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.

Mega Mall is being slowly dismantled from Logan Square history

Posted on December 28, 2016 by danieldschell

That’s demolition-by-Sawzall, for now.

If nothing else, the graffiti will be missed.

Mega Mall, the long-time Logan Square institution on the 2500-block of North Milwaukee Avenue, is on its way into oblivion. Permitted for demolition earlier this month, the structure, which at this point may well be held together by the same street art that covers its walls, will be removed for a major mixed-use development from Terraco, Inc. of Wilmette. Albrecht Enterprises in named on the demo permit as the destructor.

: Full disclosure: Mega Mall in *not* “NOW OPEN”

Solstice on the Park has a tower crane, just in time for longer days

Posted on December 28, 2016 by danieldschell

Hyde Park’s newest tower crane reigns high above Solstice on the Park.

About the same time the Winter Solstice was making its appearance, Solstice on the Park was planting a tower crane at 161 East 56th Street in Hyde Park. And now that the days will be getting longer (I’m ignoring the part about them getting colder, too), Linn-Mathes can really get busy on the foundations.

Note the parking configuration on this elevation drawing from Studio Gang.

The building Studio Gang designed for developer Antheus Capital will fit 250 apartments and a whopping 316 parking spaces into the 26-story tower. **Those parking spaces appear to be spread over six stories, two of which may be below grade, if the elevation rendering on the Studio Gang website is to be taken literally. The foundation permit calls for five levels of parking.**

Studio Gang, Antheus Capital, and Linn-Mathes comprise the same team responsible for building City Hyde Park, which opened late last year.

: See that tower crane way over there? I think that’s Solstice on the Park. Somewhat kinda pretty sure.

1001 West Chicago filling up old Gonnella site

Posted on December 28, 2016 by danieldschell

The pair of towers at 1001 West Chicago rise in River West.

The dual-tower, 363-unit apartment development 1001 West Chicago from Bond Companies and Morgan Holdings keeps rising in River West, as Power Construction crews have reached the eighth and ninth floors on the respective structures, on their way to 15 and 13 stories. Not bad for having only broken ground in September.

The FitzGerald Associates project will also include 10,000 square feet of retail space and parking for 300 cars. Remember, some of that parking is necessary for the retail space, especially considering a grocery store will take some of that allotment.

Gallery I: Construction Progress

Gallery II: Anatomy of a Beam Lift

Parking garage turned empty lot in South Loop is getting a hotel

Posted on December 27, 2016 by danieldschell

I don’t know what this steel-and-wood sculpture, in the lot at 1101 South Wabash, is called. But I like it.

At 1101 South Wabash Avenue, directly behind the Best Western Grant Park Hotel in the South Loop, the City of Chicago has filed a permit to begin construction of a 30-story hotel. According to the permit, this will be a design by Lothan Van Hook DeStefano Architecture. And according to the Chicago Plan Commission agenda for November of this year, the hotel will have 281 rooms and 57 parking spaces.

The two-story parking garage on the site got its demolition permit in January of this year, and by the middle of February, it had been reduced to an empty lot.

Currently, there are a couple of cool abstract pieces of iron artwork on site, but I can’t say for sure those are permanent. Lendlease is the general contractor on the hotel project; we’ll let them decide what stays and what goes.

: The Demolition Permit.

: The Foundation Permit.

: Lendlease is ready to take over the site.

: The seamy underbelly of the parking garage, just after demolition had begun back in January.

: And wrapping up demo in February.

165 North Desplaines progress continues in the West Loop

Posted on December 26, 2016 by danieldschell

T’was the night before Christmas, and 165 North Desplaines lights up the West Loop.

165 North Desplaines, the 14-story, 199-unit apartment tower from GREC Architects, continues to grow in the West Loop. A foundation permit filed in June, and the full-build permit filed in October, have allowed Power Construction to go to town on the two-part project, which calls not only for the new residential building, but also for the rehab of 156 North Jefferson, a three-story office building with which it shares a lot.

When complete, 165 North Desplaines will also include retail and parking space, and feature the return of the Haymarket Monument, for now residing in Union Park to protect it from damage during construction.

: Gratuitous tower crane shot.

: 152 North Jefferson.

: The Foundation Permit

: The full-build permit.

: Render of 165 North Desplaines from GREC Architects.

: The Haymarket Monument being removed from the construction site back in May.

: The Haymarket Monument in Union Park.

Construction Update: You can call it Wintrust Arena now

Posted on December 26, 2016 by danieldschell

Wintrust Arena, from the corner of Cermak Road and Indiana Avenue.

What was once the McCormick Place Event Center is now, through the miracle of naming rights, Wintrust Arena. The 10,000-seat basketball arena/300,000-square-foot event space by Pelli Clarke Pelli is almost fully enclosed on all four sides now. Sadly, no access to the McCormick Place rooftop garden this visit. Pictures from street level will have to suffice.

Construction Progress: The Hotel Zachary meets the street in Lake View

Posted on December 24, 2016 by danieldschell

The Hotel Zachary is rising from the sandlot across Clark Street from Wrigley Field.

Remember all that sand at 3630 North Clark Street in Lake View? History. Banished form existence like the whole billy-goat curse thing. And now, rising up from the depths of what used to be the Lake Michigan Lakefront, is the Hotel Zachary. From developer Hickory Street Capital, which helped bring you the 2016 World Series Championship, among other goings-on in and around Wrigley Field, the Hotel Zachary (no word yet on my proposal to change the name to “The Russell On Addison“) will have 175 rooms and a whole bunch of top-notch dining choices, from fast-food to fancy.

I took a walk around the site this week, and found Walsh Construction just beginning to peek above sidewalk-level. Wanna see the pics? Of course you do.

Cubs continue to get their office in order

Posted on December 23, 2016 by danieldschell

THE CUBS WON THE WORLD SERIES!

Also, construction continues on the “triangle lot” site at Wrigley Field for what will be the new office building of the Chicago Cubs, the Major League Baseball team that won the 2016 World Series.

FACT: Every team in every major sport has waited longer for a championship season than the Chicago Cubs.

The six-story office building already houses the new 30,000-square-foot clubhouse, which provides the modern amenities and creature comforts the team clearly needed to push them to the 2016 World Series Championship.

And now, a photo gallery of construction progress, featuring 17 pictures. 17. Kris Bryant, #17 of the World Series Champion Chicago Cubs, and reigning National League Most Valuable Player.

Coincidence? Probably not.

: Winter rendering of the office building and plaza from Hickory Street Capital.

: Summer rendering of the office building and plaza from Hickory Street Capital.

Demolition Update: 7-story Nellie A. Black Memorial Pavilion reduced to 6

Posted on December 23, 2016 by danieldschell

Just beyond the carnage of the old Children’s Memorial Hospital, the Nellie A. Black Memorial Pavilion undergoes the same fate.

The Nellie A. Black Pavilion at 700 West Fullerton Parkway in Lincoln Park — the former 7-story brick building being removed to make room for a new 7-story brick building — is now closer to 6.1 floors, as demolition crews from American Demolition have begun the slow, painstaking process of bringing the structure down without harming buildings to the west and north, mere inches away. In its place will be a senior living center from Belmont Village.

: There are a tremendous number of vehicles *on…

: …and *in the Nellie A. Black Pavilion.

: Right up against it.

: I’m likely not allowed to climb that ladder. This doesn’t upset me.

Topped off and glassed up, 30 East heads toward the home stretch

Posted on December 22, 2016 by danieldschell

A CTA Orange Line train passes 30 East, 30 East Balbo Avenue, in the South Loop.

You can see the light at the end of the tunnel for 30 East, the 16-story rental high-rise from Gilbane Development Company. The 134 student-centric apartments at 30 East Balbo Avenue in the South Loop are 99.8% cladded, with only a few panels yet to be installed near the top of the tower. Sadly, I hadn’t been by the site since the October topping-out, so I missed the tower crane’s departure. Which is okay in the end, because the same crane has probably already been installed atop another Chicago project.