Category Archives: 100+ Stories

🏗 Chicago begins November with 32 tower cranes in the air 🏗

Posted on by
Reply

As you know, I missed most of October in Chicago. And with only one day to catch up, the easiest way to gather up tower crane pictures was to head up 103 floors to Skydeck Chicago. It is from there that you’ll see 28 of Chicago’s 32 active tower cranes. Three of them: the two at Vista Tower, and the 2nd crane at One Grant Park, are hidden from view. The other, at 210 North Carpenter, I just plain whiffed on and missed.

New since October’s count:

  1. 210 North Carpenter
  2. The Van Buren (808 West van Buren)

Gone from October’s count:

  1. Cook County Central Campus Health Center (1950 West Polk)
  2. Eleven40 (1136 South Wabash)
  3. Marlowe (675 North Wells)

Coming soon:

  1. Home2 Suites (110 West Huron; stub is planted)
  2. Hayden West Loop (1109 West Washington; permit issued 09/07, stub expected this week)
  3. 3833 Broadway (permit issued 09/06)
  4. The Bentham (146 West Erie; permit issued 09/11)
  5. Renelle on the River (403 North Wabash; permit issued 10/10)
  6. **Simpson Querrey (35-ton Derrick for removal of South Tower Crane; it needed a permit [09/06], so it needs to be on the list!)**

Who has tower cranes:

  1. Lendlease – 8
  2. Power – 7
  3. McHugh – 6
  4. W.E. O’Neil – 2
  5. Nine general contractors have one tower crane apiece: Leopardo (210 North Carpenter); Macon (No. 508); Linn-Mathes (Wicker Park Connection); Onni Group (Old Town Park); Tishman (Alofty Chicago Mag Mile); Pepper (Moxy Hotel); Centaur (Nobu Hotel); Norcon (Illume Chicago); Walsh (1326 South Michigan; Wolf Point East soon?)

What are they building:

  1. Residential – 21
  2. Hotel – 7
  3. Office – 2
  4. Medical – 2

Where are they:

  1. West Loop – 8
  2. South Loop – 7
  3. Streeterville – 6
  4. New East Side – 2
  5. Lincoln Park – 2
  6. Lake View – 2
  7. Five neighborhoods have one crane apiece: River North (Moxy Hotel); Uptown (Eight Eleven Uptown); Wicker Park (Wicker Park Connection); Near North (Old Town Park); Gold Coast (No. 9 Walton)

The newest tower crane in Chicago is The Van Buren.

The oldest tower crane in Chicago is…complicated. I’ve got evidence of the Old Town Park crane being assembled on August 2, 2016. And I’ve got evidence of a completed crane at Simpson Querrey on August 4, 2016. Since I don’t know for sure which was operational first, let’s call it a tie.

Here are Chicago’s 32 tower cranes at the start of November 2017:

 

 

Late Night with Vista Tower

Posted on by
2
Vista Tower at night

Vista Tower glows from across the Chicago River at River Esplanade Park.

Vista Tower has been under construction for just over a year now.  This blog has featured approximately 17,648 posts about progress on the 95-story hotel and residential tower. And yet, I’ve somehow managed to neglect it. How? By not stopping by the site after dark. That situation has been rectified, as of this past weekend.

I know, you just saw a bunch of photos of Vista Tower yesterday. But here we go again.

 

Vist-AHHHHH

Posted on by
Reply
Vista Tower August

A view of Vista Tower from the lower deck of the Lake Shore Drive bridge.

I know I get carried away when I walk around Vista Tower, but come on. So much going on, in such a large area. Think about the skyscrapers being built in New York City: straight up in the air, over tiny footprints. (Well, except Hudson Yards, of course.) Not Vista. That’s a big, sprawling site. With beams and columns and scaffold and concrete rigs. Oh, that’s right, don’t forget the two tower cranes.

So, with yet another hearty “Thank You” to Magellan Development Group for bringing the project together, Studio Gang and bKL Architecture for designing it, and McHugh Construction for doing all that hard, pretty work, here we go with another set of Vista Tower progress photos:

Too soon for more Vista Tower pics? (SPOILER ALERT: There’s no such thing)

Posted on by
Reply
Vista Tower

Removing forms from the angled concrete columns at Vista Tower.

Vista Tower

Vista Tower column b/w Tribune Tower.

“I was just at Vista Tower. No need to go by there again.” I said to myself as I walked in the general direction of Lakeshore East. An hour or so later…

Just that process of taking forms off the angled concrete columns had me staring for a solid 30 minutes. Throw is some signage that looks like it came straight from a European auto race, plus non-stop work seemingly 24/7 considering the progress that’s been made, and there’s a lot to see that’s new.

So yeah, as long as they (they being McHugh Construction) keep doing cool stuff here, I (and everyone else in Chicago with a camera) will keep snapping photos.

The form removal:

Everything Else:

Vista Tower takes a new angle

Posted on by
Reply
Vista Tower July

The WOW Factor just kicked up a notch at Vista Tower.

There’s an age-old axiom in architecture that I just made up that says “You can’t build frustums without angling some columns.” And it makes a lot of sense, if you don’t give it much thought.

Vista Tower frustums

Frustums on frustum in this Studio Gang rendering of Vista Tower.

It’s happening now at Vista Tower. McHugh Construction has the beginnings of four concrete columns sticking out of the north elevation at an impossible-not-to-notice angle, to which they’re adding rebar and concrete forms, making an already photo-worthy work site nearly impossible to walk away from. It’s also what Paul Simon was referring to in You Can Call Me Al with the lyric “angles in the architecture, spinning in infinity…” That is, *if* you happened to get liner notes with typos in them.  (**Graceland reference due entirely to Paul Simon concert in Milwaukee over the weekend. I won’t make it a habit.**)

Those cool new beams (that’s what the teenagers say all the time: “Cool beams!”) should keep Vista Tower construction very entertaining as they’re repeated throughout the process. Not that any of us needed another reason to keep going back. But we’ll take it.

Catching up at Vista Tower

Posted on by
Reply
Vista Tower

Vista Tower continues to rise.

It’s been a month since we took a look at progress on Vista Tower, the magnificent supertall by Studio Gang and bKL Architecture. You may think workers would be discouraged that I haven’t been dropping by daily, but McHugh Construction crews seem to be getting a lot done despite my absence. Certainly not because of it.

Anyway, I’ll need to borrow some balconies soon, for as Vista climbs higher, our scenic views from Wacker Drive and Lakeshore East are going to be well below where the action is.

 

A Sunny Day At: The Sears Tower

Posted on by
Reply

Chicago’s a big city, with a pretty good transportation system. But it’s hard to get to, say for example, 32 tower cranes all in one day. Which is why Skydeck Chicago was built at the Sears Tower. All of the tower cranes, all in one place. With a couple exceptions. I missed a few, like Vista Tower, One Grant Park, and 1101 South Wabash, which can’t be seen, and 8 East Huron and Wicker Park Connection, which I simply brain-lapsed on.

More from Vista Tower, just because

Posted on by
Reply
Wanda Vista Tower May

The two cores of Wanda Vista Tower, Chicago’s best free entertainment.

I could do three posts a week on the changing landscape that is Vista Tower construction. The site looks that different from day to day. The number of small individual projects going into making this one huge project a living, breathing being are fascinating to watch, even when I have no idea what most of it is. Combine that with the viewing platforms of Upper Wacker Drive to the north and the walkways along the south, and Vista Theater provides hours of entertainment for passing construction nerds.

But pulling up a lawn chair and camping out is not only discouraged by nearby residents and construction firms alike, but somewhat impractical in spring’s temperamental weather conditions. I can still offer to go by a few times each month though, and when I do, I’ll share bunches and bunches of photos with you, and then it’s like we’re all camped out there. And remember, when this thing climbs above Upper Wacker level, there won’t be nearly as much to see. You won’t get tired of photos before that happens.

Sound like a plan?

They keep building Vista Tower, and we keep coming back to watch

Posted on by
Reply
Wanda Vista Tower

Looking east to west across the ever-changing scene of Vista Tower.They

Three weeks is far too long to go between photo galleries of what’s going on at Vista Tower. Especially when the landscape changes on a daily basis. McHugh Construction continues to entertain with lumber, rebar, concrete, and tower cranes. There’s a lot happening here, as you’re about to see.