About danieldschell

I'm Daniel Schell, Chicagoan, Twitter fiend, and picture taker. I like sunsets, travel, and long walks through construction sites. If you build it, I will come.

Hideous Greektown hole soon to be filled by bKL tower

Posted on April 14, 2017 by danieldschell

808 West Van Buren will be built here, at the northwest corner of Halsted and Van Buren Streets in Greektown.

Greektown garbage will have to find another hiding place.

The hole in the ground at the corner of Halsted and Van Buren Streets has a permit to be something more than a landfill. Loukas Development of Uptown, who’ve had a sign on the fence around the vacant lot for almost forever, received a foundation permit Thursday for a 12-story residential tower at 808 West Van Buren. Designed by bKL Architecture, the tower will have 148 units, 65 parking spaces, and ground-floor retail. If, of course, that permit is to be believed.

Lendlease will be the general contractor. That gives Lendlease three big jobs in this corner of the West Loop, joining One South Halsted and the Landmark West Loop.

Look, I don’t mean to pick on this little corner lot. But it’s been collecting trash for years now, and it’s fantastic to see construction will finally get moving.

Architectural rendering of 808 West Van Buren courtesy of bKL Architecture.

: Garbage out, construction in.

: The Foundation Permit.

Glass is almost full at the Marriott Marquis Chicago (Updated)

Posted on April 13, 2017 by danieldschell

The Marriott Marquis Chicago towers above the American Book Company building, which is being renovated as part of the project.

The Marriott Marquis Chicago in the South Loop topped out back in February, and the curtain wall has risen almost to the roof now. Slated for opening this fall, the 39-story Marriott Marquis will boast 1,205 rooms. 25,000 square feet of ballroom space, and 90,000 square feet of meeting space. Clark Construction has been on the build of the Goettsch Partners design.

4.17.2017 *** Some clarification is in order here. Goettsch Partners is the architect-of-record on the Marriott Marquis Chicago project. Gensler is the design architect. My apologies for the omission. ***

It’s Marlowe time. 675 North Wells lands a permit

Posted on April 13, 2017 by danieldschell

Architectural rendering of Marlowe, 675 North Wells Street, from Antunovich Associates.

Are you ready for Marlowe? Because it’s ready for you.

The surface parking lot at 675 North Wells Street in River North that’s been closed off for several weeks will soon open up again. To construction equipment. Lennar Multifamily Companies (LMC) is the developer for the 15-story apartment tower that received a foundation permit from the City of Chicago on Wednesday. (You may know about Lennar from their Gateway West Loop building. It has pretty lights on the rooftop pool, so you know.)

Designed by Antunovich Associates, Marlowe will have 176 studio, 1-bedroom, and 2-bedroom apartments across its 15 stories, plus 11,000 square feet of ground-level retail space. Power Construction will be the general contractor.

The office of Brendan Reilly 42nd Ward has all the info you care to know about Marlowe, plus lots of pretty renderings of floor plans and such. You can see it all here.

The Foundation Permit, issued Wednesday April 12.

American Flag, Water Tank, and Tower Crane (x3) in the West Loop

Posted on April 12, 2017 by danieldschell

An American Flag, Water Tank, and a mess of tower cranes in Chicago’s West Loop.

The water tank is atop 1035 West Lake Street.

The American Flag waves from atop the old Richter’s Food Products factory, now Venue One.

The tower crane in the distance is at the Landmark West Loop. The two closer cranes are at the McDonald’s Headquarters site.

An earlier attempt got a fourth crane, at 171 Aberdeen, but the flag wouldn’t wave.

Hilton, Hilton, and Hilton progress at McCormick Place

Posted on April 12, 2017 by danieldschell

This new tower crane at the three Hiltons at McCormick Place has to build 3 hotels.

The Prairie District’s newest tower crane is showing the fruits of its labor, as work moves past foundation stage and begins to progress upward at (ready for this?) the Hilton Garden Inn Chicago McCormick Center, the Hampton Inn by Hilton Chicago McCormick Center, and the Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago McCormick Center.

Those three entities from Hilton, designed by Antunovich Associates, will be contained within this one 23-story, 466-room tower. McHugh Construction is the general contractor, and they’ve achieved the third dimension as the tower starts to stick up out of the ground.

The Moxy Hotel grows a core in River North

Posted on April 12, 2017 by danieldschell

Work atop the core at the Moxy Hotel in River North. #54 is watching.

While the skyscrapers were getting all the attention, the Moxy Hotel project at 530 North LaSalle Drive in River North has begun shooting up out of the ground. The Pepper Construction joint has an elevator core jutting about four stories in the air, while ground work continues around it. This design from DLR Group is only slated for eight stories, so don’t blink on it, or it’ll be done while you napped.

3Eleven has topped out, endangering yet another Chicago Tower Crane

Posted on April 12, 2017 by danieldschell

The top of the topped-out 3Eleven, at 311 West Illinois Street in River North.

Word came down from Power Construction that 3Eleven, the 25-story apartment tower from The John Buck Company, topped out this past Friday. Sure, that’s mostly good news. Good news in that the 245 apartments in the FitzGerald Associates-designed tower will are that much closer to being inhabitable. Good news in that the 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space can soon open to new businesses. Good news in that parishioners at Assumption Catholic Church will soon have parking again, after the church parking lot was removed to make room for 3Eleven.

But the topping out also means we lose another tower crane in Chicago. One of the pretty yellow ones, too. And you know how much I love those. Who else remembers August of last year, when the stub was first planted, like a newborn baby coming home from the hospital? Sigh. I promised myself I wasn’t going to cry….

Here are some photos of the topped-out 3Eleven. Look at them, while I try to compose myself.

: What a beautiful baby you were. Never forget.

: Rendering of 3Eleven from FitzGerald Associates.

: Selfie.

As McDonald’s progresses, Sterling Bay pitches @1045 retail space

Posted on April 11, 2017 by danieldschell

The McDonald’s HQ in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago.

Along with construction progress at the new McDonald’s Corporation Headquarters in the West Loop comes signage for available retail space, which Sterling Bay has dubbed @1045. An homage to its north frontage at 1045 West Randolph Street, @1045 is 48,000 square feet of ground-floor space, divisible to 2,000-square-foot parcels.

But enough of the real estate talk. What matters here is that McHugh Construction continues to push off the ground and into the sky. The @1045 signage is a nice touch, but construction is the real attraction.

: The Golden Arches have arrived on site.

: 7

: The Two Cranes.

Wintrust Arena heads to the fourth quarter up big

Posted on April 11, 2017 by danieldschell

Wintrust Arena, part of The Collection at McCormick Square.

I haven’t seen what’s going on inside Wintrust Arena (though Shia Kapos of the Sun-Times has) but the outside is looking like it could host basketball or a convention any day now. But we’ll have to wait until fall, when the new facility begins hosting DePaul Blue Demon basketball.

Clark Construction still has their game-faces on as they work to complete the 10,000-seat Pelli Clarke Pelli design. Maybe there’s no full-court press on yet, but Fall will be here before we know it.

No. 508 slowly putting down a foundation in Lake View

Posted on April 11, 2017 by danieldschell

No. 508, at 508 West Diversey Parkway in Lake View, sets a foundation.

Rendering of No. 508 from Broder Properties.

The luxury apartment tower from Broder Properties at 508 West Diversey Parkway continues its foundation work in Lake View, albeit slowly. Our last look back in January showed some pretty deep digging and shoring, and now considerable concrete has been poured on the site. Designed by Pappageorge Haymes Partners, No. 508, as dubbed by Broder, will rise to 12 stories, have 53 units, and, according to the renderings, include some ground-floor retail. Completion of No. 508 is slated for this year, so the crew from general contractor Macon Construction Group has their tasks cut out for them.