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.

Chicago’s multi-tower-crane jobs are disappearing fast

Posted on July 1, 2018 by danieldschell

https://twitter.com/BuildUpChicago/status/1013204151285805056

A matter of mere days after I’d finally come to grips with no longer having two tower cranes at the new McDonald’s Headquarters in the West Loop, word came that the East Crane at Vista Tower was coming down. I made the pilgrimage over to Streeterville to take a few shots from across the Chicago River, turned to look behind me, and what else do I see? One tower crane at One Bennett Park! I appreciate everyone’s progress here, but noooooooo!

We’re counting on you to never finish, The Lincoln Common!

Vista Tower’s East Tower Crane is at half-mast.

What’s funny is, I took this photo earlier Saturday morning for the single crane at Vista Tower, not noticing the half a crane atop One Bennett Park.

Now seems like as good a time as any to revisit and celebrate the TEN TOWER CRANES(!) of Battersea Power Station in London, and the 5-pack of cranes at Jewel Residences in Gold Coast, Australia.

Please never leave us, Lincoln Common tower cranes! (Announcer voice: The Lincoln Common is almost topped out, so….)

Gone but not forgotten: Chicago Water Tanks no more

Posted on June 27, 2018 by danieldschell

https://twitter.com/BuildUpChicago/status/946815012810698752

Chicago’s water tanks are back in the news, thanks to a report from WGN’s Lourdes Duarte. I started scrambling to find what photos I didn’t lose in the Great Hard Drive Debacle of 2017. Here are a few tanks that have come down from the skyline in recent years.

***If you get really bored, you can do a fly-over tour of Chicago on Google Maps and find water tanks in older views that are still on the map, but have since been demolished. You’ll find a lot more than I have pictured here.

: The W.M. Hoyt Building, 465 W. Cermak Rd.

: 114 S. State St.

: 404 S. Wells St.

: 412 S. Wells St.

: 1217 W. Washington Blvd was just demolished, along with the rest of the building.

: Archer Daniels Midland grain silos, 1300 W/ Carroll St.

: 1500 N. Halsted St.

: Clybourn Lofts, 1872 N. Clybourn Ave.

: What is now The Ronsley, at 676 N. Kingsbury St.

: 2515 S. Wabash Ave.

: Clinton Street Lofts, 226 N. Clinton St.

: 1882 S. Normal Ave.

A Windows Update at Renelle on the River

Gallery

Posted on June 21, 2018 by danieldschell

This gallery contains 15 photos.

June must be 50s month in Chicago; Essex on the Park reaches another milestone

Posted on June 19, 2018 by danieldschell

46…47…you do the math. But that’s *at least* 50 where I was schooled.

Must be something in the water. All the spring rain, perhaps. Whatever it is, 50 seems to be a popular number in the Chicago skyline these days, as our population of new skyscrapers continues to grow up.

A close look at the numerals stenciled into the front of Essex on the Park show that it too, along with recent 50-achievers Vista Tower and NEMA Chicago, has reached the 50th level. For a 56-story apartment tower, that’s pretty darn close to topping out.

Congratulations to the team of Power Construction, Oxford Capital Group, and Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture, on achieving the milestone. Just a handful of floors to go.

Three Sixty West is making big progress in River North

Posted on June 19, 2018 by danieldschell

Progress continues upward at Three Sixty West, the new condo development from Belgravia.

The only problem I can find with this building is that it’s right up against another structure to the east, so you can’t walk a 360 around it.

Growth galore in River North, where Three Sixty West, the 11-story condo tower from Belgravia Realty Group, has climbed to the seventh floor.

In the GREC Architects-designed building where there will soon be 38 brand-spankin-new condominiums, Maris Construction is more than halfway up in progress at 360 West Erie Street. What that could mean is we might see glass installation beginning soon.

: Three Sixty West rendering from GREC Architects.

: Three Sixty West rendering from GREC Architects.

: Three Sixty West rendering from GREC Architects.

Chicago’s newest tower crane (for a few days) has risen at Milieu

Posted on June 18, 2018 by danieldschell

Glamour shots pic.twitter.com/XPqAufvOL9

— Alex Katz (@AT_Katz) June 15, 2018

If, as is rumored to be the case, the tower crane at 145 South Wells begins assembly today, then Milieu won’t have Chicago’s newest tower crane for very long.

But it’s The New Kid for now, after rising at 205 South Peoria in the West Loop last week. Power Construction will utilize it to build the FitzGerald-designed Milieu, a 19-story, 275-unit apartment development, for White Oak Realty Partners and Crayton Advisors.

Shout-out to Twitter user Alex Katz (@AT_Katz) for letting us know on Friday that the crane was up and running.

: Pool’s almost ready.

You can kiss the tower crane at 727 West Madison goodbye

Posted on June 18, 2018 by danieldschell

A patriotic ending to Lendlease’s tower crane at 727 West Madison in the West Loop.

Harrison Hall glasses up the joint at UIC

Posted on June 18, 2018 by danieldschell

Pepper Construction works on both the north-facing and south-facing facades of Harrison Hall at UIC.

Chalk up another milestone for Pepper Construction at UIC, where they’ve started putting windows on Harrison Hall. (This is neither the time nor place to argue that a university’s academic hall should be using Macs instead of installing Windows)

I don’t know why I didn’t make a “glass is in session” pun in the headline for this, but I more than made up for it with the Windows thing, dontcha think?

Anyway, topping out the concrete in late April and removing the tower crane last month are two other recent achievements Pepper can be proud of at Harrison Hall. Of course, the one that counts the most will be having the 151,000-square-foot, SCB-designed facility open for UIC students in the fall.

145 South Wells has planted a tower crane, which should be blossoming any minute now

Posted on June 18, 2018 by danieldschell

The tower crane stub (and wading pool?) is ready to go at 145 South Wells.

Today is expected to be the first day of assemblage for the tower crane at 145 South Wells, the 20-story boutique office tower Clark Construction is building for Moceri + Roszak in The Loop. We’ve waited a long time for a tower crane in what amounts to Chicago’s Central Business District. (We don’t call it that here, but I’ve always liked the way that sounds. Lots of other cities use it; why not us? Is it like putting ketchup on a hot dog? Doing the wave at Wrigley? Riding a bike on the sidewalk? Oh wait…everyone does that here.)

So here’s a quick look at that stub before it becomes a full-grown tower crane.

: Kinda looks like a mug shot with that background.

McHugh Construction Instagrams NEMA Chicago’s 50th

Posted on June 18, 2018 by danieldschell

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by McHugh Construction (@mchughconstruct)

There was another Golden Anniversary of sorts to celebrate last week, as McHugh Construction posted the above photo to their Instagram page announcing the start of Floor #50 at NEMA Chicago. The South Loop tower by Rafael Viñoly Architects, which started life as 1200 South Indiana, became One Grant Park, and has now settled in as a member of Crescent Heights’ NEMA franchise, will eventually grow to 76 stories.