Demolition of the old Children’s Memorial Hospital in Lincoln Park began at 8:00 am on June 7.

Empty and deteriorating for the past four years, workers this morning began the slow, tedious process of demolishing the old Children’s Memorial Hospital in Lincoln Park, just one day after a demolition permit was filed by the City of Chicago.

With a fleet of news vans and a few bystanders watching, some whose kids had gone through extensive stays under Children’s care, crews from Omega Demolition in Elgin started tearing apart the lower portions of the hospital complex along North Lincoln Avenue. Once they get the shorter buildings down and out of the way, they’ll have considerable more room to stage equipment for the seven-story portions of the hospital.

In its place will be The Lincoln Common, a venture from Hines and McCaffery Interests. Planned are two luxury apartment towers boasting 540 dwelling units, 60 low-rise condos, and over 100,000 square feet of retail space, designed by Antunovich Associates in collaboration with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. You can learn more about the project here on the Hines website.

From the parking garage across Lincoln Avenue, a popular spectator venue.

Work by Omega Demolition.

There’s a lot of work to do in the coming weeks.

Looking south along Lincoln Avenue.

The old Children’s Memorial Hospital, in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood.

There will be no stitching up of these wounds.

On the corner of Lincoln Avenue and Orchard Street.

All the windows have Xs over their eyes, in a manner of speaking.

A rendering from Hines of The Lincoln Common.