The grand opening celebration of the new Hyatt Center office tower at 71 South Wacker Drive in Chicago has been set for Tuesday, July 19, 2005. The announcement was made by Penny Pritzker of Pritzker Realty Group and Jack Higgins of Higgins Development Partners, the two people most responsible for this addition to the Chicago skyline.

Mayor Richard M. Daley will be the guest of honor at the building's premier which will benefit the public schools of Chicago through The Chicago Public Education Fund.

Other honored guests for the invitational opening will include Arne Duncan, CEO of Chicago Public Schools; the building's architect, Henry Cobb of Pei Cobb Freed and Partners, New York; and Keith Tyson, a Turner Prize winning artist based in London who has created two 40' X 10' works of art for each of the two entrance halls of the building. Mayor Daley will unveil the art to the public for the first time during the evening's festivities.

The 49-story tower with a curved façade of full-height glass with textured steel spandrels and polished aluminum mullions is a new jewel in Chicago's architectural crown. Described by some as lozenge shaped, the entrances are at each end of the elliptical shaped building and feature entrance halls where security can screen all entrants to the building before they enter a two-story high glass lobby flanked on the street side by live bamboo, and the other side by banks of elevators. Outside the glass walls, a new mini-park has been provided to Chicago's pedestrians with trees and flowers to enhance the urban experience.

This landmark building at 71 South Wacker Drive joins some of the most renowned business addresses in the world, and is already home to Global Hyatt; the international law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw LLP; IBM; Charter One; a major financial services firm and other forward thinking tenants.

Many details about the building, as well as a time-lapse video of the building's construction, are available on a new web site at www.hyattcenterinfo.com.

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Note to editors: A selection of photographs (including downloadable high resolution images suitable for printing) is available on another page of this web site. Correspondents wishing to attend a media preview of the building on the morning of July 19, are invited to contact the public relations office noted below.