Original building architects to redesign Signature Room space at former John Hancock Center
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Magicity, the parent company of the 360 CHICAGO observatory at the former John Hancock Center, is redeveloping the 95th and 96th floors of the skyscraper where the Signature Room was formerly located.
Magnicity is still mum on what exactly it has in mind for the space in the skyscraper at 875 N. Michigan Ave., though 360 CHICAGO earlier said a restaurant will not be back. But the company has enlisted the help of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill — the architectural firm behind the John Hancock Center itself — to redesign the space.
The 95th and 96th floors are set to reopen to the public in 2026.
The Signature Room abruptly closed on Sept. 28, 2023, citing "severe economic hardship." Under its most recent incarnation, The Signature Room had opened in 1993 – but there had been a restaurant in the space as far back as when the John Hancock Center first opened.
The restaurant was formerly known simply as the 95th Restaurant, and dated back to 1970. The Signature Lounge, that famous spot for a cocktail a floor up on the 96th floor, was previously called Images.
In March, a judge ordered $1.5 million in back pay for former Signature Room employees, after ruling that the restaurant and lounge failed to give workers proper notice when the business closed.
it was 1964 when developer Jerry Wolman — best known as the longtime owner of the Philadelphia Eagles and Flyers — first approached the architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill about a plan to develop a parking lot he owned on the Magnificent Mile between Delaware Place and Chestnut Street.
The John Hancock Center was completed in 1968 after three years of construction, and the first residents moved in the following year. The 100-story skyscraper measures 1,127 feet tall – at the time, it was dwarfed only by the Empire State Building in New York.
