The Cassidy Tire building is disappearing, from the southwest corner inwards.
Piles of beams. Piles of bricks. Piles of pallets for the piles of bricks.
Besides seeing so much of the building missing, that’s what stands out at the Cassidy Tire demolition site at 344 North Canal. The bricks, obviously, will be reused; you don’t spend hours and hours like the three-man crew was doing Sunday to palletize those if you’re not going to reuse them. As for the beams, hopefully they’ll find a new purpose somewhere. A few of the zoom-in shots I’ve gotten during the demo process have shown those old wood beams looking as perfect as the day they were set in place.
In case you’re wondering, yes. I’ll likely return to this site every weekend until there’s nothing left to see, much like I did when the ADM Milling Company was torn down in the far West Loop. There’s something perversely fascinating about demolition, about seeing a structure laid open, exposed for all to see. Maybe it’s wrong to keep staring, to keep capturing close-ups from every angle. But I can’t look away.
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A permit was issued May 23rd for a five-story “inpatient hospital building” at 516 South Loomis. Earlier anticipation of this project may show an address of 1400 West Harrison. Either way, this is the place. Rush is developing the hospital along with Select Medical.
This is what Rush had to say in a news release for the groundbreaking:
Select Medical and Rush University System for Health held a ceremonial ground-breaking to celebrate the new RUSH Specialty Hospital being built on Chicago’s West Side.
The 100-bed facility will be a combined critical illness recovery and inpatient rehabilitation hospital on the RUSH University Medical Center campus. The hospital is slated to open in 2024 and will feature 44 critical illness recovery and 56 inpatient rehabilitation beds.
“It is the beginning of what will be excellent care for our community,” said RUSH CEO Dr. K. Ranga Rama Krishnan.
To celebrate the construction of the future hospital, RUSH and Select Medical executives were joined by local leaders, including 28th Ward Alderman Jason C. Ervin and Illinois state Rep. Lakesia Collins.
“It’s a phenomenal partnership that speaks to innovation and brings patients the care they need when, where and how they need it,” said RUSH University Medical Center President and CEO Dr. Omar Lateef.
Together as partners, Select Medical and RUSH are delivering a world-class acute to post-acute continuum of care for Chicagoans.
“The promise of excellence is often achieved through our joint ventures,” said Tom Mullin, executive vice president of hospital operations for Select Medical.
In addition to the new RUSH Specialty Hospital, Select Medical contributed 63 of its outpatient centers to the joint venture. Today, those locations are rebranded RUSH Physical Therapy, and the footprint has expanded to 71 centers, including 19 dedicated to pediatrics under the RUSH Kids Physical Therapy brand.
Power Construction is the general contractor, with assistance on concrete from Adjustable Concrete Construction. Stalworth Underground rigs are on site drilling caissons. Like I said, this is a very busy two-block area, with the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building nearing completion, along with its adjoining parking garage. The photos below include all three projects.
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Ride the #80 bus past 4445 West Irving Park Road and you won’t see many new signs of construction on Northwestern Medicine’s 4-story facility. But get off the bus and take a peek into the abyss and you’ll see there’s a lot going on below street level. The block-long site still looks like a deep excavation, but not nearly as deep as the first visit back in April.
Enjoying the photos? Metra and CTA rides (and Amtrak trains to Milwaukee), Zipcars, Divvy Bikes, camera lenses, domain fees, snacks & energy drinks, and comfortable walking shoes add up. You can help offset expenses by making a greatly-appreciated donation to Building Up Chicago.
Want to spot the tower crane but don’t have time to stop for it? Take a Brown Line train north out of the Belmont Station, then have your camera ready as you go over the Red Line Bypass. Don’t have time to do even that? Stare at the photo above.
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Some architecture is tired, as some is *for* tires. The Cassidy Tire building at 344 North Canal was, at least for the last part of its life, the latter. I went back Memorial Day weekend, twice, to see Atlas Industries’ demolition progress, both in daylight and after dark. Sadly, I was the one holding the camera, so the night shooting wasn’t terribly successful. But you get the gist.
See what I mean?
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Atlas Industries continues their work bringing down the former Cassidy Tire at 344 North Canal. These were taken Thursday, so there’s even more demolition/less building now
Enjoying the photos? Metra and CTA rides (and Amtrak trains to Milwaukee), Zipcars, Divvy Bikes, camera lenses, domain fees, snacks & energy drinks, and comfortable walking shoes add up. You can help offset expenses by making a greatly-appreciated donation to Building Up Chicago.
The base section of a tower crane was set in pace Thursday at 732 West Randolph.
What an embarrassment of tower-crane riches we’ve along Randolph Street in the West Loop. Even though recent rigs at 609, 1371, 1400 and 1454 are gone, we have cranes operating at the corners of Randolph and Peoria (900 Randolph), Randolph and Aberdeen (166 North Aberdeen), and Randolph and Elizabeth (160 North Elizabeth.)
And now, 732 West Randolph has entered the chat. Thursday, general contractor Maris Construction and concrete contractor Pepper Construction planted the base for a tower crane that will build an eight-story (plus basement) office building. Designed by Hirsch MPG, 732 will connect on its first six floors with 730 West Randolph next door, and will include a rooftop deck and basement fitness center.
732 West Randolph got its first construction permit way back on March 03, 2020, as a renovation/alteration permit to add the eight-story building to the aforementioned six-story building at 730 West. A revised New Construction permit was issued September 23 of 2022. Both of those permits were reinstated in August of last year, and the tower crane was permitted February 1 of this year.
As you can see, work is in progress. All that rebar around the base of the crane will be smothered in concrete for the crane foundation on Monday.
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Demolition of the former Cassidy Tire at 344 North Canal began last week. Atlas Industries is doing the demo work for McHugh Construction, who will build the new 344 North Canal residential tower on this site.
From a Metra train
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An active day at 411 West Chicago, the east “half” of HUGO
Foundation work is complete at River North’s HUGO residential development, and now developer-slash-general-contractor LG Group is beginning the groundwork for the two nine-story buildings designed by NORR.
The west half of this project, 751 North Hudson, got a hoist permit Wednesday; the 411 West Chicago side got one a day prior. Building permits were issued (751) July 14 and (411) August 5, 2021.
You can see photos of work at both sides of the HUGO equation below, along with the Pesky Building In The Middle (previously known as 415 West Chicago) they’ll surround.
Enjoying the photos? Metra and CTA rides (and Amtrak trains to Milwaukee), Zipcars, Divvy Bikes, camera lenses, domain fees, snacks & energy drinks, and comfortable walking shoes add up. You can help offset expenses by making a greatly-appreciated donation to Building Up Chicago.
They say don’t count your chickens if the eggs are all in one basket. Or something to that effect. Whatever. Point is, maybe I shouldn’t call what 3501 North Halsted has a “tower crane” just yet. But we love cranes. We need cranes. So we’re counting this one as being up in the air, even if it’s (obviously) not functional yet. My trusty iPhone6 took some photos Tuesday afternoon so you wouldn’t have to.
Building Up Chicago 