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.

Demolition underway at former Park View Lutheran Church and School (updated**)

Posted on October 21, 2016 by danieldschell

The former Park View Lutheran Church, currently being demolished in Irving Park.

There are four new single-family homes coming to the Irving Park neighborhood, as demolition crews have already begun demolishing the Park View Lutheran Church & School that stood on the site. Most of the school is already gone; the church, built in 1929, hasn’t been started yet. But it will vanish soon as well.

The parish house at 3921 North Monticello. Will it be saved?

In its place will be four new single-family homes from MK Construction & Builders of 2000 North Milwaukee Avenue. MK’s website touts 3400-3800-square-foot, 2-story masonry structures. There have been four building permits on file with the city since July and August, showing that each home will include a two-car garage. MK Construction will act as its own general contractor. The homes are designed by Pro-Plan Architects of Streamwood, IL.

At 3921 North Monticello stands a parish house connected to the church. A demolition permit issued in August included 3913 through 3921 to be demolished, but the latest demo permit names only for 3913. No response yet from MK Construction as to whether or not 3921 will be saved or destroyed.

This rendering from MK Construction & Builders shows the homes coming to 3913-3919 North Monticello.

Nothing stirs the emotions like demolition of an old church, and since I was told I couldn’t take or post any photos of this demolition, here’s a huge gallery of them, because get over yourself, dude.

** I received an email this morning from the marketing director at MK Construction, who informs me 3921 will NOT be demolished.

Renovation Update: The American Book Company building

Posted on October 21, 2016 by danieldschell

The American Book Company building, 330 East Cermak Road.

Being rehabbed as part of the Marriott Marquis Chicago in the Prairie District of the South Loop, the American Book Company building is being re-purposed as meeting rooms, office space, and retail.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, the American Book Company building, designed by architect Nelson Max Dunning, was on the endangered list as recently as 2008, when a proposal for the block on which it’s located called for its demolition. It was then designated a Chicago Landmark in 2009.

Speaking of 330 East Cermak Road, Crain’s Chicago reported Thursday that a new data center is coming to this address, and would be situated directly behind the American Book Company building, just north on Calumet Avenue.

It’s time to rise and shine for Solstice on the Park

Posted on October 21, 2016 by danieldschell

Solstice on the Park, from Studio Gang.

Studio Gang is at it again in Hyde park.

Fresh off the success of City Hyde Park, Studio Gang’s latest South Side creation, Solstice on the Park, had a foundation permit issued by the City of Chicago Wednesday, after being approved by the Chicago Plan Commission back in February. Coupled with the demolition permit filed Monday to dig out the underground parking lot at 1616 East 56th Street, and Solstice on the Park is officially ready to rise. The Solstice team, as it did on City Hyde Park, includes developer Antheus Capital and general contractor Linn-Mathes.

You should expect the 26-story tower to include 250 apartments and a whopping 316 parking spaces. What you shouldn’t expect is to see anything resembling the former parking garage; Taylor Excavating has already transformed the site into a large hole. I hope you moved your car.

: City Hyde Park, the previous project from Gang and the gang.

The Viceroy Chicago covers up its jagged concrete with crooked glass

Posted on October 20, 2016 by danieldschell

Flat glass cladding? Not here at the Viceroy Chicago.

If you’re like me, you enjoy going from construction site to construction site, telling crews what they’re doing wrong.

Just kidding. Don’t ever do that. It wouldn’t be appreciated.

The Viceroy Chicago Hotel going up at 1118 North State Street in the Gold Coast has been showing some cool geometric concrete flooring of late, shapes that I assumed would disappear once cladding was put into place. Luckily, architects like Goettsch Partners and contractors like Power Construction know more about what they do than I. Because the best way to to compliment those patterns is to use glass that mocks them.

Glass is going up rapidly at The Viceroy, but this is no ordinary pane. (Sorry, Stevie.) These pieces of cladding come angled. But you’ll see what I mean when you look at the photos.

: This render from Viceroy Hotels shows the V-patterns that angled glass will form. V for Viceroy.

: See? These are the cool shapes in the concrete floors. Especially cool at the corner.

Lakeview 3200 eyes March 2017 opening at Clark and Belmont

Posted on October 20, 2016 by danieldschell

Lakeview 3200 nears completion at 3200 North Clark Street.

Located at 3200 North Clark Street in the heart of Lake View, the controversially-named** Lakeview 3200 is topped out and almost fully clad in glass. A design from Hirsch Associates, the new mixed-use development from BlitzLake Partners will deliver 90 apartments, 40 parking spots, 8,000 square feet of office space, and a Target-anchored 29,000 square feet of retail space upon opening. Clark Construction has been building Lakeview 3200 since late last year. A Dunkin Donuts had to be torn down to make way for the new project, but you can still get those Ann Sather cinnamon rolls across the street, so it all works out.

** The official map from the City of Chicago I rely on to determine which neighborhood a project is located in uses two words for “Lake View.” So that’s how I spell Lake View. Lakeview 3200 uses one word, obviously. It’s not really a controversy. It’s just a difference in preference.

: Early, moody, tower crane shot.

: Early wood work.

: May 2016

: May 2016, from the Belmont L platform.

30 East Apartments tops off at 16 stories

Posted on October 20, 2016 by danieldschell

30 East has topped out at 30 East Balbo in the South Loop.

Enjoy the tower crane at 30 East while you can. The 16-story apartment building has topped off, meaning the crane has accomplished most of what it came here to do. 30 East will have 134 apartments ranging from studios to 4-bedroom units, all of them fully furnished. Gilbane Development Company has designs on filling the tower with the large student population in the South Loop. And speaking of designs, SCB is responsible for drawing up 30 East. Power Construction has been taking care of construction.

Gilbane’s goal is to open in time for Fall 2017 classes.

: The glass is more than half full.

: Leave the construction to the professionals.

: They had to demolish a mural depicting a water tank here. Sad.

: The start of caisson work, March 2016.

: If there were tower crane baby photos, this would be the ultrasound.

Who expected a sandlot next door to Wrigley Field?

Posted on October 19, 2016 by danieldschell

The Cubs Fly The W in the background, as construction continues at Hotel Zachary.

There’s been a curious discovery on the future site of the Hotel Zachary: Sand. Not a few grains in an hourglass. Tons of it. And more tons. The random sampling I took of Walsh Construction (two workers) revealed that no one was expecting to find so much sand on the lot. Makes me wonder if someone with an excavator didn’t exclaim “You’re killing me, Smalls!” at some point. (Google it, if you must)

Anyway, here are a few grainy (heh) photos of construction progress, most of which remains below grade.

P.S. Free idea for Walsh Construction – See if you can talk the Chicago Cubs into replacing that blue and white banner with a Big Green W.

Addison & Clark has a clean slate to start building

Posted on October 19, 2016 by danieldschell

Cubs star Kris Bryant supervises removal of the last pile of rubble on the Addison Park on Clark site.

Call it Addison & Clark.

Call it Addison Park on Clark.

Either way, it’s about ready to roll. The land once occupied by Starbucks, Red Ivy, Mullen’s, and others, has been scraped clean and smooth, allowing construction crews to get to work. Case Foundation already has caisson equipment ready to drill, and general contractor Power Construction should be swarming onto the site in the coming days. Their task is 148 apartments, a 405-space indoor parking garage, and a whopping 146,000 square feet of commercial space.

: Case Foundation is ready to work.

: Dude’s everywhere.

: Gone.

: Gone.

: Gone.

: Gone.

: Render from addisonparkonclark.com

: Render from addisonparkonclark.com

: Render from addisonparkonclark.com

St. John Cantius Church again a standout of Open House Chicago 2016

Posted on October 18, 2016 by danieldschell

St. John Cantius Church, Chicago, IL.

Sometimes I forget the first word of Open House Chicago is, indeed, “open.” I walked into Saint John Cantius Church in River West for the first time, camera and tripod in hand. I looked around and so no one else with a tripod, and wondered if what I was doing was okay. So I asked. “Of course!” was the answer. I wouldn’t be intruding on a wedding. I wouldn’t be interrupting worshipers. It was an Open House.

Never participated in Open House Chicago? Leave your weekends available in October 2017. It’s a whole new window on the City of Chicago.

Here now, my favorite photos from my favorite site in 2016. (Sorry, Yale Building. You had been the front-runner until late Sunday.)

One Bennett Park plants a tower crane in Streeterville

Posted on October 18, 2016 by danieldschell

The new One Bennett Park tower crane, taken from Moment Apartments.

If you were in Streeterville over the weekend for Open House Chicago, you may have walked right past the new tower crane stub at One Bennett Park. If you visited Moment, the new apartment tower at McClurg and Grand, to check out an apartment and/or the outdoor deck, you might have looked right over it as you gazed out at Lake Michigan and the skyline. But it is there.

The high-profile high rise got a tower crane permit way back on August 23, so we’ve been waiting awhile. But it’s going to be a pretty yellow crane, so the wait was worth it. Then again, it’s a tower crane; it’s always worth it.