelers.

Inside, the references to the building's past are literal. A mural of Marshall greets guests in the lobby, shown beside a Packard and his North Shore villa, and years are painted on the stair treads as a timeline from the 1912 base to the modern floors. A wooden disk holding knives hangs in the lobby, and coverless old books fill diamond-shaped cubbies. Century-old brick stays exposed in the lobby and the restaurant.

There are 218 rooms and no suites, in king or queen configurations. At opening they came with a Nespresso machine, an in-room safe, 300-count Frette linens, Panpuri bath products, a handheld steamer and a clock radio with wireless charging. Bottled water and Wi-Fi were free; valet parking was charged, with in-and-out privileges.

Dining & wellness

About Last Knife occupies the ground floor, with indoor and outdoor seating. The kitchen describes it as a hybrid of steakhouse and gastropub: beef Wellington by the slice, charred octopus, prime cuts, small plates and a weekend brunch.

The drinks list leans on literature, with novel-themed cocktails such as a Hemingway daiquiri, alongside wine and craft beer. On Wednesdays, an author who donates a book gets a free drink.