We’ve stayed at the Chicago Sofitel Water Tower Place quite a few times. We have a few stories to tell, including the time when there was a power cut and our room was on the 27th floor (thankfully the lifts were still working). I see that was in June 2007, because it’s all here in an old blog post !

It’s always good to be back and re-reading those old accounts of our travels confirms what creatures of habit we are. Those posts tell of Tempo breakfasts, Giordano’s Pizzas and Garrett’s Popcorn too!

On this visit, the foyer was decorated for Christmas.

But what intrigued me most of all was the restyling of the seating areas with small sofas and an abundance of cushions, including one of those awfully trendy knot ones. I never got to sit in one of them to see how effective they are (I suspect they are more decorative than functional) and actually, this was the only time I observed one of the sofas looking like this.

Because every other time we walked through the flyer, all the sofas were looking more like this…

Perhaps the designer didn’t think what might happen if someone actually wanted to sit on one of those sofas?