"The choice of Presidents"
520 SOUTH MICHIGAN AVE.
CHICAGO, IL 60605-1626
DOWNTOWN/GRANT PARK
The Congress Plaza is a first class, traditional hotel located on South Michigan Avenue opposite Grant Park. The Congress Plaza's convenient downtown location commands a spectacular view of Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain. It also provides easy access to The Art Institute of Chicago, Symphony Center, Soldier Field, the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute and the Sears Tower; all within walking distance. The city business districts, shopping and restaurants, as well as downtown theaters and universities are also just minutes away. The hotel features a main lobby with an award-winning dome ceiling and stone statues in an Art Deco ambiance. The staff is genuinely warm and friendly, catering to your every need. Originally designed and built in 1893 to accommodate visitors to the Columbian World's Exposition, the guest rooms and suites of the Congress Plaza are truly spacious by today's standards. The tastefully decorated, well appointed guest rooms with modern conveniences mostly offer city or lake views. Many famous people have stayed at the Congress Plaza, including U.S. Presidents Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roosevelt. Guests looking for easy access to major downtown attractions will find the Congress Plaza convenient. The "El" train stops nearby and offers easy access to other parts of downtown, as well as both airports. The hotel offers on-site dining and is only minutes to fine dining, shopping, and entertainment.
Downtown Chicago puts on what is perhaps the finest display of modern architecture in the world, from the prototype skyscrapers of the 1890s to Mies van der Rohe's modernist masterpieces, and the second tallest building in the world, the quarter-mile-high Sears Tower. The compact heart of Chicago is known as the Loop, because it's circled by the elevated tracks of the CTA "El" trains. For a first impression of downtown, start your explorations by seeing the energy, drive and unmasked greed exposed in the trading pits of the various commodity marketplaces. Half the world's wheat and corn (and pork belly futures) are bought and sold amid the cacophonic roar of the Chicago Board of Trade, housed in a gorgeous Art Deco tower. From the entrance at 141 W Jackson St, where it intersects with LaSalle Street, take the elevator to the fifth-floor visitor gallery (Mon-Fri 8am-1.15pm; free), where displays trace the evolution of the various frantic shouts and signals by which trade is actually carried out. A similarly energetic ballet goes on from the early hours on Chicago's stock options exchange, the largest in the US. At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, three blocks away at 30 S Wacker Drive (Mon-Fri 7.30am-3.15pm; free), precious metals, currencies and commodities are bought and sold to the tune of some $50 billion a day. The best time to visit the exchanges is just before the close of trade, when the pressure is at its peak and tempers are most frayed.
