The Wit Hotel

The chartreuse glass of the lightning bolt bends to fill the canopy protecting the entrance and casts its wickedly hip color onto pedestrians.
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Located in the central Loop, the Wit is fronted by a slashing chartreuse zigzag (dubbed “the lightning bolt” by the hotel’s marketers) across the 27-story glass façade, a bold move made more surprising by those looking closely at the fine print. The 298-guest-room Wit is part of the more simplistic Doubletree Hotel chain, not typically known as a boutique hotelier.

The 9,500-square-foot corner site is filled to its limits by the 250,000-square-foot building, which was developed as two discrete pieces. The north half exposes the structure’s concrete frame, while the south comprises the hotel’s signature folded glass façade and the dynamic canted roof that rises toward the intersection of State and Lake streets. Breaking the mass of the slender building gives it a smaller scale on the streetscape—in contrast to its generally larger neighbors. The chartreuse glass of the lightning bolt bends to fill the canopy protecting the entrance and casts its wickedly hip color onto pedestrians.

This project was completed by the Ventana team while with another firm.