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.

🏗 Tower cranes up; tower cranes down. Chicago’s count returns to 32 🏗

Posted on June 23, 2017 by danieldschell

The boom giveth; the boom taketh away. After several weeks of activity in Chicago’s tower-crane skyline, what was as many as 35 active tower cranes has settled right back to 32, the same count we had in early May.

New to the list since May’s count:

Aloft Chicago Mag Mile
No. 508 (508 West Diversey)
Marlowe (675 North Wells)
One South Halsted
Cook County Central Campus Health Center (1950 West Polk)

Gone from May’s count:

171 Aberdeen
8 East Huron
DePaul School of Music
Hotel Zachary
3Eleven

Three projects have tower-crane permits:

Nobu
Essex On The Park (stub planted)
1326 South Michigan (stub on site, not planted yet)

Chicago’s 32 active tower cranes, from south to north (roughly):

: Solstice On The Park

: Triple-Branded Hilton (at McCormick Place)

: 1411 South Michigan

: One Grant Park

: 1136 South Wabash

: 1101 South Wabash

: Alta Roosevelt

: Ancora at Riverline

: Cook County Central Campus Health Center

: 625 West Adams

: Illume Chicago

: One South Halsted

: McDonald’s Headquarters

: Vista Tower

: The Apple Store

: Hubbard221 & 412 North Wells

: 465 North Park

: One Bennett Park

: Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center

: Aloft Chicago Mag Mile

: Marlowe

: No. 9 Walton

: Old Town Park (at Atrium Village)

: Wicker Park Connection

: Addison & Clark

: No. 508 (508 West Diversey Parkway)

: Elevate Lincoln Park

: Eight Eleven Uptown

Throwback Thursday: London’s One Blackfriars

Posted on June 22, 2017 by danieldschell

One Blackfriars rises along the River Thames in London. This photo was taken from the Monument to the Great Fire of London, a great way to see the city.

One month ago we were in London, marveling at architecture old and new. And there’s a whole lot of new on the way. One of those projects is One Blackfriars. Like much of what’s being built right now around London, it is very distinctively shaped, and gorgeous.

One Blackfriars is a development from Berkeley Group. The 50-storey (no stories here; this is London, after all) glass tower will have 274 apartments and 161 hotel rooms along the south bank of the River Thames. The design is by the architecture firm of SimpsonHaugh and Partners. The general contractor (seriously, as I wandered London and saw this name on lots of new construction, I thought each one would include a large movie-theatre complex. Silly tourist.) is Multiplex. Multiplex is not a place to watch films and eat popcorn; Multiplex is a massive global construction company.

5 Things To Do In Chicago

Posted on June 21, 2017 by danieldschell

1. Watch tower cranes being erected.

Crews erect a tower crane at the McDonald’s HQ site.

2. Watch tower cranes being taken down

Crews take down a tower crane at 8 East Huron.

3. Watch tower crane stubs being planted in the ground

Crews plant a tower crane stub at Marlowe.

4. Watch demolition crews demolish buildings.

Crews demolish a building at Rush University Medical Center.

5. Pizza and Italian beef

Demolition permit at 4646 North Damen Avenue clearing the way for a new TOD?

Posted on June 21, 2017 by danieldschell

As you can see in this photo from the Damen Brown Line platform, 4646 North Damen Avenue is very close to the Damen Brown Line platform.

A demolition permit issued Tuesday by the City of Chicago for the property at 4646 North Damen Avenue in Ravenswood may be the sign of a new Transit Oriented Development.

Chicago Cityscape had the story (with help from Eric Rojas) back in February. Drawings on the 47th Ward website show a 4-story, 9-unit building with ground-level retail space.

If you’re not familiar with the TOD, know that the basic criteria is to be in close proximity to a CTA L or Metra stop. 4646 North Damen is within roughly 30 feet of the Damen Brown Line, so yeah, it qualifies.

4646 North Damen Avenue. I use this station 10 times each week. I’ve been watching for this one.

The Demo Permit

Alta Roosevelt fills in its final floor

Posted on June 21, 2017 by danieldschell

https://twitter.com/thebiggreenw/status/874345009591578626

Like a video-game master, Alta Roosevelt has reached the top level at 801 South Financial Place in the South Loop. The above tweet, from June 12, shows concrete crews pouring the last of Alta’s main floors. There will still be steel added on top for the penthouse, but you won’t see concrete trucks moving in and out of the 33-story apartment tower any longer.

Designed for Wood Partners by Pappageorge Haymes Partners, Alta Roosevelt is delivering 496 rental units with 348 parking spaces to the site immediately north of the new British School, between River City and the Metra rail tracks. Walsh Construction has been on the job since site prep began back in march 2016.

: The empty lot at 801 South Financial Place.

: Site prep, March of 2016.

Quick Look: The continuation of Byrne Circle – Congress Parkway work

Posted on June 21, 2017 by danieldschell

The Jane Byrne Interchange.

Work on the Jane Byrne Interchange continues on the west side of downtown Chicago. Currently, the center lanes of Congress Parkway are a skylight over Clinton, Jefferson, and Desplaines Streets as they’re rebuilt, while supports have been started for the exit ramp that will eventually connect the inbound Dan Ryan to Congress.

And now, random photos:

: The pool’s ready.

: The exit ramp off the inbound Dan Ryan Expressway.

412 North Wells climbs and curves into River North

Posted on June 20, 2017 by danieldschell

412 North Wells follows the curve of the CTA’s elevated railway.

412 North Wells, the nine-story office building from Centrum Partners and Hirsch Associates, continues to grow along, and with, the CTA’s Brown/Purple Line tracks in River North. Wedged as it is into the oddly-shaped lot at the corner of Wells and Hubbard Streets, 412 North Wells has no choice but to follow the path of the trains next to it.

If we’re grading on a curve, the future office tower gets an A so far. And just wait until that rounded wall gets all glassed in.

Ten months after the demolition permit, a Chicago Water Tank disappears

Posted on June 20, 2017 by danieldschell

Very little remains of the water tank at 809 North Racine Avenue.

It held on as long as it could. So long, in fact, that I had forgotten to be vigilant. But a Sunday stroll along Grand Avenue, a peek to the north, and it was gone. The Chicago Water Tank at 809 North Racine Avenue has been demolished, reduced to little more than a kiddie pool.

Since I’d stopped paying close attention, I don’t know when it happened, but I can only assume it was last week. And there’s still some work to be done on it.

Slated for demolition back on August 30 of 2016, this tank had staying power.

We can no longer be amused by you.

625 West Adams puts a ring on it

Posted on June 19, 2017 by danieldschell

Power Construction is doing everything they can to make 625 West Adams look like its renderings. Monday morning, a piece was set in place to form the oculus that will be featured on the upper of two outdoor terraces.

: This rendering of 625 West Adams shows what the oculus will look like when finished.

1001 West Chicago (Spoke) buttons up the exterior

Posted on June 19, 2017 by danieldschell

Spoke, at 1001 West Chicago Avenue, as well as 728 and 738 North Morgan Street. Yeah, it’s big.

Perhaps you’ve heard folks speak of Spoke, the mixed-use development from Bond Companies formerly referred to as 1001 West Chicago, on the grounds of the former Gonnella Baking Company. Though we haven’t Spoken to an official Spokesman for Spoke, it has its own website now, so that name must be official.

I made the Spokes of a Divvy bike go round and round to get up to River West and check on Power Construction’s progress. With the tower crane long gone (Spoke topped out on March 9), glass and brick have taken over the site, and the exterior is close to being finished. The FitzGerald Associates design for the dual-tower project brings 15- and 13-story buildings containing 363 apartments, 300 parking spots, and 10,000 square feet of retail space.