Union Station Tower from near and far

Posted on March 16, 2021 by danieldschell

From the west, Union Station Tower is starting to obscure 311 South Wacker.

If you stand near the base of the under-construction Union Station Tower, it feels like it. and you, are surrounded on all sides by view-blocking height. But wander out of The Loop a few blocks, and you’ll begin to see just how dominant this tower is becoming in its own right.

By the way, you can have your choice of names for this tower aw well. Union Station Tower, BMO Tower, and 320 South Canal all work.

Clark Construction

Goettsch Partners

Riverside Investment & Development Company

First Visit: 609 West Randolph plants a crane, begins ascent

Posted on March 16, 2021 by danieldschell

601 West Randolph awaits its new neighbor and business partner

Bye bye tired surface parking lot, stick around 1890s four-story boutique loft building, and hello new 15-story office tower.

609 West Randolph is coming to, and staying in, the West Loop. Vista Property Group is putting up an new 15-story office building while preserving and integrating the small structure at 601 W Randolph. Skender is tasked with bringing the Antunovich Associates vision to life.

609 W Randolph got its tower crane permit just before Christmas 2020, and the foundation permit followed in January.

: Antunovich Render

First Visit: 1043 West Fulton begins going vertical in Fulton Market

Posted on March 16, 2021 by danieldschell

One of Chicago’s newest tower cranes is at 237 North Aberdeen in the Fulton Market District. But you can call it 1043 Fulton if you’d like.

1043 West Fulton is a joint effort from Intercontinental Real Estate and Fulton Street Companies. The 12-story office building will deliver 124,000 square feet of office space, 6,400 square feet of retail space, and about three dozen below-grade parking spots to the busiest neighborhood in the city.

Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture is the design architect; Power Construction is on the build. 1043 is expected to open in Spring 2022.

Photos are from two visits with five days. They’re kicking some butt on this one.

Stubless, progress-less 1000M takes another beating

Posted on March 15, 2021 by danieldschell

Its caissons are done, the tower crane stub was set, and things were rockin’ and rollin’ at 1000M, the new residential tower next to Grant Park in the South Loop. But it hasn’t seen new progress in almost a year now, and Crain’s Chicago Business reported Monday that no one within the potential shadow of the future tower seems at all pleased with the new direction developers would like to take the tower in. Apartments? Condos? A mix? Heck, even that website seems to be dead.

Bummer. Here are a couple shots of the sad, idle construction pit at 1000 South Michigan Ave.

First Visit: Gild gets underway in the Gold Coast neighborhood

Posted on March 15, 2021 by danieldschell

Gild, at State and Division in Gold Coast, is underway.

A bunch of short stuff was demolished to make room for a not-as-short apartment building at 1210 North State.

Gild is coming to Gold Coast. This 12-story, 89-unit apartment building from Newcastle Limited will also include nearly 18,000 square feet of retail space. It is a design by CallisonRTKL, and is being built by Power Construction.

Progress Update: 300 North Michigan

Posted on March 15, 2021 by danieldschell

300 North Michigan between the Magnificent and Cultural Miles of Chicago’s Michigan Avenue.

There aren’t many projects happening in Chicago that this blog considers “mixed-use.” Since everything includes retail these days, an office tower or residential building with ground-floor commercial space doesn’t split the vote.

300 North Michigan qualifies as mixed-use. The bKL Archtecture-designed tower will deliver 289 residential units and 280 hotel rooms across its 47 stories. A joint venture between Sterling Bay and Magellan Group, 300 North Michigan got its tower crane permit back in August 2020, and its foundation permit (with an assigned address of 88 E Wacker Pl) about three weeks prior. The full-build permit arrived in late September.

Linn-Mathes is the general contractor.

First Visit: Clarendale Six Corners erects a tower crane Updated

Posted on March 15, 2021 by danieldschell

Clarendale Six Corners gets a tower crane.

**This post was updated April 15, 2021 to reflect the correct name of this project, Clarendale Six Corners.**

Last week saw Chicago’s northernmost and westernmost tower crane erected at the Six Corners intersection of Irving Park, Milwaukee, and Cicero.

Clarendale Six Corners was issued a foundation permit back in January. That permit calls for a 10-story building with a total of 258 units. 114 of those units will be residential, 98 will be assisted living, and 46 will be memory care.

With a development assist from LCS, Ryan Companies is your developer, design architect, and general contractor on this one. That’s peak keeping-it-in-house.

Shout-out to Adjustable Concrete Construction for the info and a rendering of The Clarendale.

And now, as is usually the case on this blog, please enjoy far more Tower Crane Erection photos than you’ll ever need, with a few foundation pics thrown in for good measure.

He who labs glass, glass lasts

Posted on March 15, 2021 by danieldschell

What I’m trying to say is, Fulton Labs has its first couple rows of glass installed. Here’s an updated photo gallery from the first half of March 2021.

March 2021 Tower Crane Survey rendered obsolete, as the last of Cirrus-Cascade’s three cranes comes down

Posted on March 12, 2021 by danieldschell

You know what it means when the tower crane dips below the top of the building.

Make it 13 active tower cranes in Chicago right now, as Lendlease is removing the third and final crane from the Lakeshore East jobsite of Cirrus Condominiums and Cascade Apartments.

Checking up on the topped-out and craneless Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building at Rush

Posted on March 11, 2021 by danieldschell

Joan Paul Rubschlager Building March 2021

The Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building, b/w the Chicago Skyline, from Rush University Medical Center.

What? It’s been more than a year since I was here? Yeah, I guess it’s been awhile for a lot of Chicago construction projects. Stupid pandemic and laziness.

Over at Rush University Medical Center, Power Construction continues work on the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building. After breaking ground in June of 2019, this 10-story, 480,000-square-foot outpatient care facility still has a long way to go before it’s ready for patients, with a projected 2022 opening date. It is a design by West Loop architecture firm Nia Architects in collaboration with HDR.