Sterling Bay
Ace Hotel
Salas O’Brien delivered multi-faceted engineering services for a new LEED-certified hotel and retail building with amenities.
Our client
Based in Chicago, this real estate company is devoted to helping Chicago improve through expert development, investment, building, and innovation. Sterling Bay possesses a real-time knowledge of Chicago’s market, so they approach their projects in a hands-on, personable, and detailed way, gaining the trust and loyalty of their clients and customers.
Project highlights

Their challenge
Our client wanted a partner who could help transform this former Italian-American cheese-making factory into a boutique hotel. One key challenge in the project was that the brick facade needed to be preserved so that the new building harmonized with the surrounding Landmark District area. In addition, the new hotel needed to be LEED certified with updated, contemporary engineering design in order to adequately house eight stories of guest rooms, retail spaces, restaurant spaces, and a green roof.
Our solution
Our team provided mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and fire protection engineering design services for this approximately 141,000-square-foot building, as well as LEED support and energy modeling services. Our design brought this eight-story building up to par as a modern residential and retail building, complete with 159 guest rooms on floors two through five and full service restaurants and retail space at ground level. The sixth and seventh floors house additional restaurants, and the roof features rooftop bar and terraces as well as a partial green roof space.
The results
We designed and engineered a space that met our client’s expectations for a building set in the historic Fulton Market Historic District neighborhood. This highly efficient, LEED-certified space now sets a hip and modern precedent for other hotels in the West Loop.


