The Robey Hall Hotel, Chicago by DELORDINAIRE

DELORDINAIRE is responsible for the interior design of The Robey Hall Hotel in Chicago. This eclectic project earned the studio, whose partners are spread between Paris, London and Montreal, a nomination as “Emerging Designer of the Year” at the 2018 Frame Awards.


DELORDINAIRE is an architecture firm founded in 2015 by the Australian  Adrian Hunfalvay, French Erwan Lêveque and Canadian Jean Philippe Parent. A team whose diverse cultural identities set the scene for their approach to design based on working closely with local artisans in the search for custom responses for each and every client.
Grupo Habita, Mexican-based developer and operator of boutique hotels in the United States, commissioned DELORDINAIRE to design The Robey Hall  (formerly “The Hollander”) hotel in Chicago, close to Wicker Park. They reworked the spaces of an old warehouse as testimony to the city's industrial past.
Reason enough for the DELORDINAIRE team to preserve and expose the existing structure, celebrating the building's utilitarian nature. The industrial style also filters through in the materials used for the interiors, where conduits are exposed and neon lights punctuate corridors. The lobby finishes combine concrete and birch plywood. The concrete floors and ceilings in the rooms have been left exposed and the bed frames are made from birch plywood and black steel. Even the shelving has been made to measure using folded steel. 
The design of this 20-room hotel encourages locals and guests to meet and interact in a relaxed backdrop. The space, with deliberately little to no separation between the mix of services available - from the café where you can sip on a coffee made by the barista to the laundry facilities and bike rental and repair shop, it all offers quite an atypical mix of activities. Still, this is the secret that makes The Robey Hall Hotel so special, not least because of the lobby, which DELORDINARE designed as a flexible, multifunctional area that can host events like concerts to engage with both guests and Chicagoans alike.
This relaxed, carefree design has injected new life into an old industrial building in a skilful combination of architectural solutions and bespoke furniture made in collaboration with local artisans that earned DELORDINAIRE a nomination as “Emerging Designer of the Year” in the 2018 Frame Awards being celebrated today in Amsterdam.

Christiane Bürklein

Project: Delordinaire http://delordinaire.com/
Location: Chicago, USA
Year: 2017
Images: Adrian Gaut
Find out more: https://www.therobey.com/