Design
The Medinah Athletic Club building was intended to combine elements of many architectural styles. At the eighth floor, its Indiana limestone facade was decorated by three large relief carvings in ancient Assyrian style.[6] Each frieze depicted a different scene in the order of constructing a building, with Contribution on the south wall, Wisdom represented on the west wall and Consecration on the north. (According to an article in the Chicago Tribune from Sept 16, 1928 entitled “Building art inspires panels”: “The friezes were designed by George Unger, in collaboration with Walter Ahlschlager, and carved by Léon Hermant. The figures are costumed in the period of the building, which is that of an old fortress in Mesopotamia in Xerxes time, about 5th century BC. The theme of the panels as explained by Mr. Unger, was inspired by the history of construction of any building. The south panel starts the story. Here a magnificent cortege is displayed. This panel, termed Contribution, signifies the getting together of treasures for the construction of the building. In the west panel, facing Michigan Avenue, a ruler is shown with his counselors and an architect is shown bringing in a model of the building planned. The north panel shows the consecration of the building after it has been built. A priest is sacrificing a white bull whose blood will be mixed with crushed grapes and poured into the earth. A monkey trainer and his animals are shown. Since the animals represented bigotry in the ancient drawings, they are shown here in leash as symbolic belief that bigotry has no place in the Masonic order.”) The figures in all three scenes are said to be modeled after the faces of club members at the time of its design. Three Sumerian warriors were also carved into the facade at the twelfth-floor setback, directly above the Michigan Avenue entrance, and remain visible today.
Extending the Moorish imagery, the building is topped by a gold-painted dome.[6] In the tower beneath the great dome, the club featured a miniature golf course on the twenty-third floor, complete with water hazards and a wandering brook; also a shooting range, billiards hall, running track, gymnasium, archery range, bowling alley, two-story boxing arena, and a junior Olympic size swimming pool[6] - all this in addition to the ballrooms, meeting rooms, and 440 guest rooms which were available for the exclusive use of the club's 3,500 members and their guests.
At the time, the pool was one of the highest indoor pools in the world, and its fourteen-floor location was heralded as a grand feat of engineering. Today it is commonly referred to as the Johnny Weissmuller pool, after the famous Olympic athlete and actor who trained in it. The rows of seats which remain on its western wall recall the days when swimming was a popular spectator sport. Its blue Spanish majolica tiles and terra-cotta fountain of Neptune on its east wall remain virtually unchanged today.
The elegant Grand Ballroom, a two-story, 100 ft elliptical space, was decorated with ornaments in Egyptian, Assyrian, and Greek styles and was surrounded by a horseshoe-shaped mezzanine. In its center hung a 12,000-pound Baccarat crystal chandelier, the largest in North America.[6]
The somewhat more masculine King Arthur Court was built to function as the men's smoking lounge, and featured heavy timbering, stained glass, and a mural depicting the stories of King Arthur and Parsifal. At this men's club, facilities for women were considerably less grand. They were allowed only in designated areas, and were provided a separate entrance and elevator to visit the Grand Ballroom for social gatherings or to access the Women's Plunge, Lounge and Tea Room, called the Renaissance Ballroom. Female guests also had access to an outdoor loggia overlooking Michigan Avenue, which was decorated with the intention of evoking a Venetian terrace.
