The Columbia College Student Center at 8th Street and Wabash Avenue in the South Loop is a reality, as crews from Pepper Construction continue to work on the foundation. The Gensler design, when finished will provide 114,000 square feet of space for students over five levels.
A model of Hayden West Loop sits on display at the sales center on May Street in the West Loop.
The first building of the nine-story Hayden West Loop, a two-part project from Sulo Development, has reached the underside of its 8th level. Designed by Booth Hansen, it will bring 28 condominiums and 83 parking spaces. The second building is slated for a site around the corner on May Street. Macon Construction is the general contractor utilizing that shiny yellow Liebherr tower crane.
The following photo gallery shows progress from the first week of May, backwards through February.
Rendering from Pickard Chilton of a proposed boathouse at River Point.
An innocent Wednesday-morning tweet led me down a rabbit hole, and I eventually climbed out through the website of Pickard Chilton, the New Haven, Connecticut-based architecture firm known in Chicago for designing River Point and 300 North LaSalle, plus one of my out-of-town favorites, the Northwestern Mutual Tower in Milwaukee.
One item on the Pickard Chilton projects page in particular caught my attention; The Boathouse. A proposed development for Hines, The Boathouse was designed to go where River Point Plaza stands now. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not at all unhappy with either River Point or its plaza, but this boathouse would have been an awesome addition to the Chicago River. Maybe another location? It could look marvelous down on the South Branch too.
All of the following images of The Boathouse are from Pickard Chilton.
River Point Plaza, where The Boathouse would have been built. (B.U.C. image)
No. No they do not. Permits would signal the beginning of Equis of Old Town. But soil sampling rigs are a great sign. Heck, one is a good sign. Two must mean the condominiums on the former site of Noble Horse Theater and Stables are very close to beginning.
LG Development Group (Illume Chicago, The Ronsley) is bringing 1, 2, and 3-bedroom condos and residences, 175 units in total, to the now vacant lot bounded by Sedgwick, Schiller, and Orleans Streets. There are no permits yet, so we don’t know when construction will actually begin, but this is one to keep an eye on.
3833 North Broadway is gaining height in Lake View.
When we last visited 3833 North Broadway back in February, developer and general contractor DLG Management was toiling below grade, getting foundations wrapped up for this eight-story apartment and retail building. Now, work has risen one story above street level, so you can see progress from your car as you drive by, instead of having to stop and peer through the fence. The Jonathan Splitt Architects design will include 134 units, underground parking, and ground-floor commercial space.
Twelve01West is rising at 1201 West Lake Street in the West Loop.
The core is springing up from the middle of the lot at Twelve01West, the new seven-story office building at 1201 West Lake Street from McCaffery Interests. Probably because we finally got a (somewhat) warm, sunny spring day, and because W.E. O’Neil has that glowing tower crane at their disposal.
Designed by Antunovich Associates, Twelve01West got its foundation permit back in October, and a tower crane permit in January. The building will include 135,000 square feet of office space, and 11,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, plus parking for 45 vehicles. McCaffery plans an early 2019 opening.
61 East Banks has begun to rise at Lake Shore Drive and Banks Street.
61 East Banks is no longer a parking lot. Nor is it a ground-level construction site. Nope. Now that Leopardo Companies has a pretty yellow tower crane to rule over the land, 61 East Banks has now risen above street level in the Gold Coast neighborhood, on its way to eight stories and 60 new apartments.
Proof that the sun will still shine, even after a building is demolished.
Sure, there are tons of rubble to be removed. And still a lot of excavation to be done. But as for the building itself, the former Morton Salt Building, and more recently the GGP HQ, is history. Better get out there while you can and enjoy the unobstructed views of the Boeing Building, the Civic Opera House, and more, before work on the new 110 North Wacker starts going skyward. (It’ll be a while, though.)
This rendering from Gensler shows the sweet 5-story Columbia College Student Center just getting started in the South Loop.
We can confirm there won’t be a tower crane, but that won’t make the glass-encased Columbia College Student Center any less fun to watch. Case Foundation is out at the corner of Wabash and 8th in the South Loop as we speak, drilling caissons into the soil, and that work never requires a tower crane anyway.
57 rock caissons are precisely what Case is on the case for, according to a post from them back in February. After that, Pepper Construction starts sending the five-story, Gensler-designed facility vertical. Columbia College plans to have their new center open before 2018 closes.
In the distance, a tower crane rises at Twelve01West.
Maybe it wasn’t so great after all, if it’s already decided this early in the month.
Last week I speculated that March’s first tower crane would be erected at GEMS World Academy Upper School, since there had just been a stub planted on the Lakeshore East site. Little did I know that a stub had earlier been planted on the Twelve01West site at 1201 West Lake Street in the West Loop. Over the weekend, Central Contractors Service was over there assembling the tower crane. By my count, that would be Chicago’s 35th tower crane of 2018, and the fourth crane currently in the air for W.E. O’Neil.
Building Up Chicago 