Hotel Riu Plaza Chicago

RIU Hotels & Resorts opened its first Chicago property on the Magnificent Mile in July 2024, bringing 390 rooms to a newly built 28-story tower a block off Michigan Avenue. It is the Spanish group's fifth urban hotel in the United States and its eleventh worldwide, a milestone for a chain still better known for beach resorts than city skylines.

The place

The hotel stands at 150 East Ontario Street in Streeterville, on the north end of the Magnificent Mile and within a short walk of Millennium Park, Navy Pier and Willis Tower. The corridor is one of the densest concentrations of shopping and dining in the Midwest, and the address puts guests directly on Chicago's public transit network rather than at its edge. For a chain expanding its urban portfolio, a site this close to the city's primary retail spine signals an ambition to compete for mainstream leisure and business travelers rather than to find a quieter, cheaper alternative address.

The concept

Riu Plaza Chicago occupies a purpose-built 28-story tower developed by Chicago-based The Prime Group, with Lucien Lagrange Studio as designer and Lamar Johnson Collaborative serving as architect of record; W.E. O'Neil was general contractor. The building's exterior and lobby draw on the Chicago School architectural tradition that shaped the city's skyline, translated by RIU into its own Plaza sub-brand: the group's line of four-star urban hotels distinct from its all-inclusive resort properties. The lobby centers on an Art Deco-style mural executed in marble and wood with recycled materials, setting a tone closer to a boutique city hotel than the resort aesthetic RIU is known for elsewhere.

The 390 rooms are designed around a simple move: natural light carried from the sleeping area through into the bathroom, paired with light furniture on iron structures and walk-in showers. It is a compact, efficiency-driven room product suited to the four-star, high-occupancy urban model RIU is building out in the U.S., following earlier Plaza openings in New York, Miami Beach, Orlando and Panama City. The Chicago property gives the group a foothold in a major convention and business-travel market, complementing a portfolio still weighted toward leisure destinations.

Dining & wellness

The hotel has a full-service restaurant serving a complimentary buffet breakfast, and a lobby bar offering grab-and-go snacks, coffee and beverages throughout the day. On the 27th floor, The Rooftop bar opened in September 2024 with a glass balcony giving panoramic views over the city: the hotel's signature amenity, arriving roughly two months after the rest of the property. A fully equipped fitness room is also on site.