W.E. O’Neil’s tower crane at Belmont Village (700 West Fullerton) was the 62nd and final crane erected in Chicago in 2017.

Chicago had 62 tower cranes in the air during 2017. 2018 starts out with 30 of them. Sure, there are a bunch of jobs in the pipeline that will require a crane, but erecting 32 more of them to tie our record seems unlikely. But we can hope, right? Records are made to be broken, after all.

Let’s take a look at our initial 30 for 2018:

New since December 2017 count:

1. Belmont Village (700 West Fullerton)

Gone since December 2017:

1. Moxy Hotel
2. Old Town Park
3. Illume Chicago

Coming soon:

1. Hayden West Loop (1109 West Washington – permit issued 09/07; stub planted)
2. Wolf Point East (343 West Wolf Point Plaza – permit issued 11/20)
   

   Hayden West Loop, likely to be the first tower crane erected in 2018.

Who has tower cranes?

1. Lendlease – 8
2. Power Construction – 6
3. McHugh Construction – 5
4. W.E. O’Neil – 3
5. 8 companies have one tower crane apiece: Walsh (1326 South Michigan); Centaur (Nobu Hotel); Leopardo (210 North Carpenter); Tishman (aLoft Chicago Mag Mile); Linn-Mathes – Wicker Park Connection); Macon Construction (No. 508); DLG Development (3833 North Broadway); M.A. Mortenson (Home2 Suites River North)

Where are they?

1. West Loop – 6
2. South Loop – 6
3. Streeterville – 5
4. Lake View – 3
5. Lincoln Park – 3
6. Lakeshore East – 2
7. River North – 2
8. Three neighborhoods have one tower crane each: Gold Coast (No. 9 Walton); Wicker Park (Wicker Park Connection; Uptown (Eight Eleven Uptown)

What are they building?

1. Residential – 22
2. Hotel – 6
3. Medical – 1 (Simpson Querrey)
4. Office – 1 (210 North Carpenter)