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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.

Fall 2016: Vista Tower Caisson Theater

Vista Tower opens this year. It’s a pretty big deal.

McHugh Construction and Case Foundation put on a show during foundation work, drilling caisson after caisson with diameters the likes I’d never seen from such a good vantage point. From September through December of 2016, it was Caisson Theater.

 

Stuff That’s Done: Elevate Lincoln Park

Elevate Lincoln Park, 930 West Altgeld in Lincoln Park.

Elevate Lincoln Park is an 11-story horseshoe-shaped apartment building along North Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park. If you’ve ridden the Brown, Purple, or Red Line CTA trains between Fullerton and Diversey, you’ve brushed right up against it.

Developed by Baker Development and designed by SCB, it delivered 191 new apartments, plus 16,000 square feet of retail space and 160 parking spaces, upon its opening in July 2018. McHugh Construction was the general contractor.

 

Parkline meets The L

Comings and goings at Parkline Chicago: A Brown Line train passes as the Orange Line approaches.

Lots of elevators have an LL button. That’s very similar, yet entirely different, from the L Level Parkline Chicago has reached in The Loop. For awhile there, Parkline was under The L. No longer.

Construction has risen above street level, and has now pulled even with the CTA’s elevated rail along North Wabash Avenue. That means if your train comes to an unexpected stop here, you’ll be able to hi-five the Clark Construction crew. Assuming you’re in a car with roll-down windows.

 

Darn Near Done: North+Vine approaches its opening

North+Vine, at 633 West North Avenue in Old Town.

We don’t need another category of blog posts around here, but if we did, it would be Stuff I Didn’t Get To Until It Was Darn Near Done.

It’s hard to tell just walking by whether North+Vine is open yet. Sure, there’s work to be done inside, but are those the retail spaces? The lobby? Hmmm.

North+Vine, at 633 West North Avenue in Old Town, is a collaboration from developers White Oak Realty Partners, CA Residential, and GID. A design by West Loop firm FitzGerald, the 11-story rental building brings 260 apartments to the old Father & Son Plaza site. This is a Power Project, and again, it looks like the have it darn near done.

 

 

740 North Aberdeen progressing in River West

740 North Aberdeen is an 11-story apartment building coming to the River West neighborhood later this year. A development from Fifield Companies, it will include 188 rental units and 2,400 square feet of retail space.

FitzGerald is the design architect; McHugh Construction is on the build.

Not sure where North Aberdeen is in River West? Think Ogden and Milwaukee. This is a short block south-ish of that on Ogden.

Uncraning Day at Fulton East

NOPE

The tower crane at Fulton East has done its duty, and is on the way down. I was happy to see I wasn’t the only standing out in the West Loop Monday watching and taking photos of the crane being disassembled. It’s not even about the crane; it’s more about the folks standing out on that thing, 16 miles above the surface of the earth. Kudos, guys. You’ll never have to worry about me trying to get up there and stealing your jobs.

That’s a wrap for Panorama caisson work at 3300 North Clark

bKL Architecture rendering of Panorama, 3300 North Clark Street in Lake View.

Panorama is an eight-story rental building coming to the Lake View neighborhood at 3300 North Clark. Developed by Blilzlake Partners and designed by bKL Architecture, Panorama brings 140 units a block away from the Belmont CTA station. It will include 140 units, 9,000 square feet of retail space, and parking for 20 cars.

I set out Monday morning to watch caisson work, and got there just in time to watch Revcon their caisson equipment onto flatbeds and haul it away. Time, you see, waits for no one. A return trip to the site Monday afternoon shows an empty site.

Power Construction is on this build. If you’re wondering whether Panorama’s eight stories are enough for a tower crane, and I know you are, a tower crane permit has already been issued for this construction, back on December 3rd.

800 Fulton is on the rise

Three weeks ago, 800 Fulton was a difficult spectator sport. High fences, deep excavations, attack dogs that clearly knew my scent and were expecting me. Okay, the dog thing is a lie. But I digress. Point is, 800 Fulton is starting to jut above street level, and now we can get a great look at progress Lendlease is making on the future 19-story office tower from Thor Equities.

And so, without further ado, I present a whole mess o’photos:

Catching up on Wolf Point East

Screen grab from the OxBlue construction cam at Wolf Point East.

This is embarrassing.

How many times have I walked by, and stopped at, the Wolf Point East construction site? If you guessed between 6,000 and 74 gazillion, you’re close. So how had I not figured out there was an OxBlue webcam aimed at the now-topped-off-and-craneless tower this whole time?

Wolf Point East, of course, is the second of three towers being built at the northeast corner of the Chicago River Triangle, if indeed a triangle can have a northwest corner. Developed by Hines in cooperation with the Kennedy family, Wolf Point East is bringing 700 rental units to the River North neighborhood. The 60-story tower will also include 200 parking spaces and 3,600 square feet of retail space.

Pelli Clarke Pelli is the design architect; Pappageorge Haymes Partners is the architect of record. That’s The Big Green W out there on the build. (Remember the trestle bridge?!)

Sorry, January 26, 2020 was a very grey day: