McGaw Hall is a distant memory, and the new DePaul School of Music is getting closer to completion. (I used up all my music puns in a previous post, so just know Bulley + Andrews is still hard at work building the 3-story, 185,000-square-foot facility.)
The bass-ment has been dug, and now tuba-fours are being hammered into place, as the DePaul School of Music begins to take shape in Lincoln Park. Though the new facility will crescendo to just three stories in height, “sprawling” would be a good word to describe the footprint of this construction site. Hence the extra-long tower crane. It’s no reach to say reach is critical on this project.
Demolition of the old Plumbing Industry Center in May.
First, it was what looked like a fairly nice building. Then, it was a hole in the ground. Now, there’s stuff going on in that hole. And it’s construction.
After breaking ground at 1400 West Washington Boulevard on June 28th, W.E. O’Neil is rolling on the new Plumbers Local 130 Training Center. The 3-story, 50,000-square-foot building in the West Loop will facilitate the education of journeymen and apprentice plumbers from all around Chicago.
Designed by Gensler, the project got underway with an April demolition permit for the old Plumbing Industry Center, followed by the new construction permit issued June 21st. It’s expected by this time next year, the training center will be complete.
In the first week of July, three tower cranes were planted around Chicago. My job was to go find them. Then, it was my duty to follow up on them. Because no one wants part of the story. Or part of the tower crane, for that matter.
Our first update is at the DePaul School of Music. Warning: Don’t get too close to this one, or it won’t fit in your photo. This won’t be a tall undertaking, but it’s a big lot. And a tower crane needs to reach every corner of that lot. So this one is as long as any I’ve seen.
A rendering of Altschool, 2720 North Clark Street, courtesy of Hirsch Associates Architects.
AltSchool’d, that is.
At 2720 North Clark Street in Lincoln Park, Centrum Partners and Hirsch Associates Architects have teamed up for a two-story mixed use project that will be the home of AltSchool, and a Banana Republic Factory Store. (If the Centrum Partners/Hirsch Associates combo sounds familiar, they’re the two responsible for bringing the just-permitted 412 North Wells and 221 West Hubbard project to life.)
AltSchool provides education for pre-kindergarten through 8th-grade students. Chicago will be its fourth location, joining San Francisco, Palo Alto (CA) and New York City.
William A. Randolph Inc. of Gurnee is the general contractor. Construction is expected to be completed in time for the 2017-2018 school year.
For many, the appeal of living in Chicago is the change of seasons. But what we should be promoting is the change of tower cranes. For just when one comes down, another (or three) goes up.
With lots of new construction comes lots of tower cranes. There isn’t much that can be built around town without the use of one (or two – looking at you, Sinclair.) A long walk on my regular rounds turned up no fewer than three seedlings being planted for future tower cranes.
Up in Lincoln Park, DePaul is building a new facility for music education. The DePaul School of Music won’t be a very tall structure, but it will be spread out over a large lot. Bulley & Andrews is erecting its tower crane near the middle of the lot, so it’ll reach 360 degrees around the site.
At 822 North Clark Street in the Near North neighborhood, McHugh Construction is setting up a tower crane to erect a 7-story Mormon church. I’ll have more about this project once I know for sure what I’m talking about.
Finally, at 8 East Huron in River North, Clark Construction has begun putting up a tower crane for the 26-story residential tower from CA Ventures. Designed by Valerio Dewalt Train Associates, 8 East Huron has been sitting on its tower crane permit since May 24. I was getting a little antsy waiting for this one.
There’s no tower crane yet, but THEY’RE MAKING SQUARE REBAR TUBES!!
Chicago construction company Bulley & Andrews is erecting a new DePaul School of Music out in Lincoln Park. Designed by Antunovich Associates, the new facility will be on the site previously occupied by McGaw Hall, which was demolished early this year.
You can learn all you need to know about the new School of Music by going to DePaul’s site. As for me, I’ll skip the words and share a few photos instead.
Demolition continues at the old Malcolm X College. How many students passed through these doors over the years?
The saddest demolitions occur when a building needs to come down without a replacement. A church burns, and a congregation has no meeting place. A hospital is torn down, and patients have no where to turn for care. A school is leveled, and students have to be bused for miles to finish their education.
Two current, high-profile demos in Chicago are fortunate in that sense. I stopped by the old Children’s Memorial Hospital this week, for its first day of destruction. The old facility has been closed for four years now, after the new Lurie Children’s Hospital was constructed in Streeterville and all patients were transferred without interruption of care.
Such is the case with the old Malcolm X College demolition as well. A brand new facility opened at 1900 West Jackson Boulevard for the 2016 school year, leaving the old school across the street empty. So Heneghan Wrecking started tearing it down this spring. Will something take it’s place? Of course, and I’m gonna let the Chicago Blackhawks tell you all about it. That way, I have more room for photos.
A rendering of the new Plumbers Local 130 Training Center, from the W.E. O’Neil website.
Thanks to a heads-up from Twitter user @ponjeters, it appears the recently-demolished Plumbing Industry Center posted last night will be replaced by a new, state-of-the-art Plumbers Local 130 Training Center.
Another render from the W.E. O’Neil website.
According to the website of contractor W.E. O’Neil, they are tasked with building a 120,000-square-foot facility that will replace the one Heneghan Wrecking just finished tearing down. Per the website:
“The project is being designed as (a) teaching tool for apprentices and will incorporate state-of-the-art technology and plumbing training workshops.”
The O’Neil website lists Gensler as the architect, and Chicago Journeymen Plumbers as the client.
The website has no location information other than “Chicago,” which still has a few more spaces to fill in besides this one at 1400 West Washington Boulevard. I sent an email to O’Neil last night in hopes of verifying the project’s address.
The now-destroyed Plumbing Industry Center at 1400 West Washington Boulevard in the West Loop.
Building Up Chicago 