Construction Progress: Elevate Lincoln Park

Posted on April 4, 2017 by danieldschell

The old tennis courts with junk strewn about them long since demolished, Elevate Lincoln Park continues to grow along North Lincoln Avenue in (of course) Lincoln Park. Where once stood condos and retail shops will soon be Baker Development Corporation‘s mixed-use project. Designed by Solomon Cordwell Buenz, Elevate Lincoln Park will deliver 191 rental units, plus three levels of parking and a whole bunch of ground-floor commercial space. McHugh Construction is on the job as general contractor.

You’ll see signage in the following photos telling you to expect Elevate to be ready this summer. A delay getting started set that back, but Baker Development still hopes to have Elevate Lincoln Park open before 2017 closes.

: Gratuitous tower crane shot.

Instruments of construction keeping good time at the DePaul School of Music

Posted on March 23, 2017 by danieldschell

Rendering of the DePaul School of Music from Antunovich Associates.

Construction of the new DePaul School of Music continues in earnest on DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus. Bulley & Andrews and their ridiculously long tower crane have been going vertical on the site since Spring of 2016. Antunovich Associates has designed a three-story structure that includes two recital halls, a concert hall, student practice and classrooms, and more than 100 below-grade parking spaces. DePaul plans to have the facility open for student use in Spring 2018.

Sterling Bay’s C.H. Robinson HQ taking shape at 1515 West Webster

Posted on March 22, 2017 by danieldschell

At left, 1515 West Webster. In the foreground, the Chicago River. In the background, that magnificent Chicago Skyline.

Construction progress has already reached the third dimension at Sterling Bay‘s development at 1515 West Webster Avenue on the western edge of Lincoln Park. The four-story, 207,000-square-foot facility will be the new headquarters of third-party logistics juggernaut C.H. Robinson. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Sterling Bay expects to have the new office digs open in mid-2018. For now, that’s up to Power Construction, who look to be making good headway toward that goal.

: Rendering of 1515 West Webster from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

: Rendering of 1515 West Webster from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

: The south — or “boring” — end of the site.

One final fade to black for the Nellie A. Black Memorial Pavilion

Posted on March 22, 2017 by danieldschell

The former Nellie A. Black Memorial Pavilion is a sandlot.

The Nellie A. Black Memorial Pavilion, which stood at 700 West Fullerton Parkway as part of the old Children’s Memorial Hospital for roughly eight decades, is now an empty lot awaiting its next life. The handsome 7-story brick edifice is a distant memory now, to be replaced by a handsome 7-story brick senior-living edifice.

: The Nellie A. Black Memorial Pavilion, just before demolition started. Modest, but beautiful.

: 700 West Fullerton Parkway. I hope that piece is safely stored somewhere.

: Dust.

That’s a wrap on Children’s Memorial Hospital, which is now a scrapyard

Posted on January 31, 2017 by danieldschell

Piles of dirt. Sorted pieces of scrap metal heaped together. A few pits and ditches. ‘Tis all that remains.

The former Children’s Memorial Hospital in Lincoln Park is little more than an empty lot now, as Omega Demolition finishes up work on the triangular site. Soon, construction on The Lincoln Common will commence.

Putting the “Elevate” in Elevate Lincoln Park

Posted on January 24, 2017 by danieldschell

A sea of rebar at Elevate Lincoln Park.

On the heels of a big demolition, and then lots of digging, Baker Development’s latest project has finally risen to street level.

Elevate Lincoln Park will eventually rise 10 stories above Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park, bringing with it 191 luxury apartments, three levels of parking, and ground-floor retail space. SCB took care of designing for Elevate Lincoln Park, while McHugh Construction has been seeing to the general contracting duties. The original goal was to have the apartments ready for tenants this summer, but since construction got started a tad behind schedule, that might not be attainable.

: Gratuitous tower crane shot, from the Fullerton L platform.

Demolition Update: The Nellie A. Black Memorial Pile of Rubble

Posted on January 21, 2017 by danieldschell

Demolition of the Nellie A. Black Memorial Pavilion demolition continues in Lincoln Park.

There isn’t much left of the Nellie A. Black Memorial Pavilion. Coming soon to 700 West Fullerton Parkway, a 7-story brick building that isn’t this 7-story brick building. Coming soon, a senior living facility from Belmont Village Senior Living.

: This is — or was — the west wall.

: Watched this monster “chew” the concrete off the rebar. Surprisingly entertaining.

Demolition Update: 7-story Nellie A. Black Memorial Pavilion reduced to 6

Posted on December 23, 2016 by danieldschell

Just beyond the carnage of the old Children’s Memorial Hospital, the Nellie A. Black Memorial Pavilion undergoes the same fate.

The Nellie A. Black Pavilion at 700 West Fullerton Parkway in Lincoln Park — the former 7-story brick building being removed to make room for a new 7-story brick building — is now closer to 6.1 floors, as demolition crews from American Demolition have begun the slow, painstaking process of bringing the structure down without harming buildings to the west and north, mere inches away. In its place will be a senior living center from Belmont Village.

: There are a tremendous number of vehicles *on…

: …and *in the Nellie A. Black Pavilion.

: Right up against it.

: I’m likely not allowed to climb that ladder. This doesn’t upset me.

Composition of DePaul School of Music continues in Lincoln Park

Posted on December 15, 2016 by danieldschell

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.)

Demolitions continue around the old Children’s Memorial Hospital

Posted on December 8, 2016 by danieldschell

Remnants of the White Elephant Resale Shop at 2375 North Lincoln Avenue.

It isn’t just Children’s Memorial Hospital being erased from Lincoln Park memory. Adjacent buildings on Lincoln Avenue and Fullerton Parkway have also been doomed to the wrecking ball as well, in addition to a couple structures within the triangular block where the hospital stood. Those include the Martha Wilson Memorial Pavilion at 701 West Fullerton, and what you may have known as the White Elephant Resale Shop at 2375 North Lincoln.

A Hines McCaffery Interests rendering, which seems to show the White Elephant building remaining.

You aren’t alone if you thought the White Elephant building was to be saved. Renderings of The Lincoln Common show the building in place, so many of us were thrown off by its demise. According to DNAInfo, it was to be saved, or reconstructed, or maybe it will still be recreated as a brand-new structure. Whichever way, it’s rubble now. As for the Wilson Pavilion, that’s nothing but a hole in the earth now.

Children's Memorial Hospital demolitions

2350 and 2356 North Lincoln Avenue, prior to demolition. They’re both gone now.

Over on Lincoln Avenue, 2350 and 2356 were permitted for demolition in September, and 2358 a partial demolition, with the Lincoln Avenue facade to be saved, in early October. The former two structures are gone. 2358, of course, will take more time and care to bring down.

Finally, the Nellie A. Black Memorial Pavilion, at 700 West Fullerton, built in the late 1920s according to Preservation Chicago, which American Demolition started tearing into last month. Unrelated to The Lincoln Common, to will be replaced by a similarly-styled 7-story brick building to be used as a senior living facility.