Author Archives: danieldschell

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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.

Zaha Hadid condos rise along New York City’s High Line

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520 West 28th, designed by Zaha Hadid, under construction along the High Line in West Chelsea.

I knew I’d see a lot of construction along New York City’s High Line elevated park; I also know I’d wish for more time. (All these photos are from atop the High Line itself; there wasn’t time to walk 360 degrees around construction sites.)

A standout of that construction? 520 West 28th Street in West Chelsea, from Related Companies. Designed by the late great Zaha Hadid along with Ismael Leyva Architects, 520 West 28th brings 39 uber-luxurious condos over 11 floors, right next to the High Line, in a modern, curvy building. Stay away from the $50,000,000 penthouse on the top three floors though; I’ve already committed to buying that one.

P.S. The High Line is a glorious place. I can’t wait to get back.

River Point Plaza is starting to look like a park of dreams

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River Point Plaza

Some day soon, we’ll be able to hang out in River Point Plaza, gazing up at the glorious new tower.

The one-and-a-half-acre park at the foot of River Point looks more and more inviting every day. That means soon, on days like Tuesday when it was in the high 70s in Chicago, the public will be able to take a book out onto the elevated plaza and enjoy the views of the Chicago River below, and the new office tower directly overhead. Developer Hines (remember our visit to 53W53 last week?) plans to have River Point and its plaza open in early 2017.

 

Construction Progress: 151 North Franklin

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151 North Franklin

Kudos to Lendlease; they #FlyTheW while they #FlyTheIron.

The CNA Center, 151 North Franklin Street in the Loop. A 35-story office tower with 820,000 rentable square feet.

Enough words. More pictures.

 

 

New York City construction gallery: 53W53

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53W53

A stunning rendering from the 53W53 website.

53W53 will be an 82-story condominium tower in Midtown Manhattan. Designed by noted starchitect Jean Nouvel, 53W53 will feature 160 “high-end” (does New York City have any condos that *aren’t* high-end?) units. Developed by Hines (let’s hear it for River Point!) and Pontiac Land Group, the project will also include 52,000 square feet of exhibition space for the adjacent Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

You should be quite familiar by now with the general contractor on 53W53; Lendlease is working on several Chicago projects, including 640 North Wells, 151 North Franklin, One Bennett Park, and Riverline.

For extensive coverage of 53W53 construction, please visit New York Yimby here.

For more about the Museum of Modern Art, click here.

1136 South Wabash makes its presence heard in the South Loop

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1136 South Wabash burst onto the scene back at the beginning of October with two building permits, one for a foundation, one for a full build, on the same day. Now, it’s ringing in fall with a bang. Actually, dozens and dozens of them. Crews are driving piles into the South Loop soil like Kyle Schwarber attacking the first pitches he’s seen in six months. Gotta feel a little bit sorry for the folks working at the Five Guys next door; only a single wall separates them from the hammering of steel. Though the burgers are worth it.

The SCB-designed 1136 South Wabash tower will deliver 320 apartments and 143 parking spaces near the corner of Wabash and Roosevelt, along with some ground-floor retail. CA Ventures is your developer, with Lendlease as the general contractor.

New York City posters an invaluable resource to visiting construction bloggers

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45 East 60th Street

These posters on job sites can help you remember what you took photos of yesterday. And the day before.

45 East 60th Street

Also note the work permit itself in the lower left corner of the poster.

The poster pictured above hangs on the pedestrian wall at 45 East 60th Street in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Construction bloggers covering New York City’s job sites likely know these spots by heart, but as a visitor in town only for a weekend, this is tremendously helpful in that it provides a wealth of information without having to do much homework.

Granted, it’s still up to me to remember where on set of photos ends, and the next set begins, but at least I have a place holder for each project. And it’s not that I’m too lazy to do the homework. But let’s face it; four days wasn’t enough time to capture more than just a fraction of the current construction in progress around this massive city, so you aren’t looking to me for comprehensive coverage. You just want to see a few photos. And these signs help me give you the most basic of details, at the least. I’ll be including them in future photo galleries of New York City construction.

45 East 60 Street

Looking straight up at 45 East 60th Street, also known as 520 Park Avenue.

For more about 520 Park Avenue/45 East 60th Street, follow this link to New York Yimby.

1411 South Michigan gets a foundation permit

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1411 South Michigan

The lot is ready at 1411 South Michigan.

A foundation permit was filed Monday by the City of Chicago, allowing construction to begin at 1411 South Michigan Avenue in the South Loop. It may be one of the wordiest foundation permits in recent history:

DIRECT DEVELOPER SERVICES. SCOPE OF WORK : CAISSONS, CAISSON CAPS, GRADE BEAMS AND SUPERSTRUCTURE OF FLOORS 1 TO THE TOP OF 6TH FLOOR SLAB. THE GROUND FLOOR SLAB IS NOT INCLUDED IN THE SCOPE OF THIS PERMIT. PROJECT DESCRIPTION : NEW TYPE 1-A 15-STORY , FULLY SPRINKLERED BLDG. WITH NO BASEMENT, MIXED -USE OCCUPANCY WITH 141 PARKING SPACES ON LEVELS 1-3, MEDICAL OFFICE TENANT ON LEVELS 1,4 & 5 AND 199 RESIDENTIAL APARTMENTS (68 EFFICIENCY UNITS + 131 DWELLING UNITS)

1411 South Michigan will be a 15-story residential tower from Chicago developer Russland Capital Group. Designed by the architecture firm of Boarman Kroos Vogel Group, 1411 South Michigan will have 199 apartments ranging from studios to 3-bedroom units. 40,000 square feet of commercial space is included in the plans as well. Lendlease will serve as the general contractor.

West Loop lot ready for transition to McDonald’s HQ

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McDonald's HQ crane

Spotted: A yellow street crane is assembled on the future McDonald’s HQ site.

Yes, there’s still “demolition” work taking place on the former site of Harpo Studios in the West Loop. But only if you count the big hole Heneghan Wrecking has been digging as demo work. Because other than that, the block lying within Randolph, Carpenter, Washington, and Aberdeen is a smoothed-over dirt field, ready to play canvas to Sterling Bay’s development.

As we wait for the inevitable influx of equipment onto the McDonald’s site, a street crane (surface crane? We need a definitive name for non-tower cranes) has begun assembly.

Sorting out New York City

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Hudson Yards

If you insist on using the word “massive,” use it here, at Hudson Yards. As seen from the wonderful High Line elevated trail.

This blog has been idle for a few days because of a weekend stay in New York City. My plan to post photos of construction throughout Manhattan hit a roadblock when I quickly became overwhelmed by the scope of work being done, as well as my self-inundation with pictures taken.

I knew there was a lot of construction happening in New York; I just didn’t truly understand just how wide-spread — and TALL — it is. In the coming days, I’ll share some of the thousands of photos of construction sites, water tanks, and architecture on display in the City That Never Sleep (they call it that because there’s a Starbucks ON EVERY BLOCK.) But first, I have to sort and make sense of these pics.

If you’re looking for detailed information about each project, look to Twitter user @newyorkyimby. It would be silly for me to fly in for a weekend and think I could speak intelligently about the mass of activity there. The @newyorkyimby team has a handle on it all, and covers it thoroughly. Besides, I still need to run around Chicago and see what happened while i was gone for four days.

53W53

53W53 catches a few morning rays.

 

W Hotel Times Square goes all out for the Chicago Cubs

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#FlyTheW

#FlyTheW
Thank you for your support, W Hotel!

In an alarming show of support for the team the Mets swept out of last year’s Playoffs, the W Hotel in Times Square chose to Fly The W for the Chicago Cubs as they head to the World Series.

Within minutes of the Cubs completing the 4-games-to-2 series win over the Dodgers, the W Hotel was proudly displaying the W flag, albeit a white W instead of the traditional blue W immortalized by recent Cubs teams. This, however, is an easily forgivable sin.

Now, four more wins.