Featuring 466 guest rooms, an indoor pool, four restaurants and 7,000 feet of meeting space, Hilton WorldWide's first-ever tri-branded hotel recently opened in Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood. The new $39 million, 22-story 123 East Cermak Hotels combines a Hampton Inn, a Hilton Garden Inn and a Home2suites in one building. It is also directly connected to McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America.

“This tri-brand hotel will serve as a convenient ‘one-stop-shop’ for convention-goers looking to rest and recharge or enjoy the local flavors of Chicago while remaining just steps from their convention events,” said Stephen Schwartz, founder and chairman of First Hospitality Group, Inc., which will manage the property.

More than 2,100 Kingspan BENCHMARK Designwall 2000 panels were used on the project, with over 400 panels having transverse bends. The color scheme includes panels in Silversmith, Medium Gray and Clay – all custom Valspar blends from Sherwin-Williams. The panels are all 3-inches thick to provide a superior R-value, especially important during Chicago’s frigid winters.

Being in a busy Chicago neighborhood definitely has its benefits for 123 East Cermak Hotels, but the location also proposed a challenge for McHugh Construction – the general contractor and owner of the building – because it didn’t allow enough space for a laydown area.

As a result, the insulated metal panels were produced and delivered by elevation as the installer, All American Exterior Solutions, worked its way up the building. This system required a great deal of coordination by Kingspan’s production, quality control and customer service teams in order to keep track of every panel during the five-month period that the IMPs were being produced, delivered and installed.

 “When you have over 2,000 panels to load and install, you have to have a sequence worked out months in advance to even have a chance at meeting the schedule,” said Mike Underwood, Division Manager for All American Exterior Solutions. “We’re the last trade on the outside of the building, so we also had to work around roofing and site work activities.”

To achieve the building’s modern design, the Kingspan panels used had custom widths and custom joint reveals. While the typical reveal of an insulated metal panel is a half-inch, the design for 123 East Cermak Hotels called for a two-inch reveal. The wider reveal made it necessary to use extended trimless ends to avoid foam exposure at the upper portions of the panels. It also adds an interesting design element as the light and shadows change throughout the day and seasons.

Metal panels were also incorporated into the design of a sky bridge that connects the hotels to one of the buildings at McCormick Place. By the time it was completed, the 351,987-square-foot building featured more than 35,500 square-feet of Kingspan BENCHMARK Designwall 2000 Architectural Wall Panels.