Following a US$85m renovation that saw an iconic tennis club transformed
into an athletics club with a fitness-focused hotel, Chicago’s Midtown Athletic Club
has reopened and it boasts a truly impressive design
By Magali Robathan | Published in Health Club Management 2018 issue 3
This ‘urban sports resort’ offers a wide range of health and wellness amenities
Opened in 1970 by tennis enthusiast Alan Schwartz and his father Kevie Schwartz, Chicago’s Midtown Tennis Club (as it was originally called) quickly built a name within the sport, serving as the home court of Billie Jean King and the site at which Andre Agassi won his first national junior tournament.
While the club offered excellent tennis facilities, the gym remained a small add-on until 2015, when Chicago architectural and interiors practice DMAC Architecture began an ambitious transformation of the tennis club into “the largest premier health-and-fitness property in the US”.
Set across three floors, the refurbished and renamed Midtown Athletic Club – which reopened in November last year – now features 16 indoor tennis courts; studios for a range of activities including yoga, pilates, cycling and boxing; an indoor swimming pool; an outdoor swimming pool, which also serves as an ice rink during the winter; a fitness centre featuring Precor equipment; a full service spa; a 182-seat restaurant and a retail complex.
Above the health club sits a 55 room boutique hotel, occupying the building’s fourth and fifth floors.
“The hotel concept came late in the game, but it was an inspired idea,” says Dwayne MacEwen, founder of DMAC Architecture. “Differing from your typical hotel facility where a small portion of the property is dedicated to amenities, Midtown is 96 per cent amenity and only four per cent hotel. This is a complete gamechanger for both the hotel and club experience.
“The athletics club allows guests to prioritise fitness, not only within one’s own regimen or training programme but within business and leisure travel. The site becomes a reason in itself for travel to Chicago – to be a spectator or to participate in competitions and tournaments.”
He adds: “In many ways, the hotel was designed with the health-conscious and fitness-focused guest in mind. Rather than offering in-room yoga mats like many hotels do, we offer guests the best yoga studio and fitness classes in the country, as well as state-of-the-art equipment and the exciting amenities offered at the club.”
An opportunity to reimagine one of the UK’s most recognisable towers has been formally
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Following a US$85m renovation that saw an iconic tennis club transformed
into an athletics club with a fitness-focused hotel, Chicago’s Midtown Athletic Club
has reopened and it boasts a truly impressive design
By Magali Robathan | Published in Health Club Management 2018 issue 3
This ‘urban sports resort’ offers a wide range of health and wellness amenities
Opened in 1970 by tennis enthusiast Alan Schwartz and his father Kevie Schwartz, Chicago’s Midtown Tennis Club (as it was originally called) quickly built a name within the sport, serving as the home court of Billie Jean King and the site at which Andre Agassi won his first national junior tournament.
While the club offered excellent tennis facilities, the gym remained a small add-on until 2015, when Chicago architectural and interiors practice DMAC Architecture began an ambitious transformation of the tennis club into “the largest premier health-and-fitness property in the US”.
Set across three floors, the refurbished and renamed Midtown Athletic Club – which reopened in November last year – now features 16 indoor tennis courts; studios for a range of activities including yoga, pilates, cycling and boxing; an indoor swimming pool; an outdoor swimming pool, which also serves as an ice rink during the winter; a fitness centre featuring Precor equipment; a full service spa; a 182-seat restaurant and a retail complex.
Above the health club sits a 55 room boutique hotel, occupying the building’s fourth and fifth floors.
“The hotel concept came late in the game, but it was an inspired idea,” says Dwayne MacEwen, founder of DMAC Architecture. “Differing from your typical hotel facility where a small portion of the property is dedicated to amenities, Midtown is 96 per cent amenity and only four per cent hotel. This is a complete gamechanger for both the hotel and club experience.
“The athletics club allows guests to prioritise fitness, not only within one’s own regimen or training programme but within business and leisure travel. The site becomes a reason in itself for travel to Chicago – to be a spectator or to participate in competitions and tournaments.”
He adds: “In many ways, the hotel was designed with the health-conscious and fitness-focused guest in mind. Rather than offering in-room yoga mats like many hotels do, we offer guests the best yoga studio and fitness classes in the country, as well as state-of-the-art equipment and the exciting amenities offered at the club.”
Hotel de France, located on the British Isle of Jersey, has created a wellness retreat package
that includes a hot yoga session that will take place in Jersey Zoo’s butterfly sanctuary.
A new immersive attraction designed to transport visitors into the final hours of ancient Pompeii
is preparing to open near the world-famous archaeological site in southern Italy.
Experience design company, BRC Imagination Arts, has completed a transition that sees founder
Bob Rogers pass ownership of the business to four long-serving senior executives, while
remaining actively involved with the company.
Movie Park Germany has opened a new Paramount Pictures-themed attraction as part of its 30th
anniversary celebrations, using immersive storytelling and adaptive reuse to reinforce the park’s
longstanding “Hollywood in Germany” positioning.
Therme Manchester’s 28-acre development, which will include interconnected glass pavilions
that measure 65,000sq m, will be the largest bathing and wellbeing attraction in the world once
complete, according to prof David Russell, CEO of Therme UK.
Efteling has opened Hooghmoed, a new family drop tower designed to broaden the appeal of its
recently launched Sirene Island themed area and introduce younger visitors to thrill attractions.
A proposed Puy du Fou development near Bicester and Universal Destinations and Experiences’
planned resort in Bedford are emerging as part of a wider transformation of the Oxford–
Cambridge Growth Corridor into a major centre for UK leisure and tourism inv
Shedd Aquarium has opened the Immersion Theater developed in partnership with SimEx-
Iwerks, as part of a wider strategy to enhance the guest experience and create additional
revenue opportunities.
The UK government has announced a temporary reduction in VAT on visitor attractions and
children’s meals as part of a summer cost-of-living support package designed to stimulate the
visitor economy and encourage family days out.
As designer Yinka Ilori prepares for his first solo gallery show in London, he speaks exclusively
to CLADmag about his mission to spread joy, the power of play, and his bold approach to using
colour (including the colours you won’t see in his work).
The government of Thailand is exploring plans for a THB300bn (£6.3bn, US$8.3bn)
entertainment complex in the country’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), with officials
proposing a large-scale theme park and sports destination as part of a broader tourism and
economic development strategy.
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