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.

318 North Carpenter will add another 100,000 square feet to the Fulton Market office explosion

Posted on January 9, 2020 by danieldschell

318 North Carpenter render from Murphy Development Group

Office space large and small is all the rage in the Fulton Market District these days, along with restaurant space, retail space, residential space, and space for leaving your motorized scooter on the sidewalk. One of those smaller office projects is 318 North Carpenter. This one is just seven stories, bringing about 100,000 square feet of rentable office space, along with 10,000 square feet of retail, and parking for 27 cars.

318 North Carpenter is brought to you by Murphy Development Group, most notable recently for opening The Paragon in the South Loop. Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture is the design architect, and Walsh Construction is on the build. They are tasked with having 318 open this summer.

: 318 North Carpenter render from Murphy Development Group

Fulton East is a first-glass act at 215 North Peoria

Posted on January 8, 2020 by danieldschell

New glass adorns Fulton East, at 215 North Peoria in the West Loop.

The glass has arrived at the topped-out Fulton East in the West Loop. (That’s right, east is west.) Fulton East is a 12-story office building being built by Clayco, and designed by Lamar Johnson Collaborative.

The developer, according to the permit issued by the City of Chicago and the construction banner on site, is “Peoria Green Owner, LLC.” That entity, according to Crain’s, appears to be Parkside Realty.

: Mooncrane Fun

: Mooncrane Fun Part II

: Who you lookin’ at?

: Lamar Johnson Collaborative render.

369 West Grand progressing in River North

Posted on January 8, 2020 by danieldschell

369 West Grand is a 41-story, 365-unit apartment building going up on the site of the former Clark & Barlow Hardware store and Grand Avenue and Orleans Street in River North. It is being developed by Onni Group, the Canadian developer also currently working on the Old Town Park project. Onni also built The Hudson, a residential tower about six blocks north of 369 West Grand. Designed by Brininstool + Lynch, the tower’s podium will provide parking for 250 cars, and include ground-floor retail space.

: Brininstool + Lynch rendering

: Brininstool + Lynch rendering

: Brininstool + Lynch rendering

Say goodbye to State and Division as we know (knew?) it

Posted on January 8, 2020 by danieldschell

This whole corner of the Gold Coast is soon to be wiped clean.

Say goodbye to McFadden’s. And Hash House a Go-Go. And P.J. Clarke’s, Tip Top Inn, Palette Chicago, Chase Bank, Paradise Cantina, Five Faces Ice Cream, and whatever else has ever been on the northwest corner of State Parkway and Division Street in the Gold Coast neighborhood. Because it’s all coming down.

A bunch of demolition permits were issued January 2nd, allowing for the removal of the edifices at 1200, 1204, 1206, and 1210 North State, and 10 West Division. Which may or may not include what was once Mothers Too, though that address was 14 West. 10 and 14 might be considered one building.

Heneghan Wrecking is tasked with the tear downs, and it looks like they might be making space for this, according to the Chicago Architecture Blog. The permits don’t help much with developer info; Good Luck Glades LLC? Sunny Glade LLC? Loockout LLC? What the heck are those? And what’s with the “12 and 3-story building” on the 1204 permit? Confusion reigns.

: 10 West Division demo permit

: 10-14 West Division

: 1200 North State demo permit

: 1200 North State

: 1204 North State demo permit

: 1204 North State

: 1206 North State demo permit

: 1206 North State

: 1210 North State demo permit

: 1210 North State

Let’s turn back the clock, via Google Streetview:

: McFadden’s via Google Streetview

: Paradise Cantina via Google Streetview

: Chase Bank via Google Streetview

: Mother’s Too via Google Streetview

: Palette Chicago via Google Streetview

: Tip Top Inn via Google Streetview

: Washington Mutual via Google Streetview

: P.J. Clarke’s via Google Streetview

: Five Faces Ice Cream via Google Streetview

It’s a whole new block for 800 Fulton

Posted on January 7, 2020 by danieldschell

This building though.

If memory serves correctly, this is the first construction site I’ve covered for Thor Equities. But they must have gotten word that I’d be around, because 800 Fulton is really tough to get a good look at so far. Could be I’m just paranoid, but the fences seem too high, the foundation too deep, and heck, they’ve even gotten the weather to conspire against me with gloomy, overcast days.

Well, January brought some sunshine, so I’ve done the best I can. 800 Fulton is a 19-story office building designed by SOM. If this thing turns out the way renderings look, it will be nothing short of a spectacular addition to the still-booming Fulton Market area of the West Loop. Seriously, this one’s fantastic. This one occupies a full Fulton block, bounded by Fulton Market, Green Street, Wayman Street, and Halsted Street. It’s between the Fulton Market District sign and what used to be The Mid nightclub, if that helps you get oriented.

When an office building looks like a place you’d want to live, that’s a good sign. Living there would be a great idea anyway. You won’t want to drive to work at 800 Fulton. There will only be parking for 34 cars. There will, however, be 150 bicycle-parking spots. And we all need the exercise.

Expect me to move into 800 Fulton in 2021.

: Reflection and shadow on GR333N

: December 2019

: December 2019

: December 2019

: December 2019

: December 2019

: December 2019

The Bentham is making progress in River North. But is it too much progress?

Posted on January 7, 2020 by danieldschell

The Bentham, 146 West Erie Street in River North

The Bentham, a condo tower at 146 West Erie Street in River North, took awhile to get started. After demolition of the Erie-LaSalle Body Shop had been completed early in 2017, the site remained vacant for much longer than expected. A permit to begin construction was issued in July of 2018, and yet, no construction commenced. It looked like The Bentham was dead.

Alas, a tower crane permit in August of last year meant The Bentham must have a little life left in her yet. And sure enough, work had finally begun on the 15-story, 31-unit condo tower. By December of 2019, the tower had reached about six stories in height.

Uh oh.

You see, on July 2 of 2018 the City of Chicago issued a foundation permit that states, and I quote:

DIR. DEV. SERVICES PERMIT FOR FOUNDATION THROUGH LEVEL 3 (PHASE1) WITH ENCLOSED PARKING FOR 53 SPACES (47 REQUIRED @ 1.5/D.U) AT 1ST -3RD FLOOR AND RETAIL SPACE OF 3,132 SQ.FT AT 1ST FLOOR LEVEL. FOR A FIFTEEN (15) STORY RESIDENTIAL BUILDING WITH 31 RESIDENTIAL UNITS (4TH – 14TH FLOOR). THE RESIDENTIAL PART WILL BE SUBMITTED UNDER SEPARATE PERMIT (PHASE 11).

So that’s a problem. The phrase about the residential part being submitted under a separate permit apparently hasn’t been issued yet. The orange STOP WORK ORDER slapped on The Bentham December 13, 2019 means nothing more is going to happen here until a permit is issued for the full build. Let’s hope this was nothing more than eagerness to get those condos ready, and all parties involved are already on the road to restarting work.

Something’s going down at LaSalle and Illinois — What’s going up?

Posted on January 6, 2020 by danieldschell

A tower crane permit was issued November 22nd by the City of Chicago for 151 West Illinois Street in River North. Guess what? There’s no tower crane at 151 West Illinois Street in River North. Nor is there one in the 400 block of North LaSalle. But that might change very soon.

Workers from Pepper Construction have been at this intersection the past couple days, getting the lot ready for what could be a new office building. Is it this one Curbed Chicago posted about back in February of last year? The one The Real Deal posted about in March? The one the Chicago Architecture Blog posted about in April? Cuz darned if I can find anything on my own. I can tell you that crane permit names Midwest Property Group as the developer, and Lendlease as the general contractor. And it looks like Pepper is the concrete contractor, so that would help explain their people and vehicle on site this week.

Here’s a dropbox presentation from Alderman Reilly’s office, shared in March of last year. Sure looks like a go to me.

I say, let’s go with the four above-named sources, and assume there’s an office building about to get started at LaSalle & Illinois in River North. Consider this my expressed written consent to start site prep. (In other words, tear up that parking lot.)

: The tower crane permit.

: The lot.

It’s Crane Time at Rush University Medical Center’s Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building

Posted on January 6, 2020 by danieldschell

Look at all that glorious tower crane gear. It’s time for the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building to start going vertical.

The Chicago Medical District is getting a new toy. Monday, crews were seen getting ready to erect a tower crane at 1520 West Harrison Street, the site of Rush University Medical Center’s Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building. Ground was officially broken back in June.

Designed by West Loop firm Nia Architects in collaboration with HDR, the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building will be a 10-story, 480,000-square-foot outpatient care facility at the corner of Ashland and Harrison. An elevated walkway over Ashland will connect the new $450,000-million building to the main tower of the hospital. The cancer center, and its accompanying 6-story parking structure, are expected to be open in Spring 2022. Power Construction is serving as the general contractor.

This is a wonderful story. Two amazing people donated a lot of money to bring this much-needed project to fruition. I’ve included several links below for you to learn more about it. I hope you’ll read them. You don’t need words from me; my job is to show you what’s happening from the fringes of the job site.

Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building

Rush University Medical Center

Nia Architects

Cotter Consulting

Crain’s Chicago Business

: Rendering of the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building from Nia Architects.

: Rendering of the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building from Nia Architects.

: What a view of the skyline this crane operator will have!

I Like Big Builds and I Can Not Lie — One Chicago Square Has It All

Posted on January 6, 2020 by danieldschell

A rendering of One Chicago Square from the JDL Development website. Dang.

One Chicago Square has it all right now. Construction has started going vertical above street level, but there’s also still a giant pit. There are yellow and orange wooden forms and beams, with blue fencing all around. Classic Chicago architecture, including Holy Name Cathedral and 30 West Chicago Avenue, provides spectacular photo backdrops. Giant round shoring tubes are still visible in the northwest corner. Excavating equipment is still on site. Oh yeah, and THERE ARE THREE TOWER CRANES!

I don’t use the designation “mixed-use” very often. Everything has retail space in it these days, so calling a residential tower “mixed-use” because there will be a drug store at street level isn’t really mixed-use to me. But One Chicago Square certainly qualifies, as it will include apartments and condos, office space, and retail space, all combined into its own city block.

Some project data: One 76-story tower, and one 49-story tower. More than 700 apartments, and 77 condos. 55,000 square feet of office space. Nearly 200,000 square feet of commercial space. And parking? Oh, lots of parking. Over 800 spaces.

And the team? All-Stars. JDL Development, with a hand from Wanxiang America, is the developer. Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture and Goettsch Partners have shared design duties. And Power Construction is the general contractor.

Yeah, One Chicago Square will be fun to watch for a long time. And then, it looks like it’ll be a fun one to live in. Stay tuned.

And now, a ridiculous number o’photos to keep you occupied. Scroll at your leisure:

: Is this a BBQ rig, McHugh?

Ground is broken and stirring at Union Station Tower

Posted on January 3, 2020 by danieldschell

Goettsch Partners rendering of Union Station Tower, or BMO Tower. Work has begun next to Union Station in the West Loop.

Cubs. Bulls. Bears. White Sox. Blackhawks. Most folks around Chicago know the names of those local teams. But there’s another team in town making a lasting impression on the city, and in particular, the city’s skyline.

Riverside Investment & Development, Goettsch Partners, and Clark Construction are teaming up again for the third in a trio of eye-popping office buildings along the Chicago River. Union Station Tower will join 150 North Riverside (completed in 2017) and 110 North Wacker (in progress, with completion slated for this year) in making Chicago River Architecture boat cruises much more attractive in the coming years.

They’re doing foundation work as we speak where that ugly parking garage used to be, next to the new CTA bus terminal in the West Loop. The lot, bounded by Clinton Street to the west, Van Buren Street to the south, Canal Street to the east, and the bus terminal to the north, is huge. And it looks even bigger despite the foundation equipment spread to all four corners. Heneghan Wrecking even has rigs on the site, as they finish up demolition work of the previously-mentioned ugly parking deck.

Now, about the tower. It’ll be 50 stories and 700 feet tall. There will be about a million-and-a-half square feet of office space, with a 1.5-acre public park at street level. Also known as BMO Tower, for its anchor tenant, its team celebrated with a groundbreaking ceremony December 20th. Completion and opening is expected in 2022.