Chicago Metropolitan Lounge

[Bob Dylan]

Good News!Bad News!

Hey, it's Amtrak where the New Mission Statement has becime:

"Amtrak!Giving you Less for More! "

 

[blondninja]

Here are some photos from

This afternoon.

 

[blondninja]

 

[blondninja]

 

[TylerP42]

I never had a chance to see it fully furnished. Nice, but not what I had expected. Seems sort of... Bland... I dunno what it is. I thought the upstairs would be more "elegant" and not match the downstairs.

 

[RSG]

I hope the furniture is more practical than it looks. I don't see it holding up to the wear and tear of hundreds of train passengers on a daily basis.

 

[D.P. Roberts]

I really like it. I think it's a HUGE upgrade from the previous dark, gloomy, cramped place. Thanks for the photos.

 

[RSG]

I never had a chance to see it fully furnished. Nice, but not what I had expected. Seems sort of... Bland... I dunno what it is. I thought the upstairs would be more "elegant" and not match the downstairs.

Whoever had the interior design contract has obviously been doing commercial interiors for awhile; it looks like most refurbished hotel lobbies I've seen in the past two or three years (including Chicago). The thing is that most hotels have the deep pockets to keep it looking 'fresh'. Based on the past history of the Metropolitan Lounge, I'm guessing that it will have to get scuffed and ratty before that happens in this version.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

I like the wing chairs. Good for leaning one's head against for a nap.

 

[TylerP42]

I never had a chance to see it fully furnished. Nice, but not what I had expected. Seems sort of... Bland... I dunno what it is. I thought the upstairs would be more "elegant" and not match the downstairs.

Whoever had the interior design contract has obviously been doing commercial interiors for awhile; it looks like most refurbished hotel lobbies I've seen in the past two or three years (including Chicago). The thing is that most hotels have the deep pockets to keep it looking 'fresh'. Based on the past history of the Metropolitan Lounge, I'm guessing that it will have to get scuffed and ratty before that happens in this version.

Maybe, I don't know. Just the way it was previously described to me is nothing like what I see here.

 

[SarahZ]

I never had a chance to see it fully furnished. Nice, but not what I had expected. Seems sort of... Bland... I dunno what it is. I thought the upstairs would be more "elegant" and not match the downstairs.

Whoever had the interior design contract has obviously been doing commercial interiors for awhile; it looks like most refurbished hotel lobbies I've seen in the past two or three years (including Chicago).

"Modern hotel lobby" was my first thought. I like it.

 

[TylerP42]

Just to clear up some things, I'm not saying I hate it or trying to start anything, I just genuinely feel like when I was told about it, that it gave me a totally different vision of things. Maybe things changed? Who knows. I am with the others though, I feel this furniture may wear out fast.

 

[Ryan]

I wanna be like you guys that can tell the durability of something by looking at a picture of it on the internet.

 

[TylerP42]

I wanna be like you guys that can tell the durability of something by looking at a picture of it on the internet.

Under the assumption that it is furniture made like the furniture in hotels, that do wear out fast, that would be a concern. Perhaps they did get furniture that has better durability. Only time will tell.

 

[Bob Dylan]

A great improvement over the current Cell,er Lounge in the basement!

The windows, just like the Boston,PHL,LAX and PDX Lounges, are a great improvement and the Furniture, while of a Commercial type, looks comfortable and very nice!

It'll be great to get reports from AUers that get to visit it when it's Open!

 

[RSG]

I wanna be like you guys that can tell the durability of something by looking at a picture of it on the internet.

Under the assumption that it is furniture made like the furniture in hotels, that do wear out fast, that would be a concern. Perhaps they did get furniture that has better durability. Only time will tell.

It’s not just the furniture itself, it’s the fabrics. Most commercial furniture can be ordered in a variety of fabrics, particularly if the order is large enough. Often architects and designers will spec furniture and fabrics because it looks ‘cool’ or ‘neat’ without regard to maintenance or upkeep. But then they don’t have to clean and maintain stuff, just order it.

OTOH, at least it looks like the tabletops are no longer finished wood, so that's a start. Can't believe they used finished wood for a lot of the furniture in the current Metropolitan Lounge.

 

[TylerP42]

I wanna be like you guys that can tell the durability of something by looking at a picture of it on the internet.

Under the assumption that it is furniture made like the furniture in hotels, that do wear out fast, that would be a concern. Perhaps they did get furniture that has better durability. Only time will tell.

It’s not just the furniture itself, it’s the fabrics. Most commercial furniture can be ordered in a variety of fabrics, particularly if the order is large enough. Often architects and designers will spec furniture and fabrics because it looks ‘cool’ or ‘neat’ without regard to maintenance or upkeep. But then they don’t have to clean and maintain stuff, just order it.

OTOH, at least it looks like the tabletops are no longer finished wood, so that's a start. Can't believe they used finished wood for a lot of the furniture in the current Metropolitan Lounge.

The new tables I believe (if I was told correctly) have power outlets at their bases.

 

[snvboy]

WOW! Looks like a real lounge. Too bad it's still going to be fountain sodas and pretzels in a bag, but a big improvement from the dungeon that was. I think that while this is a big improvement, many of my friends will be judging it against the Amex Centurion lounge and the offerings from the various airlines.

 

[Palmetto]

I wanna be like you guys that can tell the durability of something by looking at a picture of it on the internet.

One doesn't have to be too gifted, though, to figure out that furniture decked out in white is going to get stained and/or dirty in pretty short order.

Maybe they'll have it cleaned weekly?

 

[Ziv]

I think having off-white furniture is kind of silly but the thing I am wondering about is where are the rest of the chairs? They may have a larger lounge but given the sparsely located chairs they will be lucky to be able to seat as many as they do in the current lounge.

But it will look really good in the photos they take the first week the new lounge is open!

Sarc/

I see some earth tone/brown couches as well as the white ones, I would bet that the white ones are re-covered within a year.

Regardless, I think the new lounge will be a great addition for Amtrak after they work the kinks out.

 

[SarahZ]

If the white furniture isn't cloth, and it appears not to be, then cleaning won't be difficult. It looks like the same stuff they use in BC. (Fake leather)

Also, they may not be finished moving furniture in yet. Nobody said those are the final pictures.

 

[RSG]

If the white furniture isn't cloth, and it appears not to be, then cleaning won't be difficult. It looks like the same stuff they use in BC. (Fake leather)

We can only hope. There's a relatively new fabric out called "Carnegie" which is essentially a synthetic leather. Aside from being bleach cleanable, it's even ballpoint pen resistant (ink and puncture). If I were doing high-traffic areas, I'd use it on all the furniture. But again, I'm guessing they chose aesthetics over durability. But as mentioned earlier, time will tell.

 

[RSG]

The new tables I believe (if I was told correctly) have power outlets at their bases.

This is the hot new trend in commercial furniture---embed power outlets (AC and/or USB) in all furniture pieces. But you have to be mindful of the installation. The library in my nearby college got two seated chairs with AC outlets on the sides. But they went in a building built in the '60s with limited AC outlets. So in their initial installation, the power cords to the chairs were stretched to their limit (about six feet, IIRC) to the nearest outlet, in full public view. I referred to them as the Electric Chairs. If you didn't realize what they were, it was really strange to see. (They've since been moved to a more discreet location.)

Of course if you're completely remodeling a space, you can put outlets in wherever you want, generally speaking. Let's hope that's one thing they didn't overlook in the new ML. The needs for customer power have become even greater since the current lounge was opened.

 

[PVD]

Very often people will try and avoid doing to much modification to infrastructure to avoid having to bring an installation up to current code. They often suffer the consequences later. Funny, but newer devices and lighting actually use much less power, but still need a lot more places to plug them in. Lots more little bricks.

 

[George K]

Very often people will try and avoid doing to much modification to infrastructure to avoid having to bring an installation up to current code.

This is being done in Cook County, Illinois. I *guarantee* that everything in the new lounge is being done to code. In Cook County, for example, all wiring has to be in metal conduit (or BX), iirc.