Situated along the Chicago River and just minutes from the upscale retail, restaurants and museums of Michigan Avenue’s Magnificent Mile, the new Hilton Garden Inn Chicago/North Loop offers 191 rooms and nearly 100,000 square feet of space to visitors of Chicago’s booming North Loop neighborhood. The hotel features insulated metal panels in multiple hues from CENTRIA.

One of several new high rises in the area, the 27-story tower is unique in many aspects. The building is wedged in a compact space between two of the city’s historic landmarks: the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist and the art deco Chicago Motor Club Building. Its location created an emphasis on height rather than width, giving the hotel its signature thin shape.

The select service hotel also features a prominent profile on the Chicago River. Designers elected to specify an interesting checkboard aesthetic of metal panels on the river facade—creating an abstract image of sunlight reflected on the water surface. Other façades are designed to complement the contemporary concrete and metal materials showcased on the nearby buildings.

The recent hotel boom in Chicago has caused developers and designers to implement creative ways to differentiate their projects. Prominently visible from the Chicago River, the building features a custom metal mosaic façade. The 250-foot mosaic was inspired by the location of the building, just off the Chicago River view corridor. The design team created an image pixelization of sunlight reflecting off the river using CENTRIA’s Formawall Dimension Series insulated metal panels in five custom shades of grey, including Ashwood Moss, Stonewall, Sabre Gray, Sleigh Bells and Horizon.

The west wall showcases CENTRIA’s Formawall Dimension Series insulated metal panels in a custom, dark Midnight Blue hue. Insulated metal panels proved to be the ideal material to create a contemporary exterior while complementing the existing architecture of the North Loop.

Designed with CENTRIA’s Advanced Thermal and Moisture Protection (ATMP®) technology, Formawall Dimension Series is manufactured as one component. The wall system provides both advanced thermal efficiency and moisture control in a single panelized component. The single component construction results in less jobsite waste and quick and easy installation.

Formawall Dimension Series is one of today’s most preferred metal wall systems because of its combination of performance, aesthetics and sustainability. The Formawall 3″-T thickness is CENTRIA’s highest performing insulated metal panel, offering an R -value of 22. Formawall insulated metal panels include a factory foamed-in-place core, minimizing insulation gaps, along with a thermal break between the face and the liner. The standard insulated vertical metal (IMV) joint creates an all metal aesthetic with no exposed gaskets or sealants. The panels offer superior weather resistance by utilizing pressure equalization along the length of the horizontal joinery. The panels are also lightweight, allowing easy, one-step installation and minimizing foundation load.