When Cook County Hospital began construction in Chicago in 1914, the poor badly needed access to health care, overall public health was subpar and a global pandemic would soon grip the community.
In 2016, things were eerily similar when the largest county in Illinois by population finally approved a $140-million design-build plan to redevelop the aging former hospital building into two hotels—a Hyatt Place and a Hyatt House—as well as medical offices, a hospital museum, a food hall and a day-care facility.