Author Archives: danieldschell

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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.

A zillion construction photos of Jewel Residences Gold Coast you knew were inevitable

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Jewel Residences Gold Coast

Construction on Jewel Residences Gold Coast, from the beach.

You’ve seen the names of the five tower cranes, and you’ve seen them lit up at night. Now, it’s time to get a good look at Jewel Residences construction in the light of day.

Yes, I went by this construction site three times; it’s that good. So to accompany the nighttime photos and tower-crane close-ups you’ve already seen, here are a metric ton of pictures taken both in morning, and late afternoon, sunlight.

As a reminder, Jewel Residences is a three-tower development along Surfers Paradise Beach in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It will include more than 500 apartments and a 171-room Wanda Vista Hotel. It’s being developed jointly by two firms from China:  Wanda Group and RDG. The design is by DBI Design, and Multiplex is the builder.

Jewel Residences Gold Coast

Follow the tower cranes down Surfers Paradise Beach to Jewel Residences.

There should be a prize if you make it through this entire galley.

Wolf Point East digs in for the long haul

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Wolf Point East

Excavation crews work atop the trestle bridge as digging continues at Wolf Point East.

Wolf Point East was one of my first stops upon returning to Chicago. Mostly to see that trestle bridge in action, but also to see how much progress Walsh Construction has made on one of the city’s newest skyscrapers. No surprise that the bridge is being used to help with the deep excavation going on now. Truckload after truckload of dirt and mud and Chicago River muck is being hauled away, while diggers great and small eat away at the earth between the bracing.

We should be keeping an eye out for a tower crane permit at Wolf Point East. It could be coming any day now.

A site almost missed, Melbourne’s Collins Arch will be a sight to behold

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Collins Arch Melbourne

The four tower cranes of Collins Arch. Think that’s cool? Just wait ’til you see renderings.

I wouldn’t normally post about tower cranes I saw from the back seat of a tour van (it’s a long story), but Collins Arch in Melbourne’s Central Business District isn’t your typical development. It was the four tower cranes that got my attention, but it was the fabulous renderings that made me a fan.

Collins Arch is being developed by Cbus Property. The architecture is the work of SHoP Architects and Woods Bagot. Multiplex is the builder. Completion is expected in 2019.

 

Home2 Suites has a stub; expect the tower crane this weekend

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Home2 Suites River North

Home2 Suites River North is getting a pretty yellow tower crane this weekend.

The Home2 Suites at 110 West Huron in River North planted a tower crane stub some time during my absence, and we’re being told here at B.U.C. that crews will begin assembling the full tower crane Friday.

You’ll remember that the Home2 Suites River North will be a 17-story, 185-room hotel being developed by Akara Partners and designed by NORR. Stalworth Underground was out there doing caissons work last time we stopped by, but they’ve completed those and moved on. That means  M.A. Mortenson Company has come down from Wisconsin to take complete control of the build.

🏗 Chicago begins November with 32 tower cranes in the air 🏗

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As you know, I missed most of October in Chicago. And with only one day to catch up, the easiest way to gather up tower crane pictures was to head up 103 floors to Skydeck Chicago. It is from there that you’ll see 28 of Chicago’s 32 active tower cranes. Three of them: the two at Vista Tower, and the 2nd crane at One Grant Park, are hidden from view. The other, at 210 North Carpenter, I just plain whiffed on and missed.

New since October’s count:

  1. 210 North Carpenter
  2. The Van Buren (808 West van Buren)

Gone from October’s count:

  1. Cook County Central Campus Health Center (1950 West Polk)
  2. Eleven40 (1136 South Wabash)
  3. Marlowe (675 North Wells)

Coming soon:

  1. Home2 Suites (110 West Huron; stub is planted)
  2. Hayden West Loop (1109 West Washington; permit issued 09/07, stub expected this week)
  3. 3833 Broadway (permit issued 09/06)
  4. The Bentham (146 West Erie; permit issued 09/11)
  5. Renelle on the River (403 North Wabash; permit issued 10/10)
  6. **Simpson Querrey (35-ton Derrick for removal of South Tower Crane; it needed a permit [09/06], so it needs to be on the list!)**

Who has tower cranes:

  1. Lendlease – 8
  2. Power – 7
  3. McHugh – 6
  4. W.E. O’Neil – 2
  5. Nine general contractors have one tower crane apiece: Leopardo (210 North Carpenter); Macon (No. 508); Linn-Mathes (Wicker Park Connection); Onni Group (Old Town Park); Tishman (Alofty Chicago Mag Mile); Pepper (Moxy Hotel); Centaur (Nobu Hotel); Norcon (Illume Chicago); Walsh (1326 South Michigan; Wolf Point East soon?)

What are they building:

  1. Residential – 21
  2. Hotel – 7
  3. Office – 2
  4. Medical – 2

Where are they:

  1. West Loop – 8
  2. South Loop – 7
  3. Streeterville – 6
  4. New East Side – 2
  5. Lincoln Park – 2
  6. Lake View – 2
  7. Five neighborhoods have one crane apiece: River North (Moxy Hotel); Uptown (Eight Eleven Uptown); Wicker Park (Wicker Park Connection); Near North (Old Town Park); Gold Coast (No. 9 Walton)

The newest tower crane in Chicago is The Van Buren.

The oldest tower crane in Chicago is…complicated. I’ve got evidence of the Old Town Park crane being assembled on August 2, 2016. And I’ve got evidence of a completed crane at Simpson Querrey on August 4, 2016. Since I don’t know for sure which was operational first, let’s call it a tie.

Here are Chicago’s 32 tower cranes at the start of November 2017:

 

 

Tower-crane hunting from Brisbane’s Victoria Bridge

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I prepped for our Australia trip the same way I do for every city I visit; I jumped on Google Maps and tried to find the most advantageous spots for seeing tower cranes. (Actually, I don’t do it just for travel. I do that in cities all over the world, whether I have travel aspirations there or not.)

I found a great spot in Brisbane, Victoria. As you can see in the tweet below, I spotted 20 tower cranes from the Victoria Bridge by scanning 360 degrees from the span across the Brisbane River.

https://twitter.com/BuildUpChicago/status/909910318675103744

Even so, I still got there a little too late; a tweet from June 2016 claims 26 cranes were visible from the bridge:

https://twitter.com/mattdennien/status/747312201963167744

Obviously, I knew I had to make the pilgrimage. Alas, “all” I found were 19 tower cranes. Pretty impressive for standing in one spot (about 4/5 of the way across toward South Brisbane.

Without context, here they are:

 

Lendlease rolls a Lucky Seven at Darling Square in Sydney’s Darling Harbour

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Darling Square 7 tower cranes

Spotted from the Sydney Tower Eye: The Seven Tower Cranes of Darling Square, by Lendlease.

Please know for certain that I didn’t see every construction project in Australia. Come on. Two weeks? Just not enough time. But of what I saw, this one easily takes the award for Most Tower Cranes.

Darling Square is a mixed-use project being developed and built by Lendlease. Located along Sydney’s famed Darling Harbour, Darling Square will be comprised of many, many parts. So many parts, in fact, that I don’t know if I’ve got them all straight. The main portion of the development will have three towers of 41, 19, and 7 stories, and a 6-story podium, per design architects Tzannes Associates. There will be 581 apartments located here.

The Darling Exchange

Rendering of The Darling Exchange from Kengo Kuma and Associates.

Darling Square will also include a public square, designed by Aspect Studios; a community hub called The Darling Exchange, designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates; and two retail pavilions designed by Archer Office. No wonder they need 7 tower cranes on the site.

And if all that doesn’t sound like enough of a task, Darling Square necessitated the demolition of a 13,000-seat stadium, Qantas Credit Union Arena (previously known as The Sydney Entertainment Centre) in order to clear space for the project.

Whether you’ve been able to process all of that info or not, here comes the photo gallery:

Students from the Mudgeeraba Special School named the five tower cranes at Jewel Gold Coast

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Monday’s post showed you four lighted tower cranes at Jewel Residences on Surfers Paradise Beach in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. As I mentioned in that story, Multiplex has five tower cranes in total at the job site, and they all have names. The video above, from 9 News Gold Coast, gives you some of the back story on where the names came from. And it’s fantastic.

Using five tower cranes, lighting four of them up at night, *and* involving special-needs children from Mudgeeraba Special School in naming them? Take a bow, Multiplex. Very well done.

 

You can check up on progress at 900 West Washington via construction cam

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900 West Washington

Here’s a screenshot from Earthcam at 900 West Washington in the West Loop.

Just because your favorite construction bloggers go away on vacation doesn’t mean  you have to miss out on progress around Chicago. Many projects have webcams set up to let us all peek in on the goings-on.

We got an email from Earthcam this morning making sure we knew about the camera watching over 900 West, at 900 West Washington in the West Loop. All you need do is go to the development’s website here and click on the “VIEW CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS” link, and you’re right on top of the action.

Thanks for the heads-up, Earthcam!