Burnham Plaza Cinemas
826 S. Wabash Street,
Chicago,
IL
60605
826 S. Wabash Street,
Chicago,
IL
60605
3 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Cineplex Odeon, Meridian Theatres, Village Theatres
Firms: Mesbur+Smith Architects
Functions: Office Space
Nearby Theaters
News About This Theater
- Oct 5, 2007 — Lincoln Village 1-6 to close
- Jun 28, 2005 — Burnham Plaza Theatre To Close
The YMCA Hotel opened in 1915, located on Wabash Street in the South Loop, designed by architect Robert C. Berlin. Eleven years later, Berlin designed an addition to the hotel, in a similar style to his original.
In 1988, the building was converted over to mixed residential and retail use, including a multiplex cinema operated by Cineplex Odeon, located in a new addition to the original former YMCA Hotel building. The cinema opened December 21, 1988. The whole structure was known as Burnham Plaza.
After it was closed by the Meridian chain in 2000, the Burnham Plaza Cinemas were reopened by the Village Theatres chain, showing first-run features, but at bargain prices.
The Burnham Plaza Cinemas closed for good in September 2005. The building has since been converted into office space.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 52 comments)
The project developer’s website for the Block 37 project (now called 108 North State) still says that Muvico is going to operate a theater on the shopping center section’s eighth floor. But Muvico just underwent a financial re-organization and sold off off some its theaters to Cinemark. There’s no mention of the Chicago downtown project on the Muvico site though does mention some other projected openings. 108 North State recently lost some previously announced high profile tenants (including Apple Computer). It would not surprise me if the proposed theater is on hold, perhaps indefinitely, given the state of the economy right now.
Roosevelt Collection is a rental apartment/retail development that’s located at 150 W Roosevelt Road (Roosevelt & Clark/Wells St). The theaters will be at the end of the center. This link has renderings on how the complex will look when finished.
The Block 37 project is still on. Muvico Theatres will be on the fifth floor I believe. Since David Barton Gym moved to Roosevelt Collection, maybe the seating capacity at 37 might be increased. It will still have seven screens. Opening is set for this fall.
Thanks, sounds exciting!
According to the Kerasotes website, the theater at Roosevelt Collection is now known as the ShowPlace ICON Theatre. This sounds like Kerasotes is brining about a new brand within the corporation. They’re opening a similar location in St. Louis Park, MN next month.
I walked past here recently. Unless you’re a huge fan of late-1980s Cineplex-Odeon, Mesbur & Smith architecture, you’d never know a cinema was here. And even then you’d have to look closely.
The entranceway looks like any other professional building entrance. Windows have been cut into the side and the semi-circle where the staircase used to be. It’s really a bland-looking building.
It’s too bad Cineplex-Odeon and Loews gave up on this place so quickly and Meridian and Village ran it into the ground. Come to think of it, the Bricktown had a similar history (except that Village never ran that one).
Loews Cineplex unloaded the Burnham as quickly as they could. What little profit it generated was immediately consumed by HUGE maintenance costs due to vandalism and grafiti. Some locations are like that. The Icon works diligently to prevent that kind of distruction, and so far, seems to be winning.
When it first opened, the Burnham Plaza was a nice place to see a show. The only problem was parking.
December 21st, 1988 grand opening ad in photo section.
Caught my second feature, ever, during my first year of school here: Antoine Fuqua’s Bait (2000) w Jamie Foxx [poorman’s 48 Hrs. (1982) knockoff] and a handful of other second-run features. Spider-Man 2 was the last I saw before they scuttled it for good. I skipped a fair amount of classes, wasting my time here. Now if I could only remember the plush venue down the street and around the corner, Jackson & Michigan [?] …another single-screen setup.
The only movie I saw here was Final Destination (2000). RIP Tony Todd.