The Embry tower crane stub. Don’t blink, or you’ll miss it.
The tower crane has been planted, and planted deep, at Embry in the West Loop. So deep, in fact, that I not been tipped off to the first segment being delivered (Thanks, @jrock1449!) I might have walked past the site without noticing it.
Okay, that’s ridiculous. I definitely would have still peered through the fence to see what was going on. But the crane really is planted deep in the ground, so the top base section sits below the height of the construction fence.
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An overhead view of 311 West Huron. (The Brown Line is my drone.)
There’s a new office building coming soon to the River North neighborhood, and equipment stands at the ready to dispense of the current surface parking lot and start construction on 311 West Huron.
311 West Huron is a joint venture between North Wells Capital and Urban Innovations. The 15-story building, designed by NORR, will include about 145,000 rentable square feet, and have 130 indoor parking spaces. Chicago Yimby has lots of details. And Crain’s reported in February that there’s already an anchor tenant lined up.
There are ground-breakers from Quality Excavation standing at the ready as we speak, with construction fencing all around the parking lot. It sure looks like they’re expecting to get started soon. Site prep and the first building permit seem imminent.
1044 West Van Buren was part of Chicago’s mini growth spurt of tower cranes in late May. And it’s doing what tower cranes do: turning empty lots into new buildings. This one in particular, designed by Antunovich Associates for Tandem (with Adjustable Concrete on concrete duty), will rise to 18 stories and deliver 196 apartments to the south end of the West Loop.
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Construction can be confusing when you don’t pay close attention. There’s a world of activity on a site one day, then the next day all the equipment is gone, the dirt’s been smoothed over, and it looks like the lot has been abandoned.
And that’s my segue for the first visit to 633 South LaSalle in the South Loop. 633 got its first permit back in May of 2019, allowing for construction of an 18-story, 117-unit residential tower. Then, crickets. That permit was reinstated in April of 2020, but, pandemic. Now, two new permits have been issued this spring: the first, for caissons, on March 31. The second, for the full building, on May 10. These two latest permits have a new general contractor: Clark Construction. Berkelhamer and FitzGerald are the architecture firms. The Collective in NYC is the developer.
So that’s the permit sitch. What I can’t speak to is the progress. Like I said, construction can be confusing if you’re not paying attention. The current state of the 633 South LaSalle site looks like the caisson aftermath, when the slate looks clean and ready for foundations to be dug. But I can’t find anyone with caisson photos on the web. (I’m not the only one taking photos of such things, you know.) As a result, I can’t even tell you whether work has begun here.
Bonus gallery: The buildings on either side of 633 are magnificent.
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It’s tough to see the demolition work Taylor Excavating has started at 210 North Aberdeen (fences and angles and whatnot), so the video above, taken from an outbound CTA train, was the best chance to watch. Soon, Taylor Excavating will bust through the backs of the buildings along May Street for better spectating.
LG Group has approval for 210 Aberdeen, a NORR-designed 19-story, 363-unit apartment project in the West Loop. To make way for it, demolition permits were issued May 11 for 213, 215, and 221 North May Street (the aforementioned “backs of buildings) as well as partial demolitions for 210 and 214 North Aberdeen. The original Arthur Harris & Company building, which encompasses both those Aberdeen addresses, is being preserved. Only the small addition on the south end of the building is being removed.
The handsome Arthur Harris & Company building stays put.See what I mean about fences?The backs, along May Street.
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Caissons are done, but foundation work continues for Embry at 21 North May in the West Loop. A 270-degree tour around the site last week shows piles have been driven into the ground, and a bunch more sat at the ready for their turn in the soil. That’s the firm of McHugh & McHugh (Construction & Concrete) on the job out there, getting this 16-story, 58-unit condo building from Sulo Development ready to go vertical. And remember, they’ll be getting a shiny yellow Liebherr tower crane soon, too.
The 18-story, 196-unit apartment tower by developer and general contractor Tandem took a big step forward this week, planting a tower crane stub in the ground at 1044 West Van Buren in the West Loop. The crane will be erected early next week, I’m told, in what looks to be nice weather.
My first visit here was April 7; I went back May 1 and saw some digging had been done. The kind of digging you expect *after* caisson work is done; the kind of digging that makes you think “hole up; did I miss caissons?” Yep. Somehow, I completely missed caisson work, which must have been done with lightning speed. Oh well. You snooze, you miss out. Or something.
Here are more stub pics, and a few shots of foundation work from the May 1 visit:
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Sure, if you’re a neighbor along the first block of North May Street, you can feel the progress (to which one friend has attested.) For the rest of us, the best way to find out if caisson work on Embry (21 N May St) has begun in the West Loop is to go take a look. We went. We saw. We photographed.
McHugh Construction and McHugh Concrete, general and concrete contractors, respectively, got the full permit to build on April 5. A demolition permit to get 25 North May out of the way was issued January 28. We’re hoping to see a tower crane permit any day 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.
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.
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