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The glass-roofed rooftop restaurant at the Chicago Athletic Association, overlooking Lake Michigan

Chicago Athletic Association

Sleep inside a Gilded Age gentlemen's club, where a Venetian-Gothic landmark
hides a speakeasy, a games hall, and a rooftop over Millennium Park.

Chicago Athletic Association Building1893Chicago Landmark 12 S. Michigan Avenue, overlooking Millennium Park

Chicago Athletic Association, a Hyatt Hotel. 1893, Henry Ives Cobb, 12 S. Michigan Avenue. Photo courtesy of Chicago Athletic Association, a Hyatt Hotel.

Grand lobby with arched windows and an ornate mosaic floor
Grand lobby with arched windows and an ornate mosaic floor. Photo courtesy of Chicago Athletic Association, a Hyatt Hotel.
White marble staircase beneath a gilded coffered ceiling
White marble staircase beneath a gilded coffered ceiling. Photo courtesy of Chicago Athletic Association, a Hyatt Hotel.
The historic Game Room with billiards under globe lights
The historic Game Room with billiards under globe lights. Photo courtesy of Chicago Athletic Association, a Hyatt Hotel.
Guest room with a brass bed and leather pommel-horse bench
Guest room with a brass bed and leather pommel-horse bench. Photo courtesy of Chicago Athletic Association, a Hyatt Hotel.
Front desk beneath the white coffered lobby ceiling
Front desk beneath the white coffered lobby ceiling. Photo courtesy of Chicago Athletic Association, a Hyatt Hotel.
The historic CHICAGO marquee over the hotel entrance
The historic CHICAGO marquee over the hotel entrance. Photo courtesy of Chicago Athletic Association, a Hyatt Hotel.
Loaner bicycles parked at the carved stone entrance
Loaner bicycles parked at the carved stone entrance. Photo courtesy of Chicago Athletic Association, a Hyatt Hotel.

Why this building matters

Designed by Henry Ives Cobb in 1893 to echo Venice's Doge's Palace, the Chicago Athletic Association spent more than a century as an elite men's club before a meticulous restoration reopened it as a hotel in 2015. Its pointed-arch facade, mosaic floors, and carved-oak interiors are among the finest preserved Gilded Age interiors in the city — a genuine piece of Chicago history you can sleep inside. The hotel stands within the Historic Michigan Boulevard District — the famous one-sided streetwall of Michigan Avenue facing Grant Park, designated a Chicago Landmark in 2002. Preservation Chicago played a key leadership role in advocating for and creating this large and important landmark district; many of the beloved buildings along this iconic stretch — and now its beloved hotels — might have been demolished without that protection.

Read more on the Chicago Athletic Association's own history page → (booking directly with the hotel doesn't generate a referral fee that supports our preservation work — the button at right does)

What guests are saying

What guests love

  • The building itself is the headline. Guests describe being wowed from the moment they step into the marble staircase lobby beneath its gilded coffered ceiling, and the second-floor Game Room — with billiards, bocce, and vintage parlor games under chalkboard murals — is repeatedly called unlike anything in another hotel.
  • The food-and-drink scene draws as many locals as guests: the Cherry Circle Room for cocktails and supper-club dining, the hidden Milk Room speakeasy (one of the smallest bars in the city), and Cindy's, the glass-roofed rooftop restaurant whose terrace looks straight over Millennium Park, the Bean, and Lake Michigan.
  • Rooms blend the historic bones with warm, club-inspired design — leather pommel-horse benches, brass beds, and big windows over Michigan Avenue — and the location is about as central as Chicago gets, directly across from the park and two blocks from the Art Institute and the Loop's theaters.

What to keep in mind

  • Historic building — some rooms run compact
  • The lively rooftop can draw crowds & waits

Best for Ideal for travelers who want genuine historic character and a central downtown base with standout food and drink — couples, design and architecture lovers, and anyone who'd rather stay somewhere with a story than in a chain. If you need a large, ultra-modern room, request a higher room category and set expectations for the vintage building.

Summary of guest reviews. Sources: Chicago Athletic Association, Commission on Chicago Landmarks, Preservation Chicago. Photography courtesy of Chicago Athletic Association, a Hyatt Hotel, used with permission. Details may change over time.