Category Archives: 1-9 Stories

Ace Hotel discards its tower crane

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Ace Hotel

The tower crane’s gone from the Ace Hotel.

It’s a sign of progress to see how many tower cranes are sprouting throughout Chicago. It’s another sign to see how many of those cranes are disappearing from construction sites around town. Done with one job; on to the next.

The Ace Hotel at 311 North Morgan Street in the West Loop is one of the latest area projects to lose its tower crane. The GREC Architects-designed 159-key, seven-story boutique hotel is topped out, and Sterling Bay is looking to have full houses in the very near future. General contractor Power Construction is doing what it can to make that happen soon.

Like the bottom bun, McDonald’s foundation off to a good start

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McDonald's Corporation

Lots of irons in the fire at the new McDonald’s HQ.

With Harpo Studios a distant memory, foundation work is underway in the West Loop on what will be the new headquarters for the McDonald’s Corporation. And you know, you can’t start building a burger without a good bottom bun.

McDonald's Corporation

The foundation permit, issued November 7.

A foundation permit was issued by the city on November 7. Equipment from Michels Corporation (they did the caisson work on the newly-opened River Point Plaza) is tearing away at the soil in the block surrounded by Carpenter, Randolph, and Aberdeen Streets, and Washington Boulevard. Once that work is done, general contractor McHugh Construction will start going vertical with the Gensler-designed HQ.

The Cubs get a tower crane with 11 Ws

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Hotel Zachary Tower crane

The moon and the tower crane shine bright next to Wrigley Field, where the Chicago Cubs play baseball. They just won the World Series. Have you heard about that?

That’s right, it’s a towwwwwwwwwwwer crane. Because when you win the last three series of your season – 3 wins, then 4, then 4 more games – and finish 2016 as The World Series Champions, you use 11 Ws wherever you want to use them.

It’s not the Cubs Hotel, but the Hotel Zachary being built at 3630 North Clark Street in Lake View. It’s right across the street from Wrigley Field (perhaps you’ve seen something about that ballpark in the news recently) and its developer is Hickory Street Capital, an entity of the Ricketts family, who own the Chicago Cubs. So you see, it’s all connected. I think The Hotel Russell on Addison would be a better name, but I haven’t been asked for my input.

Anyway, the tower crane went up at some point during the Playoffs. I was too stressed by the Cubs not sweeping their 11 wins to notice much construction-wise around Wrigley. If you’ll recall, the Hotel Zachary will be a 7-story, mixed-use facility with 175 guest rooms (known as “keys” in some spaces), retail space, and several restaurants.

Remarkably, crews were still digging sand from the site on Monday. A quick survey of Walsh Construction workers (two of them) confirmed there is a surprising quantity of the stuff. Did Lake Michigan really extend as far west as Clark Street back in the day?

IMPORTANT REMINDER: EVERY TEAM IN EVERY MAJOR SPORT HAS WAITED LONGER FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP THAN THE CHICAGO CUBS!

 

Old 7-story brick building in Lincoln Park to be demolished for 7-story brick building

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700 West Fullerton

Scaffolding has been erected on the east facade of the Nellie A. Black Pavilion.

On the final day of October, the City of Chicago issued a demolition permit for the Nellie A. Black Memorial Pavilion, at 700 West Fullerton Parkway in Lincoln Park. Built in the 1932, it made Preservation Chicago’s “Chicago 7” list in 2016, along with its neighbor across the street, the Martha Wilson Memorial Pavilion. That building is already rubble, along with most of the old Children’s Memorial Hospital.

Crains' render 700 West Fullerton

The rendering from Crain’s Chicago’s story of the new Belmont Village Senior Living building. Look familiar?

Crain’s Chicago posted back in June that Chicago-based Harrison Street Capital and Houston-based Belmont Village Senior Living bought the building, with the intent of constructing a senior-living facility on the site. The rendering Crain’s included in the story, seen to the right, looks remarkably similar to the Nellie Black Pavilion. I could be oversimplifying things, but maybe that 80-year-old edifice could have been re-purposed for the senior living project? Eh, what do I know.

Monday, workers were constructing scaffolding on the facade. Expect dust and pallets of used bricks to follow shortly. American Demolition will do the dirty work.

West Loop lot ready for transition to McDonald’s HQ

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McDonald's HQ crane

Spotted: A yellow street crane is assembled on the future McDonald’s HQ site.

Yes, there’s still “demolition” work taking place on the former site of Harpo Studios in the West Loop. But only if you count the big hole Heneghan Wrecking has been digging as demo work. Because other than that, the block lying within Randolph, Carpenter, Washington, and Aberdeen is a smoothed-over dirt field, ready to play canvas to Sterling Bay’s development.

As we wait for the inevitable influx of equipment onto the McDonald’s site, a street crane (surface crane? We need a definitive name for non-tower cranes) has begun assembly.

Lakeview 3200 eyes March 2017 opening at Clark and Belmont

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Lakeview 3200

Lakeview 3200 nears completion at 3200 North Clark Street.

Located at 3200 North Clark Street in the heart of Lake View, the controversially-named** Lakeview 3200 is topped out and almost fully clad in glass. A design from Hirsch Associates, the new mixed-use development from BlitzLake Partners will deliver 90 apartments, 40 parking spots, 8,000 square feet of office space, and a Target-anchored 29,000 square feet of retail space upon opening. Clark Construction has been building Lakeview 3200 since late last year. A Dunkin Donuts had to be torn down to make way for the new project, but you can still get those Ann Sather cinnamon rolls across the street, so it all works out.

** The official map from the City of Chicago I rely on to determine which neighborhood a project is located in uses two words for “Lake View.” So that’s how I spell Lake View. Lakeview 3200 uses one word, obviously. It’s not really a controversy. It’s just a difference in preference.

Who expected a sandlot next door to Wrigley Field?

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Hotel Zachary

The Cubs Fly The W in the background, as construction continues at Hotel Zachary.

There’s been a curious discovery on the future site of the Hotel Zachary: Sand. Not a few grains in an hourglass. Tons of it. And more tons. The random sampling I took of Walsh Construction (two workers) revealed that no one was expecting to find so much sand on the lot. Makes me wonder if someone with an excavator didn’t exclaim “You’re killing me, Smalls!” at some point. (Google it, if you must)

Anyway, here are a few grainy (heh) photos of construction progress, most of which remains below grade.

P.S. Free idea for Walsh Construction – See if you can talk the Chicago Cubs into replacing that blue and white banner with a Big Green W.

 

 

Addison & Clark has a clean slate to start building

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Addison & Clark

Cubs star Kris Bryant supervises removal of the last pile of rubble on the Addison Park on Clark site.

Call it Addison & Clark.

Call it Addison Park on Clark.

Either way, it’s about ready to roll. The land once occupied by Starbucks, Red Ivy, Mullen’s, and others, has been scraped clean and smooth, allowing construction crews to get to work. Case Foundation already has caisson equipment ready to drill, and general contractor Power Construction should be swarming onto the site in the coming days. Their task is 148 apartments, a 405-space indoor parking garage, and a whopping 146,000 square feet of commercial space.

830 North Milwaukee is now Linkt

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Linkt Apartments

Linkt Apartments, 830 North Milwaukee Avenue.

For a long time, it was known by its address, 830 North Milwaukee. Now, the apartment development from Akara Partners in River West shall henceforth be called Linkt Apartments. (Just think, if they added a few hotel rooms, they could call a portion of it the Linkt Inn. We could all post our resumes in the lobby.)

The bKL Architecture-designed project brings 47 new luxury apartments over five stories to the neighborhood, with 24 parking spaces. Summit Design + Build is the general contractor, tasked with having Linkt Apartments ready in Spring 2017.

351 West Huron buries caissons in River North

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351 West Huron

Revcon Construction at work on 351 West Huron.

There’s a Revcon rig in River North on the site of 351 West Huron, the 6-unit condominium project from Regency Development Group. And that means caissons are being drilled and filled for the 7-story building designed by Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture. If you recall, this project sat idle for awhile, being finally moving forward in August with the addition of Summit Design + Build as the new general contractor.

If you’re not sure quite where 351 West Huron Street is, picture yourself on North Orleans, grabbing an Italian Beef from Mr. Beef, then heading next door to the Green Door Tavern for a beverage. 351 West Huron will sit immediately behind those two establishments. Mmmmmm, Italian Beef.