Category Archives: Fulton Market

360 North Green digs in to Fulton Market

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A rendering of Sterling Bay’s 360 North Green

Back off.

That’s what you need to do sometimes. Let me explain.

Ever since Sterling Bay started tearing up the surface parking lot at Green and Kinzie Streets in the Fulton Market District, I’ve been trying to get up close enough to get a good view of what’s going on. But fences, my own personal lack of elevation, and a deep sense pf respect for the working man’s personal space hasn’t allowed for much spectatorship. So I backed off. And voila! An excellent view.

Sterling Bay and Power Construction are building 360 North Green here, a 24-story, 500,000-square-foot office tower designed by Gensler. Scheduled for completion in 2024, the building will include 5,400 square feet of retail space at ground level, parking for 92 cars on the second and third floors, a fourth-floor amenity suite including 5,000 square feet of outdoor space, a fitness studio, lounge, game room, and bar. Geez, I want to live here.

From Sterling Bay’s digital brochure, a rendering of the fourth-floor outdoor space. Wow.

Mostly from a distance, here are some caisson progress shots, as Power and Stalworth Underground get started on 360 North Green, taken August 17. Thank you, Halsted Street.

Checking up on 900 Randolph with CBS Chicago

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900 Randolph

Someone from this blog made their television debut last week. You can check out the video from CBS Chicago here:

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/photographer-catches-images-tracks-progress-of-projects-under-construction-around-chicago/?fbclid=IwAR1Z_dsUqL6L1Q8m2eLkq9hshGj1tSHhr9IGmuCjI770PMwT28TYOF4m82A

You can see the photos I took Thursday of last week while Lauren and Allen (they’re probably tired of hearing this by now, but thank you SO MUCH for doing this with me) watched me (along with a few others I took later in the day) of 900 Randolph here:

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.

Another new tower crane = more verticality, as 160 North Morgan sprouts from the ground

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160 North Morgan is starting to show above the fence line.

160 North Morgan is starting to protrude from the West Loop soil, as GC Walsh Construction begins utilizing that new tower crane they erected at the end of May.

A gentle reminder that 160 North Morgan, a project from Sterling Bay designed by bKL Architecture, will bring 282 apartments and 89 parking spaces in a neat 30-story package. And all of it is happening about half a yard from the Morgan CTA platform. Not to mention the Do-Rite Donuts (apple fritters!) right across the street.

Walsh Construction is on the build. They have received permits for:
– the tower crane on March 30
– the caissons on March 31
– the full build for 30 stories on April 20

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.

Solar Junkyard wins approval for 33-story West Loop apartment tower

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Solar Junkyard can build their 33-story, 204-unit apartment tower in the West Loop/Fulton Market area. So says the Chicago Plan Commission, which approved the Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture-designed proposal during Thursday’s meeting. What’s significant about this is that Solar Junkyard might be the best name ever used by a local development firm, which in this case is Newcastle Limited. You know that name form Gild at State and Division. I mean yes, it’s also significant that we get to bulldoze another parking lot while adding another cool tower to the West Loop. But I love Solar Junkyard.

I took a couple photos of the proposed site at 210 North Morgan last week, where (for now) a single-story Maria Pinto store stands next to a surface parking lot. Since this blog is about photos, I needed to be sure I had a photo or two of my own to post, along with a couple of Hartshorne Plunkard’s renderings.. But really, this particular post is about the name “Solar Junkyard.” I wonder if there’s swag I could get. More importantly, where did the name come from?

Rendering of Solar Junkyard’s 210 North Morgan from Hartshorne Plunkard Architects
Rendering of Solar Junkyard’s 210 North Morgan from Hartshorne Plunkard Architects

160 North Morgan builds itself a tower crane

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Chicago saw three tower cranes erected last week as the city continues to overcome that five-count from a few months back.

One of the new ones is a shiny yellow Liebherr number at Sterling Bay’s 160 North Morgan. I dropped by twice on Thursday to check it out. I would have stayed all day, but tower cranes take a looooong time to go up safely, and there are a lot of lulls in the action. Unless, of course, you’re part of the crews from Walsh Construction and LaGrange Crane. For them, assembly action never slows down.

Bet you’ve never seen this many photos of a tower crane that wasn’t even half built yet. Unless it was another post on this blog… but tower crane builds deserve this much attention.

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.

Progress Update: 900 Randolph (164 N Peoria)

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If you’re looking for the permits, 164 North Peoria is the address you’ll want. If you’re looking for details on the soaring new West Loop apartment Tower, 900 Randolph is the name you need.

Okay, it might not quite be soaring yet. But at 43 stories, 900 Randolph will soon be the tallest building in Chicago west of Halsted Street (not the Kennedy; I think that designation stays with 727 West Madison), as the West Loop and Fulton Market neighborhoods continue to grow upwards and outwards. And it’s making its way up, as the core appears to have reached the 14th or 15th floor.

Let’s catch you up on the latest progress, photographed Sunday, May 1.

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.

The glass is more than half full at 345 North Morgan

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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.

1200 West Carroll is a blank canvas

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Speaking of Carroll Avenue demos . . .

With demolition all but wrapped up, the northwest corner of Carroll and Racine in the West Loop is ready for redevelopment at the hands of Sterling Bay. Here’s our May story about the demolitions, and the new office building on the way, 1200 West Carroll.

Here’s the progression of demolition from late May into July.

  • There’s a lap pool?

1043 Fulton brings the pane

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Power Construction is installing windows at 1043 Fulton, and a lot of them, on the north and west façades. Still waiting on glass for the south façade, while that east-facing masonry wall probably won’t need them.

Enjoying the photos? Metra and CTA rides (and Amtrak trains to Milwaukee), Zipcars, Divvy Bikes, camera lenses, and comfortable walking shoes are adding up. You can help offset expenses by making a greatly-appreciated donation to Building Up Chicago.

A tower crane, by many other names, comes down from Fulton Market.

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See over there? That used to be a tower crane.

Remove 1043 Fulton from Chicago’s active tower crane list. You can also remove 1025 West Fulton, 237 North Aberdeen, 1045 West Fulton, and 1045 On Fulton, since all those monikers have been used for this property. (Not this property, though.)

No matter the name, Power Construction topped out the 12-story building in May, and now the tower crane is being disassembled and removed from the site. Still waiting on the first signs of curtain-wall glass.

Enjoy the photos? Metra and CTA rides, Zipcars, Divvy Bikes, camera lenses, and comfortable walking shoes are adding up. You can help offset expenses by making a greatly-appreciated donation to Building Up Chicago.