BREAKING NEWS: I took more photos at Vista Tower

Gallery

Posted on September 18, 2017 by danieldschell

This gallery contains 29 photos.

A ripped up lot signals the start of Akara Partners’ River North hotel

Posted on September 13, 2017 by danieldschell

Bye bye parking lot, hello hotel, as work begins at 110 West Huron Street in River North.

Piles of rubble and dirt have replaced the surface parking lot at Huron and Clark Streets in River North. That means work is officially underway for the 17-story, 185-room hotel at 110 West Huron from Akara Partners.

Akara received a foundation permit from the City of Chicago back on August 24. Curiously, they already have a tower crane permit as well, and it was issued more than two weeks before the foundation permit, on August 11. And to make things just a tad more confusing, the permit doesn’t actually say “tower crane” on it:

FOUNDATION DESIGN FOR THE INSTALLATION AN OPERATION OF LIEBHERR 316 EC-H12 LITRONIC

So unless you were paying ridiculously close attention, you may have missed it. I, for one, was indeed paying ridiculously close attention. But I missed it too. Anyway, I’m over that now. Pretty much.

The hotel is a design by Chicago’s NORR Inc on North LaSalle, and will include, according to the permit, ground-level retail space and a rooftop restaurant.

The general contractor is M.A. Mortenson Company of Wisconsin. You remember them from their work on the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center in Milwaukee we visited in July.

: The foundation permit, issued August 24.

: The tower crane permit, issued August 11.

With lofty expectations of 18 stories, the Aloft Chicago Mag Mile goes vertical

Posted on August 23, 2017 by danieldschell

The first of 18 floors is rising at the Aloft Chicago Mag Mile hotel in Streeterville.

The Aloft Chicago Mag Mile hotel has started poking up from the ground at 243 East Ontario Street in Streeterville. Tishman, the developer and general contractor, has work on the elevator core rising just above street level. The 18-story, 336-room hotel got rolling in January, with a demolition permit for the former Museum of Contemporary Art building.

Demo occurred in February, after which Tishman broke ground and began work on the new project. Foundation and tower-crane permits followed in March, with the full-build permit coming through in June. Tishman hopes to have the Aloft Chicago Mag Mile open in Winter 2018, which could be just over, or just under, one year from the start of demolition. That will depend on the actual opening date.

Vist-AHHHHH

Posted on August 18, 2017 by danieldschell

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:

Centaur Construction joins Chicago’s Tower Crane Party

Posted on August 12, 2017 by danieldschell

Centaur Construction is entering the tower crane count this weekend with their assembly of the crane at the Nobu Hotel Chicago site, and they’re relishing the moment.

Christina Pascente at Centaur took a bunch of great high-res images of the tower crane going up on Friday and sent them to us. So of course, we’re sharing them. Enjoy!

It’s tower crane time at Nobu Hotel

Posted on August 11, 2017 by danieldschell

https://twitter.com/JPGraziano/status/896001886859526144

Everybody’s talking about the new crane in town. Even purveyors of fine sandwiches.

As you read these words, Central Contractors Service and Centaur Construction are on the Nobu Hotel Chicago site in the West Loop, assembling the tower crane that will send the 11-story boutique hotel vertical. It’s also the reason you can’t drive on Peoria Street between Randolph and Lake. We’ve waited a long time for this one, so let’s enjoy it while it lasts. If it lasts. Now that Nobu will start going vertical, it won’t take long to stack its 11 floors on top of each other.

*** Centaur CEO Spiro Tsaparas called the B.U.C. to let me know a correction is in order on the Nobu project. I’ve reported that Walsh Construction was assigned the task of concrete work. That information, listed in Nobu’s building permits, is incorrect. Pepper Construction is, in fact, the masonry contractor for the Nobu Hotel.***

Hilton Homewood Suites at Wabash and 11th makes an appearance above street level

Posted on August 9, 2017 by danieldschell

Hilton Homewood Suites 1101 South Wabash

Lendlease continues work on the Hilton Homewood Suite at 1101 South Wabash in the South Loop.

Bird’s eye view in June of foundation work.

After lots of foundation work — not to mention the demolition of the two-story parking deck previously on the site — Lendlease is sending the new Hilton Homewood Suites vertical at Wabash Avenue and 11th Street in the South Loop.

The 30-story tower, designed by Lothan Van Hook DeStefano Architecture and developed by Hinsdale’s S.B. Yen Management Group, will start with parking up to the 7th floor, then rise upward with an amenity level on the 8th floor, hotel rooms from 9 to 23, corporate suites on floors 24 through 29, capped off with another level of creature comforts on the 30th floor.

The garage demolition was permitted in January of last year. Ground was broken in December 2016; completion is expected late next year.

Little crane making big progress at the Moxy Hotel

Posted on August 8, 2017 by danieldschell

The Moxy Hotel rises from the corner of LaSalle Street and Grand Avenue in River North.

That little tower crane in River North that I insist on counting, then keep forgetting to count, isn’t letting any statistical oversight keep it down. Pepper Construction is using it to put up the 8-story Moxy Hotel at 530 North LaSalle Street. Issued its full permit back in February, the Moxy has been rising steadily ever since, as it approaches the targeted mid-2018 opening date.

Moxy is opening a Times Square hotel in New York City this month, and you should see the rooftop space. Really. Click this link to see it. Those views!

Construction Progress: The Triple-Branded Hilton Hotel climbs on Motor Row

Posted on July 31, 2017 by danieldschell

Up to the ninth floor (of 21) at the Triple-Branded Hilton Hotel at McCormick Place.

Three Hilton Hotels, 21 stories, and 466 rooms. That’s what you see growing along East Cermak Road, between Michigan and Indiana Avenues. (A Hilton Garden Inn Chicago McCormick Center, Hampton Inn by Hilton Chicago McCormick Center, and Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago McCormick Center, if you’re scoring at home.) Of course, they’ll all be in one building.

Antunovich Associates worked with McHugh Construction on this project, which joins the Marriott Marquis Hotel and Wintrust Arena across the street in completely changing the character of this two-block stretch of Cermak Road. McHugh is up to the ninth floor of the hotels now, a veritable beehive of activity. And it has to be; Hilton plans to have all three brands open late next year.

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

Posted on July 27, 2017 by danieldschell

Removing forms from the angled concrete columns at 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.