A zillion construction photos of Jewel Residences Gold Coast you knew were inevitable

Posted on November 3, 2017 by danieldschell

Construction on Jewel Residences Gold Coast, from the beach.

You’ve seen the names of the five tower cranes, and you’ve seen them lit up at night. Now, it’s time to get a good look at Jewel Residences construction in the light of day.

Yes, I went by this construction site three times; it’s that good. So to accompany the nighttime photos and tower-crane close-ups you’ve already seen, here are a metric ton of pictures taken both in morning, and late afternoon, sunlight.

As a reminder, Jewel Residences is a three-tower development along Surfers Paradise Beach in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It will include more than 500 apartments and a 171-room Wanda Vista Hotel. It’s being developed jointly by two firms from China: Wanda Group and RDG. The design is by DBI Design, and Multiplex is the builder.

Follow the tower cranes down Surfers Paradise Beach to Jewel Residences.

There should be a prize if you make it through this entire galley.

: Okay, one night shot.

Lendlease rolls a Lucky Seven at Darling Square in Sydney’s Darling Harbour

Posted on October 31, 2017 by danieldschell

Spotted from the Sydney Tower Eye: The Seven Tower Cranes of Darling Square, by Lendlease.

Please know for certain that I didn’t see every construction project in Australia. Come on. Two weeks? Just not enough time. But of what I saw, this one easily takes the award for Most Tower Cranes.

Darling Square is a mixed-use project being developed and built by Lendlease. Located along Sydney’s famed Darling Harbour, Darling Square will be comprised of many, many parts. So many parts, in fact, that I don’t know if I’ve got them all straight. The main portion of the development will have three towers of 41, 19, and 7 stories, and a 6-story podium, per design architects Tzannes Associates. There will be 581 apartments located here.

Rendering of The Darling Exchange from Kengo Kuma and Associates.

Darling Square will also include a public square, designed by Aspect Studios; a community hub called The Darling Exchange, designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates; and two retail pavilions designed by Archer Office. No wonder they need 7 tower cranes on the site.

And if all that doesn’t sound like enough of a task, Darling Square necessitated the demolition of a 13,000-seat stadium, Qantas Credit Union Arena (previously known as The Sydney Entertainment Centre) in order to clear space for the project.

Whether you’ve been able to process all of that info or not, here comes the photo gallery:

Students from the Mudgeeraba Special School named the five tower cranes at Jewel Gold Coast

Posted on October 31, 2017 by danieldschell

Monday’s post showed you four lighted tower cranes at Jewel Residences on Surfers Paradise Beach in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. As I mentioned in that story, Multiplex has five tower cranes in total at the job site, and they all have names. The video above, from 9 News Gold Coast, gives you some of the back story on where the names came from. And it’s fantastic.

Using five tower cranes, lighting four of them up at night, *and* involving special-needs children from Mudgeeraba Special School in naming them? Take a bow, Multiplex. Very well done.

: Sally Saphire. (One P on the crane; 2 Ps on the poster)

: Multiplexosaurus

: Lotty

: The Mighty Jewel

: Jake

Multiplex dazzles with a Tower Crane Light Show on Surfers Paradise Beach

Posted on October 29, 2017 by danieldschell

Tower cranes light up the night atop Jewel Gold Coast on Surfers Paradise Beach.

As you may have heard, my wife and I spent a couple weeks in Australia. Now that we’re back home in Chicago’s weather instead, it’s time to get myself organized and figure out what to do with the hundreds and hundreds of photos I took. By my last count, I have about 75 files (more than 30 just in Melbourne!) of pictures for different construction sites and buildings. (Yes, two of those files are “Sydney Opera House” and “Sydney Harbour Bridge.” You can’t help it when you’re there.)

I don’t know how many of those files will be shared here on the blog — I’ve only posted about two of them so far, both in Melbourne — but right now the odds are about 50/50 that I post either all of them, or none of them. The big questions are, which sites are most entertaining to see? and in what order do I post?

I was going to try to build up some sort of crescendo, start you out slow, then hit you with the coolest, most sensational posts. But no, I’ve decided to get right to the good stuff.

Along Surfers Paradise Beach in the coastal city of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, Multiplex is erecting the three-tower Jewel Gold Coast. Chicago has had its own Tower of Jewel project recently, the just-completed Sinclair apartment building at Clark and Division, which also happens to be in Gold Coast, this one being north of the equator. Jewel Gold Coast is a little different. And brighter at night.

Jewel Gold Coast is a joint project from developers Wanda Group and RDG. Both firms are from China. And yes, Wanda Group is part of the development team for Vista Tower in Chicago, which, like Jewel Gold Coast, will include a Wanda Vista Hotel. The design is by DBI Design, which has an office in Gold Coast, hence I would like to work there. (Gold Coast is a spectacular beach city. Go visit.) There will be 171 hotel rooms, 512 apartments, and 816 parking spots, with lots of commercial space thrown in for good measure. And good tourists. According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, the three towers will be 36, 41, and 47 stories high, respectively.

As I’ve mentioned, Multiplex, busy throughout Australia, is the builder. And the lighter of tower cranes. Four of Multiplex’s five cranes (they all have names; I’ll get to that another day) are lit up at night, like light sabers guarding the coastline. And those are what I’ve chosen to show you first, from our walk along the beach on the final night of our Australia trip. Enjoy. Sorry I didn’t have a tripod for these.

: I was trying to get that blue “Jewel” logo. Meet Lotty, everyone.

: MULTIUPLEX

: MULTIPLEX & MOON

465 North Park jumps the tower crane again as it keeps growing taller

Posted on October 11, 2017 by danieldschell

Evidence of a tower-crane jump at 465 North Park.

*** AIA Chicago is sponsoring a tour of 465 North Park this afternoon. Get on this! Deets here

A couple weekends ago, Power Construction jumped the tower crane at 465 North Park, as work is ongoing on Jupiter Realty Company’s 47-story apartment tower.

It seems like only yesterday I drove from Uptown to the empty lot bounded by Illinois, North Water, and New Streets, with Park Drive on the west, planning to leave my car in the surface parking lot. Yep, that’s when I was first introduced to the Loews construction site. And now the north end of that same lot is filled in with 465 North Park.

When complete, the Pappageorge Haymes Partners-designed apartment tower will boast 444 rental units, 181 parking spaces, and nearly 12,000 square feet of retail space. Power’s been on the build here since getting a foundation permit back in July. Caisson work started that same week. A tower crane was planted, and official groundbreaking ceremonies were held, in September. The first week of October 2016 saw the tower crane assembled. And that brings us to where we are now, exactly one year into the life of 465 North Park’s tower crane.

Hey, would ya look at 1326 South Michigan, going all three-dimensional!

Posted on October 10, 2017 by danieldschell

It’s going to be 47 stories tall. Nothing should surprise me about 1326 South Michigan starting to rise up from the ground. But sometimes foundation work can seem like such a chore, you forget there will be action above the surface. And now, 1326 is giving us such action.

Walsh Construction is getting the most out of their single Chicago tower crane, as the podium is starting to take shape at this South Loop site. (Don’t forget, Walsh will have a tower crane at Wolf Point East in the very near future, too.) The core is up about five stories too, making work much easier for to observe. Not to mention the peephole Walsh cut out for us along Michigan Avenue. That’s a company that cares, right there.

This one isn’t due to open until late in 2018, which seems a long way off now, but will be here before you know it. The SCB-designed tower will deliver 500 new apartments to the very busy neighborhood, thanks to co-developers Murphy Development Group and CIM Group. We got wind of a possible name change almost two months ago; hopefully we know the new moniker before Opening Day.

Wandering Milwaukee: Will The Couture be Milwaukee’s next tower crane?

Posted on August 24, 2017 by danieldschell

Signage proclaims The Couture’s arrival, as the newly-opened Northwestern Mutual Tower glimmers in the background.

Rumors are swirling around the Skyscraperpage forum that The Couture is about to begin construction on one of Milwaukee’s marquee corners.

On land that used to be the Milwaukee Transit Center, Barrett Lo Visionary Development is building the 44-story, 537-foot-tall residential tower in an ideal location between the Milwaukee Art Museum and Henry W. Maier Festival Park, home of Summerfest. Designed by the Milwaukee firm of Rinka Chung Architecture, The Couture will bring 600 new units to the lakefront location.

J.H. Findorff & Son is the general contractor. We just checked out some of their work at Marquette University, and we stayed in the newly completed Westin Milwaukee, last month. (We also profiled the Westin’s construction back in 2016.)

Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes sent over two great overhead shots of the site from the past, when it was still the MKE Transit Center, and the site now, which is a bare concrete slab. We noticed the empty slab, and The Couture signage, back in July. Here’s hoping that tower crane will still be there during Summerfest 2018!

: The Milwaukee Transit Center used to occupy the property at Michigan Street and Lincoln Memorial Drive. Photo courtesy Aerialscapes.

: It is now a bare slab, awaiting The Couture to begin. Photo courtesy Aerialscapes.

: Rendering of The Couture from Rinka Chung Architecture.

: Rendering of The Couture from Rinka Chung Architecture.

: Rendering of The Couture from Rinka Chung Architecture.

: A billboard illustration of the Lakefront Gateway Project.

: Signage proclaims The Couture’s arrival, as the newly-opened Northwestern Mutual Tower glimmers in the background.

So this is what One South Halsted looks like from the ground

Posted on August 22, 2017 by danieldschell

727 West Madison, seen here from a *bit* of elevation, is starting to grow in the West Loop.

There are two things we need to get used to about One South Halsted around the B.U.C. South Loop Bureau. First, we no longer have our stellar overhead perspective of the 44-story apartment tower from Fifield Companies and F&F Realty. And second, it looks like we’ll need to stop using One South Halsted as a moniker, as it appears 727 West Madison is not only the address, but the name, of the project. No one asked us, but the extra syllables from that pair of 7s just don’t flow well as when you have a one-word number in the there. “One” plays. “One” works. Oh well. We’ll adjust.

A June view of 727 West Madison from the original B.U.C. HQ. #neverforget

We took a walk around One Sou— ugh, See? There I go again — 727 West Madison last week to check on Lendlease’s progress, and the curvyness of the tower’s elliptical shape is coming into view. The tower itself is heading toward the sixth floor, while the podium is up and off the ground as well.

If you’ve gotten the feeling that curved shape is becoming a trend along the West Loop section of the Kennedy Expressway, you’re on to something. 727 West Madison joins The Parker Fulton Market in adding some rounded lines to all the right angles in the neighborhood. A brief conversation with Steve McFadden at design firm FitzGerald reveals he went with the elliptical shape to allow extra interior space within the units along those long east and west facings. Little known fact: There was to be a circular ramp leading in and out of the parking podium in the original plans (one of which went to City Council way back in October of 2012; 727 West Madison has been in the works for quite some time!) but that was rejected in favor of an easier-to-maneuver straight ramp.

1326 South Michigan construction ramps up

Posted on August 10, 2017 by danieldschell

Someday, this gate will open, leading you up the ramp to the parking podium at 1326 South Michigan.

Standard joke. When you see the beginnings of the ramp that will lead to a parking podium, you make the pun. It’s the law.

1326 South Michigan, the shiny new 47-story apartment tower underway in the South Loop, is in that phase. As support columns start rising from the ground, the parking ramp is taking form off the alley at the back of the site. It will provide access to the 180 indoor parking spaces allocated for the 500 or so apartments being built at the SCB-designed tower.

Walsh Construction, who just erected a tower crane here to make up for the one they took down at Alta Roosevelt, is efforting to meet Murphy Development Group’s (along with CIM Group) goal of a Fall 2018 opening for 1326.

You want curves? 465 North Park has your curves

Posted on August 2, 2017 by danieldschell

465 North Park, shot from the sky by Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes.

If it’s a uniquely-shaped new apartment tower you’re looking for, head on over to Streeterville, where 465 North Park continues to dazzle Chicago with its sweet curves and shiny glass. The 48-story, 444-unit skyscraper by Pappageorge Haymes Architects continues to push skyward, thanks to the efforts of Power Construction. Their crews are going all out (onto the ledges, that is) to bring 465 North Park to life in time for Jupiter Realty’s goal of an early 2018 opening.

Did you know there’s an OxBlue construction cam for 465 North Park. Check it out here.