Category Archives: 10-19 Stories

Midwest Property Group has a foundation permit for 448 North LaSalle

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Who knows what the actual address will be, but in the follow-up to a tower crane permit being issued (way back in November) for 151 West Illinois Street in River North, a foundation permit was issued Wednesday for 448 North LaSalle. That permit allows for construction to begin through the first three levels of a 13-story building. The developer, Midwest Property Group, uses 430 North LaSalle as the address here, so we now have three different physical addresses related to this build.

I *think* this is going to be an office building, with retail space at street level. If so, ride to work, don’t drive. You’ll be able to park 40 or so of your bikes here, but no cars.

Lamar Johnson Collaborative is the design architect on 151/430/448. Lendlease is the GC. Crews have already been busy with site prep, tearing apart what used to be a dreaded surface parking lot.

Here’s a very clumsily-copied rendering I lifted from the pdf Alderman Reilly’s office shared with the public back in March.

320 North Sangamon adding 300,000 square feet of offices to Fulton Market

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SCB rendering of 320 North Sangamon.

320 North Sangamon is up off the ground and going vertical. The 13-story, 300,000-sq-ft office building is being developed by Tishman Speyer. As you may have already heard, the market for Fulton Market office space is going nuts right now.

Clark Construction is tasked with getting 320 North Sangamon ready for its 2021 opening. They know a thing or two about putting up office buildings; you may have heard of 150 North Riverside? 110 North Wacker? Union Station Tower? Yeah, I thought so.

320 is a design by Solomon Cordwell Buenz.

The following photos were taken January 1 and January 19.

Stuff That’s Done: Harrison Hall at UIC

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Harrison Hall, on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

While this blog was taking intermittent breaks over the past couple years, Chicago construction has gone on without us. The nerve, right? Many of the projects I started covering from their outset have wrapped up, and though there may be too many to get to, this is my attempt to show you some or those final results. I couldn’t think of a fancier title to use. Stuff That’s Done will have to suffice for now. This is the first of what may or may not be a series.

I wandered past Harrison Hall on the UIC campus this week. Cool piece of architecture. I last checked on it in June 2018. It was designed by SCB and built by Pepper Construction.

**NOTE** Stuff That’s Done may sometimes refer to projects that aren’t completely “done,” but are open.

Alta Grand Central nears its debut in the South Loop

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It’s been more than 18 months since we’ve checked in on Alta Grand Central in the South Loop. That was in June of 2018, just after Alta Grand Central had been announced on Instagram. Not surprisingly, it has gone from dirt lot to near-completion in that amount of time. 

The two 14-story, Pappageorge Haymes Partners-designed apartment towers contain 346 units. Wood Partners is the developer and Walsh Construction the general contractor, just like they were around the corner at Alta Roosevelt.

Alta Grand Central looks move-in ready from the outside, but we still need to wait a bit for the opening.

The Alta Grand Central construction site during our last visit, June 2018.

 

Fulton East is a first-glass act at 215 North Peoria

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Fulton East January 2020

New glass adorns Fulton East, at 215 North Peoria in the West Loop.

The glass has arrived at the topped-out Fulton East in the West Loop. (That’s right, east is west.) Fulton East is a 12-story office building being built by Clayco, and designed by Lamar Johnson Collaborative.

The developer, according to the permit issued by the City of Chicago and the construction banner on site, is “Peoria Green Owner, LLC.” That entity, according to Crain’s, appears to be Parkside Realty.

 

It’s a whole new block for 800 Fulton

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This building though.

If memory serves correctly, this is the first construction site I’ve covered for Thor Equities. But they must have gotten word that I’d be around, because 800 Fulton is really tough to get a good look at so far. Could be I’m just paranoid, but the fences seem too high, the foundation too deep, and heck, they’ve even gotten the weather to conspire against me with gloomy, overcast days.

Well, January brought some sunshine, so I’ve done the best I can. 800 Fulton is a 19-story office building designed by SOM. If this thing turns out the way renderings look, it will be nothing short of a spectacular addition to the still-booming Fulton Market area of the West Loop. Seriously, this one’s fantastic. This one occupies a full Fulton block, bounded by Fulton Market, Green Street, Wayman Street, and Halsted Street. It’s between the Fulton Market District sign and what used to be The Mid nightclub, if that helps you get oriented.

When an office building looks like a place you’d want to live, that’s a good sign. Living there would be a great idea anyway. You won’t want to drive to work at 800 Fulton. There will only be parking for 34 cars. There will, however, be 150 bicycle-parking spots. And we all need the exercise.

Expect me to move into 800 Fulton in 2021.

 

 

The Bentham is making progress in River North. But is it too much progress?

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The Bentham, 146 West Erie Street in River North

The Bentham, a condo tower at 146 West Erie Street in River North, took awhile to get started. After demolition of the Erie-LaSalle Body Shop had been completed early in 2017, the site remained vacant for much longer than expected. A permit to begin construction was issued in July of 2018, and yet, no construction commenced. It looked like The Bentham was dead.

Alas, a tower crane permit in August of last year meant The Bentham must have a little life left in her yet. And sure enough, work had finally begun on the 15-story, 31-unit condo tower. By December of 2019, the tower had reached about six stories in height.

Uh oh.

You see, on July 2 of 2018 the City of Chicago issued a foundation permit that states, and I quote:

DIR. DEV. SERVICES PERMIT FOR FOUNDATION THROUGH LEVEL 3 (PHASE1) WITH ENCLOSED PARKING FOR 53 SPACES (47 REQUIRED @ 1.5/D.U) AT 1ST -3RD FLOOR AND RETAIL SPACE OF 3,132 SQ.FT AT 1ST FLOOR LEVEL. FOR A FIFTEEN (15) STORY RESIDENTIAL BUILDING WITH 31 RESIDENTIAL UNITS (4TH – 14TH FLOOR). THE RESIDENTIAL PART WILL BE SUBMITTED UNDER SEPARATE PERMIT (PHASE 11).

So that’s a problem. The phrase about the residential part being submitted under a separate permit apparently hasn’t been issued yet. The orange STOP WORK ORDER slapped on The Bentham December 13, 2019 means nothing more is going to happen here until a permit is issued for the full build. Let’s hope this was nothing more than eagerness to get those condos ready, and all parties involved are already on the road to restarting work.

Something’s going down at LaSalle and Illinois — What’s going up?

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A tower crane permit was issued November 22nd by the City of Chicago for 151 West Illinois Street in River North. Guess what? There’s no tower crane at 151 West Illinois Street in River North. Nor is there one in the 400 block of North LaSalle. But that might change very soon.

Workers from Pepper Construction have been at this intersection the past couple days, getting the lot ready for what could be a new office building. Is it this one Curbed Chicago posted about back in February of last year? The one The Real Deal posted about in March? The one the Chicago Architecture Blog posted about in April? Cuz darned if I can find anything on my own. I can tell you that crane permit names Midwest Property Group as the developer, and Lendlease as the general contractor. And it looks like Pepper is the concrete contractor, so that would help explain their people and vehicle on site this week.

Here’s a dropbox presentation from Alderman Reilly’s office, shared in March of last year. Sure looks like a go to me.

I say, let’s go with the four above-named sources, and assume there’s an office building about to get started at LaSalle & Illinois in River North. Consider this my expressed written consent to start site prep. (In other words, tear up that parking lot.)

It’s Crane Time at Rush University Medical Center’s Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building

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Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building

Look at all that glorious tower crane gear. It’s time for the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building to start going vertical.

The Chicago Medical District is getting a new toy. Monday, crews were seen getting ready to erect a tower crane at 1520 West Harrison Street, the site of Rush University Medical Center’s Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building. Ground was officially broken back in June.

Designed by West Loop firm Nia Architects in collaboration with HDR, the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building will be a 10-story, 480,000-square-foot outpatient care facility at the corner of Ashland and Harrison. An elevated walkway over Ashland will connect the new $450,000-million building to the main tower of the hospital. The cancer center, and its accompanying 6-story parking structure, are expected to be open in Spring 2022. Power Construction is serving as the general contractor.

This is a wonderful story. Two amazing people donated a lot of money to bring this much-needed project to fruition. I’ve included several links below for you to learn more about it. I hope you’ll read them. You don’t need words from me; my job is to show you what’s happening from the fringes of the job site.

Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building

Rush University Medical Center

Nia Architects

Cotter Consulting

Crain’s Chicago Business

I’ve missed a lot; Milieu West Loop Edition

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Milieu on the Park

Milieu (on the Park?) has risen to its full height at Adams & Peoria (205 S. Peoria) in the West Loop.

The last time I walked around Milieu in the West Loop, Power Construction had just set up the tower crane. Now, the tower crane is gone, and Milieu (Is it Milieu on the Park? That’s what White Oak Realty Partners calls it. I kinda like it.) is up. The FitzGerald-designed apartment building is slated to open this summer.