The Swissôtel Chicago will have completed two parts of its $17.5-million revamp by this April. Another two stepsarguably the most important pieces of the puzzle for meeting plannerswill take place before the renovation is completed next year.
Come this spring, all 632 guestrooms will have been refurbished. In addition to new decor and more user-friendly work spaces, each room will feature a docking center for a host of portable devices. Rooms also will feature high-speed Internet access after the hotel installs a DS3 line, which operates 28 times faster than the speed of a T1 line.
But next is meeting space expansion. By June 2009, the hotel will have a new 15,000-sf ballroom and another 15,000 sf of function space.
"The additional meeting space, in conjunction with the current meeting space, will make Swissôtel Chicago the ideal meeting headquarter venue," said Thomas
Klein, Swissôtel's vice president of business development for the Americas.
In the final phase-toward the end of 2009-7,000 sf of the hotel's existing 27,000 sf of meeting space will be converted into guest rooms. A total of 30 accommodations will be added. The hotel upgraded its health club late last year.
Originally published January 28, 2008