AURA

Distinguished Building Award Submission

AURA is a privately owned boutique hotel, the first of a new brand offered by the Sottrel Hotel Group of Chicago. The program included the design of a small, affordable, prototypical hotel brand that would offer modern, atypical rooms, and an exciting visual statement uncommon to the small-hotel market. The Architect’s solution organized the group of 34 rooms around a central service corridor, anchored by a prominent central lobby, and two-story end-cap wedges, which house cleverly-situated two-story room suites. A 16-foot tall perforated panel screen wall sits in front of the building, offering creative brand signage and privacy to guests. The Architect’s selected a simple palette of materials including fiber cement wall panels, standing-seam roofing, natural wood siding, and contemporary glazing. To economize the prototype, AURA was designed as a wood-frame structure, with selective structural steel only in the lobby, with pre-fabricated wall panels built off-site and erected with prefabricated roof-trusses. AURA is supported with private, on-site parking.

overall project photo (see addtl photos as uploaded PDF documents)

Architect

ETHOS WORKSHOP

Client

Sottrel Hotel Group

Consultants

MLT CONSULTING ENGINEERS
NW CONSULTING ENGINEERS

General contractor

TRAPANI CONSTRUCTION

Location

MIDLOTHIAN, ILLINOIS

Category

Commercial