Joint-Venture Team Delivers Marriott Marquis in Chicago

CHICAGO, Ill. – Marriott Marquis Chicago recently opened its doors to guests, providing conventioneers and visitors to Chicago, Illinois’ South Loop with a new option for hotel accommodations. The anticipated addition to the McCormick Square campus brings additional hotel space to the community surrounding McCormick Place, the nation’s largest convention center. Clark Construction Group, lead member of the Design-Build joint venture team Prairie District3 Partners, partnered with the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority to deliver the $350-million hotel, support structures and campus improvements.

At 1,205 rooms, the Marriott Marquis is Chicago’s sixth largest hotel. Cloaked in a distinctive blue glass curtainwall, the 40-story structure rises above Prairie Avenue, adding a new dimension to the rapidly evolving McCormick Square skyline. The hotel’s sweeping lobby entrance is marked with modern luxury finishes. In addition to well-appointed guest rooms and 44 luxury suites, hotel patrons can enjoy a state-of-the-art fitness center, club lounge and street-level bar and restaurant areas.

Marriott Marquis links directly to McCormick Place Convention Center and the adjacent Wintrust Arena via pedestrian bridges. The hotel features 93,000 square feet of meeting space, 43,000 square feet of breakout space, two 25,000-square-foot ballrooms, as well as a signature event space on the 33rd floor offering striking views of downtown Chicago and Lake Michigan.

In addition to its work on the hotel tower, Clark renovated and restored the neighboring historic American Book Company building, connecting it to the Marriott and adding meeting spaces and back-of-house areas for the hotel. The team’s scope also included parking areas, renovations to the existing campus’ central utility plant and a public park along S. Prairie Avenue and 21st Street.

The flagship hotel is a component of MPEA’s master plan to convert McCormick Square into a thriving, year-round destination. Clark’s early engagement in the Design-Build project, coupled with the firm’s strong working relationships with key project partners, allowed the team to provide creative design and engineering solutions that enabled the hotel to be built within MPEA’s original budget and on a fast-track schedule.

Prairie District3 Partners is comprised of construction partners Clark Construction Group, Bulley & Andrews, LLC, Old Veteran Construction, McKissack & McKissak Midwest and Powers & Sons Construction Company, as well as design partners Goettsch Partners and Moody Nolan. Gensler provided the hotel’s initial design concept and schematic design.