Jagger3939

I was passing thru today and decided to stop in the small often overlooked ORD "Concourse L" AC. Struck up a conversation with the AAngel who informed me they received word that the club in 2019 will be closed for 3 months for a complete remodel. She said they have a stockpile of furniture from one of their prior closed clubs in ORD they want to use up. The plan is to not only do a gut remodel of the club, but they are going to tear down the wall to the left of the bar (where the kitchen staff are) and build out further down that corridor to make the club substantially bigger. They want to provide more seating and have a larger snack area. She implied they wanted to fix the layout issues.

On another note, the club will be closed starting tomorrow for the next 3 weeks as renovations (unrelated to AC) above and around the club take place by Ohare. They are closing as a safety and annoyance due to the construction factor.

arlflyer

I may be getting old and/or have lost my mind but didn't they just remodel that club quite recently? (At least before they started all the demo work on the big H/K club?)

Jagger3939

You're not wrong. They did a soft remodel awhile back, redid the bar, bathrooms and leased a bunch of hertz rental furniture. Everyone thought it was just a temp lounge while they redid H/K and flagship. It's nice, but it's not "standardized" and has hints of old style AC. Apparently she mentioned since both G and H/K got the total update to the new design, they want to do the same with L plus expand it since adjoining space apparently became available. Not sure if this has anything to do with the mayors plan to build out more gates in L? Maybe AA is looking at the future need of a decent size lounge in that area.

arlflyer

Ah, OK, thanks for the response. I only popped in there once - mostly out of curiosity. I remember it being a little more modern than the old clubs (at least having the lots-of-white theme), but not the full-on look of the new ones. I also just didn't see any reason to justify going there since H/K had much more to offer. But as they move to build out gates in the area, obviously as you note that's going to make a lot of sense.

WearyTravellerMSP

Thanks for sharing. I like the L club alot. I will go out of my way to use L and G instead of the horrendous H/K club at ORD.

Jagger3939

It's a hidden gem that not many people realize exists (or how to find for that matter). It's got it's own character and charm!

WearyTravellerMSP

Completely agreement. I probably prefer G mainly because of its quiet room with tons of outlets. But L is incredibly convenient, especially if I need some quiet to pound out some work early in the AM . Also, I think L has the best desk staff of any AA ORD club.

danbrew

Yeah, surprising. I enjoy the L lounge a lot. My favorite of all the O'Hare lounges...

CloudCoder

I dropped into L for the first time ever, just this past Thursday. Nice club.

For the old-timers: I wonder if the L club occupies any of the space formerly used by Delta's Crown Room?

HNL

gold644

This club used to house a USO before it was converted to an AC when they were remodeling the H/K club.

arlflyer

What does L offer in terms of work space? I have a love/hate thing with the cube farm in H/K but at least I know what I'm getting. From the time I visited L I don't recall there being a good work space - did I miss it?

Jagger3939

arlflyer

Yeah, that was my take as well, good to know I wasn't missing anything. But if they build it out more, maybe they'll consider adding more heavy-duty workstation space.

CloudCoder

My fondest wish. Also my most frequent disappointment. The trend in Admirals Clubs (also United Clubs) is that cubicles are old-fashioned. They're replaced by long glass shelves against the wall.

I can't think of a single "club makeover" where cubicles were added. I can think of a TON where cubicles were reduced or removed entirely.