When I first moved to Chicago in the very-early 1980s, and worked at Rand McNally & Company in Skokie, this was the Hyatt. And it was lovely. A juicy purple on the outside, and snazzy and stylish on the inside. When I was lucky enough to be invited to a business or author luncheon, we dined on white tablecloths and were served by smooth waiters. The bar was handsome. And wedding receptions, the one or two we enjoyed, were gorgeous.
In its heyday, the hotel hosted the famous and the infamous. One day back in 1983, our printer’s rep had just arrived from Italy, and was having a bite of lunch before coming to see us at Rand. From the dining room window, he saw a man gunned down in the parking lot — a mob hit! I can’t remember the rep’s name, but I will tell you he took himself right back to O’Hare and flew home. “Where’s [name goes here]?” we all wondered. He eventually called to say that he’d seen enough of Chicago and its tommy-gun mobsters, and wouldn’t be back anytime soon. Hit or alleged-hit, it really did happen, I’ve since come to learn.
Mob hits notwithstanding, it was a sad day in the neighborhood when the Hyatt signs came off this mid-century gem. And who knows when it was tackily renamed Purple Hotel. I guess that happened sometime in the early to mid 1990s. And since then, it has just gone more and more depressingly to seed. Now it stands practically gutted. Its parking lots are more weed and broken glass than blacktop. And broken blinds cringe in its windows. But maybe, the wait for its fate will have been worth it.
Rather than razing it and putting another strip mall in its place, a Skokie-based investor has enlisted a disciple of the hotel’s original architect to breathe stylish new life into our quirky and beloved Lincolnwood landmark!
A plum assignment, I’d say.
ginnygram 
You know what’s odd about the printer’s rep being scared off by the mob hit? He returned home to Italy. Isn’t that where the mob originates? Was he any safer there???