Case study · Hospitality · Website design
The
Blackstone.
The hotel where the “smoke-filled room” was coined — redesigned so a century of history sells tonight's room.
12
Sitting US presidents hosted
W3
Silver Award, 2017
636
South Michigan Ave — the Cultural Mile
25 ft
Ceilings in the premium suites
A property this layered can drown in its own heritage. Lean historical and you're a museum gift shop. Lean modern and you're interchangeable with any Autograph in any city.
01 · The material
This is a hotel with
stories in the walls.
The Suite of Presidents has hosted twelve sitting US presidents. The Crystal Ballroom hosted the deals. Al Capone kept a barbershop in the basement. Mercat a la Planxa serves Catalan tapas downstairs, and Lake Michigan glitters across Michigan Avenue.
The previous site had quietly slid into “clean but interchangeable.” Our approach: make heritage the visual anchor and contemporary use the structural backbone — editorial art direction on top, fast mobile-first funnels underneath.
02 · Two long reads
The homepage sells the stay.
The story page earns it.
Hover either page and it scrolls, end to end. The homepage runs rooms, neighborhood, events, and social proof in one continuous dark editorial flow. The story page is a full century — Late 1800s to today — as an archival timeline.
hover to scroll
Homepage — rooms, nearby, events, social. One dark flow.
hover to scroll
Our Story — the heritage timeline, archival photography intact
03 · Navigation as concierge
A menu that reads like
the hotel talks.
Stay, Dine, Meet, Celebrate, Experience — verbs, not org charts. The full-screen menu splits against the building's own Beaux-Arts façade, with event planners two links from a venue brief at all times.
04 · The funnel underneath
Heritage upstairs.
Conversion in the basement.
Booking never leaves the page — a dark overlay with dates, rooms, and rewards in three taps, because most travelers find a hotel like this on their phone. Suites keep their editorial art direction right up to the Book Now.
05 · The working pages
Four audiences, one voice —
leisure, history buffs, planners, presidents.
hover to scroll
The conversion path — hero to rooms in one scroll
hover to scroll
Meet — a planner sends a brief in three taps
The result
W3 Silver Award — and a landmark
that finally photographs well online.
The site does what The Blackstone itself does in person: uses the past to elevate the present rather than compete with it. A leisure traveler, a history enthusiast, a wedding planner, and a CEO booking the Suite of Presidents each get a path that feels made for them — same domain, same voice.
“Twelve presidents slept here. The website should carry itself accordingly.”
Have a property with a century of stories?
SUUR designs and ships hotel platforms end to end — brand, UX strategy, and the build.