At the confluence of Rush, State, and Cedar streets, the new Viceroy Hotel rises on the site occupied for decades by the stately old Cedar Hotel. Not wanting to lose the elegance of the past, the new eighteen story building has borrowed the face of its predecessor and married it with a modern pleated glass façade set back from the street. The program for this 180 key hotel, in a pedestrian-friendly nightlife oriented neighborhood required no parking, but is fully focused on experience and amenities, including a restaurant, ballroom, fitness center, pool, and outdoor terrace.

The 134,000 square feet of the building are supported by 8” thick post-tensioned floor slabs, reinforced concrete columns, and a central reinforced concrete core. A one-story basement underlies the site. The columns and the core are supported by belled caissons on hardpan. Structural steel framing is utilized at the four-story lobby and historic façade, as well as a roof over the loading dock and a cantilevered trellis adjacent to the pool on the roof.

The historic façade of the old Cedar Hotel was a four-story edifice of load-bearing multi-wythe brick and terracotta. After dismantling, cataloguing, and temporary storage of the pieces, the wall is being reassembled at a slightly higher elevation on a new steel frame. The structural steel elements carrying the masonry assemblage were carefully located to mimic the original support conditions of the wall and to avoid obstructing views of the craftsmanship from both inside and outside.

The new, contrasting yet complimentary glass façade that rises behind the terracotta from the fourth floor to the roof, resembles the pleats of a fan. However, the lines of the folds taper from top to bottom, requiring the concrete floor slab to follow a sawtooth edge geometry that is unique at each floor. In the two prominent corners facing State Street, the columns have been pulled back, resulting in up to seventeen foot cantilevered slab edge in each direction. Providing these unobstructed corner views of the city through the folded curtainwall required detailed analysis of the 8” thick post-tensioned concrete slabs, confirming that strict deflection and vibration limits were not exceeded.