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.

165 North Desplaines is in the Crane Game

Posted on July 28, 2016 by danieldschell

It’s here! 165 North Desplaines fully assembled its tower crane today.

If you’re on my list of having a tower crane permit, but you still haven’t erected your tower crane yet, please step forward.

Hey, not so fast, 165 North Desplaines.

Yep, it’s up. Today, and maybe parts of yesterday, crews in the West Loop assembled a tower crane over top of North Desplaines Street. As you can’t quite tell from the photo above, it extends out over Randolph Street. Not that it will be lifting things that way, but it needs the reach to cover the lot from Desplaines east to Jefferson.

And now, I bring you A Tower Crane From Every Angle:

Construction Update: 30 East

Posted on July 28, 2016 by danieldschell

30 East s starting to show itself at the corner of Balbo and Wabash.

Ah yes, 30 East. This is a new concept for me. A rental tower aimed at the student population in the South Loop. Roosevelt University. Robert Morris University. Columbia College. East-West University. Heck, there were 170 kids in my high school graduating class, so Jones Prep looks like a college to me. Even DePaul has a campus nearby. All crammed within a few urban blocks. And those students — not all of them, but many — need places to live.

30 East, at 30 East Balbo Avenue, is going to be a 16-story apartment building catering to those students. 134 apartments, all furnished. 255 beds. No bring-your-own-mattress-and-desk here. There will be studio, convertible, one-, two-, three-, even four-bedroom units. There will be a service to match residents with roommates. Plus all the amenities you’d expect from today’s new residential construction.

Gilbane Development Company is responsible for the project. Solomon Cordwell Buenz designed the tower. Power Construction is the general contractor. Opening is expected in late summer of 2017, just in time for fall classes.

Have a look at the progress Power has made so far:

: You know what this is, right?

: Looking at the southwest corner of the development.

: Power construction workers scale the west wall.

: Do not tag the banners.

: Along Balbo.

: From the intersection of Balbo and Wabash.

: The city makes a nice backdrop for city construction.

: Looks deceiving, but the trains do not pass *through* 30 East.

Demolition Update: Malcolm X College

Posted on July 28, 2016 by danieldschell

OM NOM NOM NOM

There’s a lot going on at the lot Malcolm X College used to occupy. As Heneghan Wrecking continues to tear down the old facility, McHugh Construction is equally busy doing foundation work for the new Chicago Blackhawks Community Training Center.

Hopefully, those two companies are doing a good job of remembering which equipment should be ripping things to shreds, and which machines should be laying foundation work. Things are pretty well divided between a west end of the site and an east end, so they likely know what they’re doing.

Heneghan has been at it since the demo permit was filed back in April. It’s a huge site, so sorting and hauling debris away eats up big chunks of time.

I stood and watched for awhile. Wanna see the pics? Well of course you do.

: The beast must be fed.

: Take human bites, beast. You’re getting crumbs everywhere.

: Tear the roof off the sucker.

: This look familiar to anyone? Auditorium seating? or just a large classroom with risers?

: Caissons to the east, demo to the west.

: In case you mist it, this is how you keep demolition dust from getting out of hand.

: Heneghan doing what they do, making space.

W.E. O’Neil begins construction on Plumbers Local 130 Training Center

Posted on July 28, 2016 by danieldschell

Demolition of the old Plumbing Industry Center in May.

First, it was what looked like a fairly nice building. Then, it was a hole in the ground. Now, there’s stuff going on in that hole. And it’s construction.

After breaking ground at 1400 West Washington Boulevard on June 28th, W.E. O’Neil is rolling on the new Plumbers Local 130 Training Center. The 3-story, 50,000-square-foot building in the West Loop will facilitate the education of journeymen and apprentice plumbers from all around Chicago.

Designed by Gensler, the project got underway with an April demolition permit for the old Plumbing Industry Center, followed by the new construction permit issued June 21st. It’s expected by this time next year, the training center will be complete.

: Revcon is right in the middle of things, doing caisson work.

: A rendering from the W.E. O’Neil website.

: Another W.E. O’Neil render.

: The old building. Didn’t look half bad.

: A very glarey building permit.

: Trucking in caisson equipment.

: Rebar tubes.

Quick Look: Steel stealing the spotlight at 151 North Franklin

Posted on July 27, 2016 by danieldschell

Construction at 151 North Franklin is rising above street level, highlighted by the steel on the south side of the lot.

I’m kind of obsessed with this steel work going on right now at 151 North Franklin. It reminds me of the glorious contraption on the south end of 150 North Riverside when it first went up. Sadly, the CNA Center requires no massive red crane on a barge.

: Ready for your close-up?

Quick Look: Is it demolition? Is it construction? Well, yes it is.

Posted on July 27, 2016 by danieldschell

Chicago Blackhawks Community Training Center

CAISSONS. DEMOLITION. BLOWN MIND.

Now there’s something you don’t see every day.

Even as demolition crews are tearing apart the old Malcolm X College, construction crews are busy doing caisson work for the Chicago Blackhawks Community Training Center. And they don’t appear to be getting in each other’s way.

Malcolm X College is being destroyed because a new campus was just completed on the other side of Jackson Boulevard. In July of last year, the Blackhawks announced they’d be using the same site for their new training digs, which they broke ground on in June of this year. McHugh Construction is the general contractor for the HOK design.

It’s two job sites in one.

Demolition Update: The Shows No Longer Go On At Harpo Studios

Posted on July 27, 2016 by danieldschell

Let’s be honest. You know when Heneghan Wrecking shows up at the studio, your show has been canceled.

Heneghan Wrecking is making more space in the West Loop. This time, it’s for McDonald’s.

Harpo Studios, former television home of Oprah Winfrey, was issued a demolition permit last week, and this week, the carnage has begun. Starting with the north wall, the building is being knocked down, scooped up, and dumped into waiting haulers. In its place, the new McDonald’s corporate office that was approved by the Chicago Plan Commission the day after the demo permit was filed. Ah, synergy.

https://twitter.com/ChicagoDPD/status/756198487595819008

There is no truth to the rumor that someone on site is handing out bits of rubble to demolition spectators, yelling “YOU get a brick, YOU get a brick, EVERYBODY gets a brick!”

: The staircase inside the North Carpenter Street entrance.

: The beast must be fed.

: A service entrance off North Aberdeen, no longer accepting deliveries.

: The Demo Permit.

Climbing Crane Watch: 151 North Franklin

Posted on July 26, 2016 by danieldschell

In honor of last week’s double permit festivities — one for the full build, one for the climbing tower crane — I took a quick walk past the new CNA Center at 151 North Franklin again today. Twice, actually. Once in the morning, once on the way back home. Alas, they haven’t set up that pseudo-tower crane thingamobob yet, but they do have some stellar steel work protruding from the ground at the south end of the site. So, rather than waste the trip(s), here are a few pictures:

: Morning walk-by, as the street crane lifted steel into place along Randolph Street.

: By the evening walk home, they had added to it.

: The CNA Center is rising up from its foundation.

: That excavator is at an awkward angle. Tight spaces call for drastic measures.

: Full Build Permit.

: The climbing tower crane permit.

More Milwaukee: Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons

Posted on July 26, 2016 by danieldschell

Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons, 720 East Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Back in late June, the Mrs. went up to Milwaukee and brought back a couple souvenirs for me: photos of the under-construction Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons. Thankful for the keepsakes, I posted what I thought I knew about the project. A reader named John Anderson soon let me know, however, that I knew a lot less than I thought I did, and I had erroneously lumped two projects — and their respective information — into one post. (777 West Van Buren is the second project. I’ll post about that another day.)

Well, lucky for me, Sting visited Milwaukee this month. And when Sting is in Milwaukee, you drop everything and go to Milwaukee. That gave me a chance to sing “Roxanne” at the top of my lungs, and to take my own walk around downtown Milwaukee and see what Northwestern Mutual is up to for myself.

So, here’s what I think I now know:

The Tower portion of this project, at 720 East Wisconsin Avenue, will be 32 stories high, and about 550 feet tall, with the Commons portion extending to the tower’s west. It is a design from Pickard Chilton of New haven, Ct. Northwestern Mutual is, of course, the developer, along with Hines (think River Point here in Chicago, along with a whole lot of others.) Gilbane Building Company is the general contractor. Completion comes in 2017.

That was exhausting. How about some photos from a glorious July afternoon in Milwaukee:

: It is a striking tower…

: …from every angle.

: There will be a roller coaster of some sort at the top.

: Tower and tower crane, from a distance.

: A render from Northwestern Mutual.

: A rendering from Pickard Chilton.

: Just barely peeking out above the *stunning* Milwaukee Federal Building & Courthouse.

: The new hovers over the old.

: Northwestern Mutual Tower and Commons, as of July 10, 2016.

: The Commons.

: Northwestern Tower, seen through the construction site at 777 North Van Buren Street. I’ll get to that another day.

: Jackson and Van Buren? I’m in Milwaukee, right? Not the West Loop?

: The Commons, looking from the south on East Wisconsin Avenue.

Yes, that’s a lot of photos. Let me know if I got any details wrong, folks.

Construction Update: 3Eleven Caisson Work

Posted on July 25, 2016 by danieldschell

Revcon has caisson work well underway at 3Eleven.

Sit back while I tell you everything I know about the goings-on in the 300 block of West Illinois Street in River North.

At 311 West Illinois Street, the John Buck Company is putting up 3Eleven, a 25-story apartment tower, in what used to be the parking lot of Assumption Catholic Church. The FitzGerald Associates Architects-designed building will boast 245 “luxury” rentals, 3,000 square feet of retail, and 109 parking spaces, some of which will be set aside for the exclusive use of the church. Power Construction is on the build, and Revcon Construction is revving up the caissons as we speak.

Separately, on the other side of the church, a one-story addition is being added to the priory building. That is a project designed by McBride Kelley Baurer Architects, with Norcon, Inc. of Chicago handling the general contractor duties. I’d show you photos of that work, but there isn’t much to see. The action is all at the east end of the block.