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.

Wandering Milwaukee: Honorable Tower Crane mention at the Pabst Brewery

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The Brewery Pabst site Milwaukee

I see you. I’ll get over there in a bit.

There sure seems to be a lot going on at, and around, the old Pabst Brewery complex in Milwaukee’s Westown neighborhood. Visitors might not notice construction happening here, were it not for the warning beacon of a crane hovering above the site. That’s what caught my eye during my July 1 visit, and what kept me wandering The Brewery grounds for the afternoon.

I don’t know if the City of Milwaukee considers this crane an official tower crane or not, but since you’d need a permit to fly that thing here in Chicago, I’m counting it.

Developer Joseph Zilber is responsible for rejuvenating the Pabst site. Go there. (The website, not The Brewery. But then you should definitely visit the Pabst grounds in Milwaukee.)

The Milwaukee Independent has a great story about the history of The Brewery redevelopment.

I won’t even try to explain what is taking place here, except to point out that it appears there are at least 18 buildings involved. That’s over-simplifying at best. What I can do is share some photos from my walk through the neighborhood, all the while applauding all involved creating what already feels like a fun place to live, work, and play, and will only get bigger and better in the coming years.

Look, it’s way too many photos. And in no particular order. I know that. But I get carried away some times. And you should know that I still left out more than I included.

Night time along the Wabash Avenue Tower Crane Corridor

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The Wabash Arts Corridor gets the bulk of the attention, but hovering over Wabash Avenue like superheroes are a number of Chicago’s working tower cranes. Yes, the South Loop is booming with development. Just like every other section of the downtown area.

There are only two good times to view construction: when there’s daylight, and when it’s dark. Here are some night shots of South Loop construction along and near Wabash Avenue.

Essex On The Park

Essex On The Park will be a 56-story, 476-unit apartment tower to the immediate south of the existing Essex Inn hotel. Power Construction is the general contractor. Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture is the design architect, with Oxford Capital Group the developer.

Homewood Hilton Suites

The Homewood Hilton Suites will be a 30-story, 281-room hotel. Lendlease is the general contractor. Lothan Van Hook DeStefano Architecture is the design architect. S.B. Yen Management Group is the developer.

Eleven40

Eleven40 will be a 26-story, 320-unit apartment tower, which may or may not be topped out now. Work has for sure reached the 26th floor. Lendlease is the general contractor. Solomon Cordwell Buenz is the design architect. CA Ventures and Keith Giles are the co-developers.

One Grant Park

East of Michigan Avenue but too close to exclude, One Grant Park will be a 76-story, 792-unit apartment behemoth with a possible future tower next door. James McHugh Construction is the general contractor. Rafael Viñoly Architects is the design architect. Crescent Heights is the developer.

1326 South Michigan

1326 South Michigan is the New Kid On The Corridor, and there isn’t much to see yet of this future 47-story, 500-unit apartment tower. Walsh Construction is the general contractor. Solomon Cordwell Buenz is the design architect. CIM Group and Murphy Development Group are the developers.

1407 On Michigan

1407 On Michigan will be a 15-story, 199-unit apartment building, with a Rush Primary Aid Specialty Care center on the ground floor. Lendlease (they’re really busy down here) is the general contractor. BKV Group is the design architect; Russland Capital Group is the developer. It, too, is very close to topping out.

Construction Progress: Wicker Park Connection 

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Wicker Park Connection

A growth spurt at the Wicker Park Connection, 1640 West Division Street.

When last we dropped in on the Wicker Park Connection, Linn-Mathes had just erected a tower crane, and construction was starting to poke up out of the ground. My, how times have changed.

Foundation work seems to be completed on the Centrum Partners & Hirsch Associates project, and now steel and slab work is approaching the fifth floor, on its way to 15 stories and 140 apartments.

A mini Hayden West Loop completes construction

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Hayden West Loop

There’s a sexy model on display at the Hayden West Loop.

On the 8th of this month, the City of Chicago issued a foundation permit for the Hayden West Loop, a nine-story, 28-unit condominium building at 1115 West Washington Boulevard in the West Loop. (I bet you’d already figured out the “West Loop” part, but I included it anyway. Clarity.) While the site, formerly part of the Harpo Studios campus, has been leveled in preparation for construction, we’re still waiting on work to begin.

However, what The Hayden has begun is a new sales office around the corner on May Street, featuring a model of the finished Booth Hansen project, complete with folks relaxing on their seventh-floor terrace. Proving, once again, that architectural models are cool, even when they aren’t skyscrapers.

**DISCLAIMER: Photos of the architectural model were taken, and are being used, with the permission of the staff at the sales center.

 

W.E. O’Neil erecting Chicago’s 31st tower crane at The Lincoln Common

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The Lincoln Common south tower crane

The Lincoln Common south tower crane makes its appearance in the Lincoln Park skyline.

It’s almost here.

Chicago’s 31st (and, eventually, 32nd) tower crane is just about ready to lift the heavy stuff at The Lincoln Common in Lincoln Park. W. E. O’Neil and Central Contractors Service have been on the site since Wednesday setting up the South Tower Crane. That means crew members are climbing around at scary heights, fastening what needs to be fastened, tightening what needs to be tightened. By the looks of progress, there’s no reason to believe Southy won’t be operational for work on Monday.

Still no sign of North Tower Crane, but I don’t want to sound greedy. We can just enjoy one for now.

1407 On Michigan is glassing up the South Loop

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1407 On Michigan

New glass of 1407 On Michigan hovers above the Chicago Firehouse Restaurant.

The newly-renamed 1407 On Michigan now has some newly-installed cladding to show off. The 15-story rental tower from Russland Capital Group looks to have reached the underside of the 15th floor, so it should be topping out very soon. Unless, of course, we missed a floor of the podium, and it already has topped out.

And that would mean Lendlease is that much closer to having the 199 apartments and 40,000 square feet of commercial space open. As you can see from the signage, Rush Primary And Specialty Care will be included in that space.

Russland originally planned to have 1407 On Michigan open before the year was out. There’s a lot of work to do in the next four months; we’ll see if construction extends into 2018, or if that goal will be met. Stay tuned.

Wandering Milwaukee: Will The Couture be Milwaukee’s next tower crane?

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The Couture Milwaukee

Signage proclaims The Couture’s arrival, as the newly-opened Northwestern Mutual Tower glimmers in the background.

Rumors are swirling around the Skyscraperpage forum that The Couture is about to begin construction on one of Milwaukee’s marquee corners.

On land that used to be the Milwaukee Transit Center, Barrett Lo Visionary Development is building the 44-story, 537-foot-tall residential tower in an ideal location between the Milwaukee Art Museum and Henry W. Maier Festival Park, home of Summerfest. Designed by the Milwaukee firm of Rinka Chung Architecture, The Couture will bring 600 new units to the lakefront location.

J.H. Findorff & Son is the general contractor. We just checked out some of their work at Marquette University, and we stayed in the newly completed Westin Milwaukee, last month. (We also profiled the Westin’s construction back in 2016.)

Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes sent over two great overhead shots of the site from the past, when it was still the MKE Transit Center, and the site now, which is a bare concrete slab. We noticed the empty slab, and The Couture signage, back in July. Here’s hoping that tower crane will still be there during Summerfest 2018!

First of two tower cranes begins at The Lincoln Common

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The Lincoln Common south tower crane

The south tower crane starts to rise at The Lincoln Common, seen from the Fullerton “L” platform.

On the red, purple, or brown line today? Take a look to the east from the Fullerton station, and you’ll see the first of two tower cranes being erected at The Lincoln Common. That’s where I spotted it from, because for some reason, I wasn’t staring at my phone as we pulled up. I jumped out and walked over to take a look.

And Twitter noticed. Users @kgburke3 andi @ChiBuildings (too early for a #FollowFriday? You should be following Chicago Cityscape for all things Chicago development) pointed out the street closure of North Lincoln Avenue between Belden and Fullerton Avenues through Friday for the big event. 

https://twitter.com/ChiBuildings/status/900581897985810432

https://twitter.com/kgburke3/status/900526288670216192

There’s still a lot of foundation work going on for this dual-tower, 540-unit mixed use project. W.E. O’Neil is the general contractor, and they’ve got a busy site in the works. You’ll see that in the photos below. No word yet though on when to expect the north tower crane to arrive.

With lofty expectations of 18 stories, the Aloft Chicago Mag Mile goes vertical

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Aloft Chicago Mag Mile hotel

The first of 18 floors is rising at the Aloft Chicago Mag Mile hotel in Streeterville.

The Aloft Chicago Mag Mile hotel has started poking up from the ground at 243 East Ontario Street in Streeterville. Tishman, the developer and general contractor, has work on the elevator core rising just above street level. The 18-story, 336-room hotel got rolling in January, with a demolition permit for the former Museum of Contemporary Art building.

Demo occurred in February, after which Tishman broke ground and began work on the new project. Foundation and tower-crane permits followed in March, with the full-build permit coming through in June. Tishman hopes to have the Aloft Chicago Mag Mile open in Winter 2018, which could be just over, or just under, one year from the start of demolition. That will depend on the actual opening date.