{"id":714283,"date":"2026-04-08T22:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/714283\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T22:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:08:15","slug":"construction-to-start-on-expanded-360-chicago-deck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/714283\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction to start on expanded 360 Chicago deck"},"content":{"rendered":"

Construction is about to begin near the top of the former John Hancock Center on Chicago\u2019s first multilevel observation deck. Workers have spent the past year stripping out everything on the 95th and 96th floors \u2014 the former home of the legendary Signature Room restaurant and the Signature Lounge \u2014 leaving nothing of the interior but bare concrete floors and exposed steel beams.<\/p>\n

The Magnificent Mile still has a lot of empty storefronts, but Nichole Benolken, managing director at 360 Chicago, the observation deck on the 94th floor, said this reconstruction effort will provide the retail district with a jolt of energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel confident that the experience we deliver to Chicago will boost tourism,\u201d she said. \u201cThe space won\u2019t look anything like it did beforehand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glass installers on Wednesday morning were suspended more than 1,000 feet above East Delaware Place on the building\u2019s north side, popping out now-dingy windows that had been in place since 1969. The hundreds of replacement windows will reduce glare, brighten the interior, save energy and provide tourists with a much clearer view of Lake Michigan and the surrounding city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWindow technology has come a long way in six decades,\u201d Benolken said. \u201cReplacing the windows is the final step of this first phase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magnicity, the French company that owns 360 Chicago, bought<\/a> the 95th and 96th floors in 2024 after the abrupt closure<\/a> of the Signature Room and the Signature Lounge, top tourist spots for decades. The company will by mid-2027 expand<\/a> the existing 94th-floor observation deck up to the 95th floor, add a three-story atrium and fill the 96th floor with a 14,000-square-foot private event space.<\/p>\n

\"MatthewMatthew Baran, center, holds a new window pane with Kevin Callahan during a window install in the former John Hancock Center at 875 N. Michigan Ave., on April 8, 2026. (Josh Boland\/Chicago Tribune)<\/p>\n

The Signature Room and Signature Lounge closed in September 2023. The shutdown of the venues was a blow to the Magnificent Mile, where the retail vacancy rate soared as a result of online shopping trends and the pandemic. A message posted on the restaurant\u2019s social media pages cited COVID-19 and subsequent \u201csevere economic hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Magnicity invested about $17 million into the former John Hancock Center, the skyscraper now known as 875 North Michigan Avenue, after buying the 94th floor more than 11 years ago. It added attractions such as Tilt, a moving glass ledge that for two minutes dangles guests more than 1,000 feet above the street, and CloudBar, the highest bar in Chicago. Nearly 1 million people visit the observation deck each year.<\/p>\n

A new bar will be added to the 95th floor by mid-2027, Benolken said.<\/p>\n

The three-floor reconstruction is the most significant interior renovation in the building\u2019s 57-year history, according to SOM, the architectural firm that designed the 100-story 875 North Michigan Avenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Construction is about to begin near the top of the former John Hancock Center on Chicago\u2019s first multilevel…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":714284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[64,960,5386,1818,1370,728,4329,1072],"class_list":{"0":"post-714283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-real-estate","15":"tag-things-to-do"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116371371449792558","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/714284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}