Revel Motor Row
Chicago
Revel Motor Row is the recipient of the 2018 Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award for Rehabilitation. Located at 2400-2412 S. Michigan Ave. in Chicago, the project combined and transformed the former Illinois Automotive Club/Chicago Defender Building and the Cadillac Motor Car Company Showroom into an event and production space. Having sat vacant for nearly a decade, both buildings were in need of extensive work: the Cadillac Building had been substantially gutted by a former tenant and the Defender Building had sustained significant water damage that had destroyed much of the original wood paneling and plasterwork. Scope of work in the Defender Building included replication of the original steel windows and the restoration of stained glass windows and the original motor car weather van atop the tower. The interior was reconfigured to match its original 1936 plan, paneling and plasterwork was replicated based on documentation, original plaster relief maps were restored, while the skylight-lit pool room was converted into an event space. Scope of work in the adjacent Cadillac Building included reconstructing missing windows, as well as the street-level storefront. Recovered floor and ceiling fragments were used to replicate the showroom’s original tile paving and ornate plasterwork. The rehabilitation of these two prominent buildings ensures the continued use of these important landmarks, while providing a flexible event space in the developing South Loop community.
Project Principals
Property Adventures (owner)
Filoramo Talsma Architecture
The Engineering Studio, Inc.
MacRostie Historic Advisors LLC
Skyline Plastering, Inc.
(Photo credit: MacRostie Historic Advisors LLC)
All 2018 Award Recipients