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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.

Digging 508 West Diversey in Lake View

508 West Diversey

Rendering of 508 West Diversey from Broder Properties.

Broder Properties of Boston is developing a 12-story, 53-unit residential building at 508 West Diversey Parkway in Lake View. Designed by Pappageorge Haymes Partners, the project includes on-site parking and ground-floor retail space as well. Macon Construction of North California Avenue (Macon Buildings, Makin’ Dreams should be their motto) is on the build. They’ve got a pretty serious hole dug into the ground, all shored up and looking ready to go vertical soon. 508 West Diversey is slated for a Spring 2018 opening.

625 West Adams-watch continues in the West Loop

625 West Adams

All’s quiet for the night at 625 West Adams, the SCB-designed office tower coming to the West Loop.

If I haven’t said it already, I highly recommend everyone get a construction site right outside the window. It should be a window that doesn’t open, so you don’t get as much noise. Or dust. Height helps too. Then you just need a zoom lens to keep tabs on the action.

Power Construction is working on the fifth and final parking level at 625 West Adams, the 20-story office tower from CA Ventures and White Oak Realty. Needless to say, it’s mesmerizing to watch.

Not just any single family residence rises up in River North

455 West Superior

The five-story, single family home at 455 West Superior Street.

Chasing single-family construction in Chicago would probably feel like a fever dream. Maybe in a small town like Mars, Pennsylvania, or Conover, Wisconsin, that would be possible. But not here.

But there is one single-family home being built that can’t be ignored. The city filed a permit for it back in March, to the tune of $9,980,000.00. Yep, just under ten million. Five stories, one family, with caissons. A permit so stunning, even  Dennis Rodkin at Crain’s reported it. And in June, I watched the soil start to turn. But then…I forgot about it.

Until this week, when I went by the lot at 455 West Superior Street and saw four stories’ worth of erected steel. I guess they kept working on it, even though I wasn’t there to watch. Power Construction is out there building the Wheeler Kearns Architects-designed home. It’s shrouded in plastic and mystery for now, but at the rate it’s moving, we’ll get to see what it looks like soon.

Construction Update: Prairie Court townhomes

A lot of work has been done on the townhomes of Prairie Court since our last visit in September. In that time, Summit Design + Build has done some major cinder-block stacking, window installing, and even bricked up the wall at the north end of the project. In all, there will be 55 four-story homes from Golub and Sandz Development, slated for completion in 2018.

Former Museum of Contemporary Art Building out; Aloft Hotel in?

Aloft Chicago Mag Mile

Goodbye Museum of Contemporary Art, hello Aloft Chicago Mag Mile.

A demolition permit filed Tuesday by the City of Chicago looks like the beginning of the new Aloft Chicago Mag Mile. Brought to you by Tishman, designed by Valerio Dewalt Train Associates, the Aloft Chicago Mag Mile is slated to bring 336 rooms across 19 floors to 237 East Ontario Street in Streeterville, home of the former Museum of Contemporary Art. Taylor Excavating will handle the tear-down chores.

Aloft Chicago Mag Mile

Rendering of the Aloft Chicago Mag Mile from Tishman.

Aloft Chicago Mag Mile

Rendering of the Aloft Chicago Mag Mile from Tishman.

Construction Progress: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints Chicago

There are bricks in the wall at the new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Near North. The 7-story design by Dixon + Associates of Salt Lake City, Utah has already climbed to the sixth floor. McHugh Construction has been on the job since May of last year.

Before we head to the photos, here’s a reminder of what David Dixon of Dixon + Associates sent us last summer:

The new building in Chicago is unique for the Church. While they typically complete a new standard single-story meetinghouse every day somewhere in the world, this project is specifically designed for Chicago.  Following the Neoclassical Romanesque Revival style of architecture, the building will incorporate the traditional red brick and limestone appearance that is prevalent in this area of Chicago.  It will be six stories above grade (three meetinghouse and three parking levels) with a partial story of parking below grade.  The building will open in about a year with a two-story chapel and associated classrooms. The top floor can accommodate another smaller chapel and classrooms in the future.  Three or four congregations from the downtown area will utilize the building with staggered meeting schedules.  A unique feature of this building is a landscaped courtyard on the fourth story.  The courtyard provides semi-private outdoor space that could be used for receptions, mingling between meetings, or children’s activities.  Plans were presented to the local neighborhood and were very well received.

 

Construction Progress: The Gallery On Wells

The Gallery on Wells

The Gallery on Wells.

The Gallery On Wells is taller than its neighbor across the street, 640 North Wells, and it still has a tower crane. So perhaps it really has won the War on Wells. The 39-story apartment tower at 167 West Erie Street (or 637 North Wells, if you prefer) from the Magellan Development Group looks to have reached about the 30-story level or so. Linn-Mathes is doing the honors, putting 442 rental units, 131 parking spots, and 7,500 square feet of retail space into the Loewenberg Architects design.

The Ronsley renovation gets serious

The Ronsley

The Ronsley, 676 North Kingsbury Street in River North. Render from The Ronsley website.

There’s quite an ambitious renovation taking place in River North, and after a long period of interior work, the outside is catching up with the inside.

The Ronsley, at 676 North Kingsbury Street, is well on its way to being transformed into a stellar condominium building. The Ronsley renovation was designed by Antunovich Associates for LG Development, and includes adding four additional stories atop the original 5-story timber loft office building, as well as putting additions on the west and south sides of the structure. All that work, which LG Construction is doing themselves, will result in 41 luxury condos ranging from two to four bedrooms, plus parking for 50 vehicles, including hydraulic lifts for stacking cars on cars.

The Ronsley

The Ronsley in August of 2015. Sadly, the water tank is gone.

The Ronsley

The water tank that is no more.

The Ronsley

The back of the original loft timber office building, which faces south. It was…gritty.

The Ronsley

The rear of the building under transformation, April 2016.

On to May of 2016, and the interior gutting:

A month later, more interior work, the west addition takes shape, and there’s more work going on around the back:

October 2016, and here come the windows! The west addition rises up the side of the original building, and the south addition gets off the ground:

Finally, January of 2017. Those new windows look great against the brick. There’s ironwork on top, to the west, and in the rear:

 

 

165 North Desplaines joins glass action

165 North Desplaines glass

That’s a pretty row of glass at 165 North Desplaines.

And the glass action suits it.

With lots of new construction comes lots of new glass work. Add 165 North Desplaines to the list of the newly glazed. The 199-unit apartment building has about a floor-and-a-half of glass installed just above the podium, while overall construction has reached the 14th floor. and since this is planned to be a 14-story tower, the math would tell you 165 North Desplaines is close to topping out.

 

 

 

If you’re clad and you know it… you might be 151 North Franklin

There’s an embarrassment of riches of new glass around Chicago these days. The latest to show up for the party? 151 North Franklin. But you have to look carefully. There are a few panels visible from the corner of Franklin and Randolph, and then a couple rows along Couch Place (aka the alley between Randolph and Lake.)

Have a look: