This is a repost from December 2017, when the City of Chicago saw a total of 62 tower cranes in the air. I’m not confident in my ability to get an accurate count for 2021, but my guesstimate is somewhere around 25 so far.

Chicago closes 2017 having had a record 62 tower cranes operating across the skyline throughout the year. Before 2018 takes over, let’s recap them all.

Who had tower cranes in 2017?

Power Construction – 13
Lendlease – 13
McHugh Construction – 11
Linn-Mathes – 4
Walsh Construction – 3
W.E. O’Neil – 3
Clark Construction – 2
13 companies had one tower crane in 2017: Pepper Construction (Moxy Hotel); Macon Construction (No. 508); Centaur Construction (Nobu Hotel); Onni Group (Old Town Park); Optima (Optima Signature); M.A. Mortenson Company (Home2 Suites River North); Norcon (Illume Chicago); Bulley-Andrews (DePaul School of Music); Clayco (Cook County Central Campus Health Center); Novak Construction (171 Aberdeen); Leopardo Companies (210 North Carpenter); Tishman (aLoft Chicago Mag Mile); DLG (3833 North Broadway)

Where were they?

West Loop – 13
South Loop – 11
River North – 9
Streeterville – 8
Lincoln Park – 5
Lake View – 4
Near North – 2
Gold Coast – 2
Lakeshore East – 2
Six neighborhoods had one crane each in 2017 – The Loop (151 North Franklin); Illinois Medical District (Cook County Central Campus Health Center); Uptown (Eight Eleven Uptown); Hyde Park (Solstice on the Park); River West (Spoke); Wicker Park (Wicker Park Connection)

What were they building?

Residential – *40.5
Hotel – 10
Office – *5.5
Medical – 3
There was one Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Meetinghouse) one School (DePaul School of Music) and one Commercial building (The Apple Store)

* One crane built Hubbard 221 (residential) and 412 North Wells (office) hence the half-crane in those two categories. The two tower cranes at Vista Tower are building residences and a hotel, so one crane goes to each of those two categories.

And now, photographs of all our 2017 Chicago Tower Cranes: