The 52-story IBM building on the shores of Lake Michigan, one of the last buildings of Mies van der Rohe (completed in 1972, after his death), has changed several owners since the 1990s, with many of them considering changing the function, as the search tenants for offices in the already "historic" building was not an easy task.
As a result, in 2007 the Langham Hotel Group acquired the buildings from the 2nd to the 13th floors and turned them into a luxury hotel with 316 rooms. Designers Richmond International (guest rooms, corridors and lobbies on the floors) and David Rockwell (restaurant and bar interior) were involved in the renovation. Meanwhile, Dirk Lohan, the grandson of Mies van der Rohe himself, was tasked with renovating the lobby on the 1st floor.
This lobby, as the least functional space, was the purest embodiment of Mees's ideas in this building, but it has now undergone a significant "tweak". Now it serves two independent tenants - the Langham Hotel and the American Medical Association (AMA), which occupies all the upper floors (in honor of which the building will be renamed AMA Plaza), so, among other things, it had to be divided in half by an 8-meter glass wall throughout the height of the room. To at least partially make up for the loss of authenticity, Lohan placed furniture designed by his grandfather there.
Richmond International continued the line of "synthesis" of old and new, begun on the 1st floor: forms and patterns recall the era of post-war modernism, but do not copy it, but attention to every detail is still at the forefront. Thus, the golden travertine used by Mies van der Rohe in the lobby has now appeared in the bathrooms, and the pattern of the carpet in the corridors is repeated in the frame of the mirrors. At the same time, the transparent glass partition separating the bathroom from the bedroom is “matted” at the touch of a button: designers did not want to give up 21st century technologies in the interests of stylization.
Much more dramatic than IBM's, the fate of the TWA terminal at JF Kennedy, designed by Hero Saarinen in 1962. In 2001, it was discontinued: TWA went bankrupt, and it was not large enough for the new owner of JetBlue; in addition, it did not meet the safety requirements imposed after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. They even wanted to demolish it, but then the new JetBlue terminal was nevertheless built nearby, and the Saarinen building was empty, although it was restored. In 2011, information appeared about plans to turn it into a lobby of a boutique hotel, which will be erected nearby, but it never came to construction.
But now, at least, there is a real customer for the renovation: Andre Balazs, owner of The Standard hotel chain. He plans to turn the TWA terminal into a hotel and conference center with a spa, fitness center, shops, restaurants and an aviation museum. Whether he wants to fit everything into the building of Saarinen, or an additional building will be attached to it, is not yet reported.
