DXA studio Partner Jordan Rogove with Lucien Lagrange Architects.

The historic Carbide & Carbon Building on Michigan Avenue in Chicago, designed by the Burnham Brothers to evoke the spirit of a champagne bottle, outlived its usefulness as an office building and closed its doors in 1997. The limited structural capacity of the building,
and column cluttered floor plates made most adaptive reuse programs impractical, and
developers interested in the site began pushing for the buildings demolition.

A team of architects from Lucien Lagrange Architects including DXA studio’s founding
partner, Jordan Rogove, helped develop a hotel program that ultimately saved the building,
restoring and converting it into the first metropolitan Hard Rock Hotel. A small ancillary
contemporary addition supporting the hotel was designed using the same terra cotta, granite and gilding of the original in a more contemporary manner. The 330 room hotel was completed in 2004 and received the Louis Sullivan Award, AIA Illinois’ top award.