SOPHY, the new 98-room boutique hotel in Chicago’s popular Hyde Park neighbourhood, is under construction and scheduled to open in summer 2018.
Developed by SMART Hotels and managed by Olympia Hotel Management, SOPHY is located at 53rd Street and Dorchester Avenue on Chicago’s South Side, close to the site of the future Barack Obama Presidential Library, the University of Chicago campus and the Museum of Science and Industry.
SOPHY will feature a bar, a restaurant with al fresco dining and a fitness centre. Designed as a four-diamond property and engineered to achieve LEED Silver certification, SOPHY will be a preferred hotel of the University of Chicago. The hotel is firmly rooted in the history of Hyde Park, famed as the site of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. In a neighbourhood in the midst of a dynamic revitalisation, SOPHY will play a central role. Earlier this month, Chicago was named the #1 Big City in the US in the Condé Nast Traveler 2017 Readers’ Choice Awards.
Chicago-based GREC Architects is the project architect, with interior design from Stonehill & Taylor Architects of New York. The hotel is being built by William A Randolph of Gurnee, Illinois. SOPHY aligns with SMART Hotels and Olympia”s expertise in developing and managing independent, award-winning boutique properties that evoke a strong sense of place and become an integral part of the community.
The name ‘SOPHY’ is rooted in the Greek word “sophia,” meaning wisdom and dedication to excellence through the pursuit of knowledge. It was inspired by the rich legacy of intellectual, artistic and cultural innovation that is part of the fabric of the University of Chicago and greater Hyde Park. Gospel music, science, mathematics, art and literature are the themes that will inform the hotel”s interior design. SOPHY will feature artwork from contemporary Chicago artists and design elements inspired by the World”s Columbian Exposition, including barn doors in the private dining space that use circular elements to suggest the world”s first Ferris Wheel, which debuted at the fair.
