CHICAGO— Hyatt Hotels Corp.’s new Park Hyatt Chicago is set to attract upscale travelers who prefer something a little less traditional and more contemporary. Located within a mixed use development, Park Hyatt Chicago features 203 luxury rooms on floors one through 18; a host of upscale stores; and 49 floors of condominiums ranging in price from $600,000 to $6 million. Inside each guestroom a luxurious bath, designed by McAuliffe & Culpepper, Atlanta, GA in conjunction with Hyatt Development and the Pritzker Family, invites weary travelers to relax, noted Louis Kievit, director of sales, Hyatt Hotels Corp. “We spent a lot of energy doing them right, [since]our research and everything we’ve heard from luxury and resort customers shows that the bath is a focal point. [To that end], we poured much detail and luxury into each bath.” The design intention was to capture the imagination of “the really upscale market who demand the types of amenities they have at home,” said Kievit. Hyatt also wanted to take luxury one step further, with a contemporary design marked with sleek lines and high-end products. “In general the guests baths are contemporary, a departure from traditional design,” he added. As such, each bath features “a very large, oversized” two-person Kohler soaking tub with a Grohe pull-out spray. To give the room an open, spacious feel, guests have the option of sliding open the “sliding cherry wood doors that open [to the guestroom and]to dramatic views of the city,” according to Kievit. The tub is encased in marble tiling, which is also applied to the floors and walls for added opulence. The his-and-her vanity features plenty of counter space and two Kohler sinks, and offers a sleek, curvilinear design. A separate walk-in shower area with two showerheads is encased in smoked black glass for privacy, while a separate commode area is enclosed and appointed with a two-line telephone. The bath addresses technology by offering an eight-inch, flat-screen LCD television above the vanity and a 27-inch flat screen DVD/CD player, “free of charge,” noted Kievit. And with respect to “functionality and convenience,” Kievit points to how the closet can be accessed from both the foyer of the guest- room and the bath. “There is a half-door in the bath and a double door in the foyer that opens the closet,” Kievit noted. For an added touch Kievit said that the baths all feature candles, loofahs and aromatherapy oils, since “many people have candles at home.” The overall bath design interprets the property’s overall contemporary, yet classically modern feel, said Kievit, through its use of the marble, as well as through plenty of chrome accents seen in the tub’s pull-out spray, the bath faucets and the accessories such as the curved towel bar affixed to the front of the vanity. Kievit added that the guest bath design offers the size (i.e., openness), elegance and functionality that Hyatt’s target market is seeking. “Customers have been floored by the beauty of both the room and the baths,” he noted.
