Category Archives: 10-19 Stories

This crane’s Chicago business will be renovating the Thompson Center

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You can check one of those pending tower cranes off the waiting list. Clark Construction & team began erecting the tower crane at the Thompson Center this weekend. They got decent weather for late-January to do it, so hopefully there will be no setbacks through Sunday to getting setup complete.

This is the only tower crane operating in The Loop right now, and one of only six throughout the city. It joins Streeterville’s 400 Lake Shore in the downtown area, and four South Side cranes, including Project H.O.O.D. in Woodlawn, the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, and two at the AbbVie Foundation Cancer Pavilion in Hyde Park. It was permitted on July 03, 2024, with word on the site to expect assembly around Labor Day. That, of course, was four months ago, so we’ve been waiting on this one.

The Thompson Center, as I’m sure you know by now, is being renovated for Google. It has been completely stripped of its exterior skin, to be replaced by a much more energy-efficient glazing. If the building looks like a shell of its former self, that’s because it is. Google hopes to have employees move into the 17-story building mid-2026.

Lifting another section into place.
One block of Randolph Street is closed for the festivities.

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.

Glass is now in session at 919 West Fulton

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If you look about midway up 919 West Fulton, you’ll see the first level of glass, plus a little bit of the second, has been installed on the curtain wall. I don’t know when that got started, but the last couple times I’ve gone by here (on the L) I’ve been looking toward street level to see if there were any windows in yet. So I might be lucky I didn’t miss them this time. I was walking west on Fulton east of Halsted, and that’s when I first noticed it, just beyond the FULTON MARKET DISTRICT sign. you see above.

So that’s another milestone reached, with topping out and removing the tower crane already achieved. Congrats to the team of:

Skender – General Contractor
Adjustable Concrete – Concrete Contractor
Fulton Street Companies – Developer
FitzGerald – Design Architect
And everyone else on the build.

The 11-story, 530,000-square-foot office building is scheduled for completion in 2025.

Trigger Alert: The Thompson Center looks ravaged

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The Thompson Center is open to the sky, but not to the public, during reconstruction.

Fear not. The Thompson Center *still* isn’t being demolished; it just looks that way. Its transformation into Google offices has taken a toll on the tri-colored exterior, and while the replacement skin might not be as colorful, it will make the building much easier to heat and cool. But for now, it looks rather bare. I almost feel guilty for looking at it, much less taking pictures. But it looks pretty dang cool this way. Now, to get them to let me stand in the atrium before they get the new cladding on…

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.

Skender proclaims topping out of 919 West Fulton

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919 West Fulton has topped out. Photo courtesy of Connor Hirsch at Skender Construction.

A post Wednesday afternoon on Skender’s Instagram Stories announced the topping out of 919 West Fulton in the Fulton Market District. The West Loop office building, now at its ultimate 11-story height, topped out less than 10 months after receiving a foundation permit, on September 29 of last year. The official groundbreaking was held in December 2023.

Congratulations to Skender and their concrete partner Adjustable Concrete, developer Fulton St. Companies, and design architect FitzGerald.

As of Friday July 12, curtain wall installation hadn’t begun, so that’s the next big milestone to watch for.

All photo were taken July 12:

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.

First look at what’s coming to 1723 South Michigan

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1723 South Michigan rendering via Gensler.

Gensler has released renderings of the 12-story building under construction at 1723 South Michigan in the South Loop. I hadn’t seen even a hint of what this development was going to look like, so I’m grateful to Gensler for letting us have a peek.

1723 South Michigan started out as a 13-story building when first permitted last year. That’s changed, as of a revised permit issued in January. It’s now a 12-story, 149-unit building with 89 parking spaces built into the first two levels. There is no below-grade parking. There *is* ground-floor retail space, and lots of glass and balconies. What looks like a glass railing along the top of the building gives the appearance of a rooftop deck. We’ll have to wait on that detail.

1723 South Michigan is being built by Brandts Build, with Goebel Forming on concrete. (Not cement. Concrete.) CMK Companies is the developer, and Gensler, of course, is the design architect.

Oh, and those renderings show “1717” on the building. So maybe we’re in for a name change soon on this development. We’ll have more news on that as it…develops.

1723 South Michigan rendering via Gensler.
1723 South Michigan rendering via Gensler.
Revision permit via Chicago Data Portal.

Cladding is Darn Near Done at 633 South LaSalle

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Top off your glass for you? That’s what they’re doing at 633 South LaSalle, as the curtain wall/cladding/whatever you wanna call it rises up Q Investment Partners’ 18-story residential tower in the South Loop. Only about one-and-a-half floors remain in need of glazing.

Clark Construction has been working on this FitzGerald-designed development for awhile now, before and after a slight pause in the financing game, with the goal of having residents begin moving in next year. It looks more and more every day like they’ll easily meet that deadline.

As you’ll see by clicking on the Melrose Ascension Capital link above, 633 South LaSalle will have units starting under $1,700/month. For being so close to The Loop, that seems like a nice price.

Chicago’s newest tower crane goes to work at 1723 South Michigan

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There’s a new tower crane in town, picking stuff up and setting it back down, and it’s going to send 1723 South Michigan vertical. This 12-story, 149-unit rental building is being developed by CMK Companies. Along with retail space on the ground floor, the first three levels will include 89 parking stalls.

Congratulations to Brandts Build for their first tower crane on my count. Hopefully there will be a couple more one block west when this one’s finished. Shout-out as well to Goebel Forming, the concrete contractor here.

And now, the tower crane photos:

1723 South Michigan gets in on the tower crane fun

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The tower crane stub rises from the construction site at 1723 South Michigan in the South Loop

A tower crane base has been set at the 1723 South Michigan construction site. A long stroll down through the South Loop was timed perfectly, as it appeared the crane base was being planted in concrete Tuesday just before I got there.

Will this tower crane be erected in time to make it onto the June count? We started May with nine. The stub at 220 North Ada in the Fulton Market District and this one could get us to 11, sparing any others being taken down.

1723 South Michigan is a 12-story, 149-unit rental building being developed by CMK Companies. (They also have a couple sites a block west on South Wabash. Those should get going once the South Michigan property is well underway, if not completed.) Along with retail space on the ground floor, the first two levels will include 89 parking stalls.

Gensler is the design architect. Brandts Build is the general contractor, a company I’m adding to my tower crane count for the first time.

Permits received for 1723 South Michigan (they were issued some time ago) include:
Vertical pile — 150 of them — issued 07/11/2023
Foundation/partial superstructure — issued 08/14/2023
Full building — issued 09/05/2023

There is a permit pending for the tower crane; as of Tuesday May 21, that permit has not shown up on the City of Chicago’s issued permits page.

Cool look at demolition of the former 1723 South Michigan via Google.
Vertical pile permit issued 07/11/2023
Foundation/superstructure permit issued 08/14/2023
Full building permit issued 09/05/2023

919 West Fulton continues trending upward in the West Loop

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An overhead view of 919 West Fulton from Skender on Instagram.

As you can see from Skender’s Instagram post above, Fulton Street Companies‘ latest development, 919 West Fulton, an 11-story office building in the heart of the West Loop/Fulton Market District, continues its progress. All work is above street level now.

Photos were taken Monday, April 22:

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.

Glass goes up, tower crane comes down, at 633 South LaSalle

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Carl, working high atop the South Loop, taking down the tower crane.

There’s glass, but alas, the tower crane has passed. And so 633 South LaSalle attains a couple milestones of progress.

Friday and Saturday were the crane-removal days, as you can see in Carl’s Instagram video above (give him a LIKE). That’s Central Contractors Service’s rig out there wrapping up the dismantling. As for glass installation, that’s been going on for a couple weeks now.

As a reminder: Q Investment Partners and Melrose Ascension Capital are adding 358 beds (apartments and co-living units) to the South Loop, next to Metra’s LaSalle Street station. As long as all goes to plan from here on out, those beds should be sleep-in-able early in 2025.

Photos were taken on the second day of crane removal, April 6:

The newly-craneless 633 South LaSalle.

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.