625 West Adams-watch continues in the West Loop

Posted on January 19, 2017 by danieldschell

All’s quiet for the night at 625 West Adams, the SCB-designed office tower coming to the West Loop.

If I haven’t said it already, I highly recommend everyone get a construction site right outside the window. It should be a window that doesn’t open, so you don’t get as much noise. Or dust. Height helps too. Then you just need a zoom lens to keep tabs on the action.

Power Construction is working on the fifth and final parking level at 625 West Adams, the 20-story office tower from CA Ventures and White Oak Realty. Needless to say, it’s mesmerizing to watch.

Not just any single family residence rises up in River North

Posted on January 19, 2017 by danieldschell

The five-story, single family home at 455 West Superior Street.

Chasing single-family construction in Chicago would probably feel like a fever dream. Maybe in a small town like Mars, Pennsylvania, or Conover, Wisconsin, that would be possible. But not here.

But there is one single-family home being built that can’t be ignored. The city filed a permit for it back in March, to the tune of $9,980,000.00. Yep, just under ten million. Five stories, one family, with caissons. A permit so stunning, even Dennis Rodkin at Crain’s reported it. And in June, I watched the soil start to turn. But then…I forgot about it.

Until this week, when I went by the lot at 455 West Superior Street and saw four stories’ worth of erected steel. I guess they kept working on it, even though I wasn’t there to watch. Power Construction is out there building the Wheeler Kearns Architects-designed home. It’s shrouded in plastic and mystery for now, but at the rate it’s moving, we’ll get to see what it looks like soon.

: The Empty Lot.

: The Permit.

Construction Update: Prairie Court townhomes

Posted on January 19, 2017 by danieldschell

A lot of work has been done on the townhomes of Prairie Court since our last visit in September. In that time, Summit Design + Build has done some major cinder-block stacking, window installing, and even bricked up the wall at the north end of the project. In all, there will be 55 four-story homes from Golub and Sandz Development, slated for completion in 2018.

Construction Progress: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Posted on January 18, 2017 by danieldschell

There are bricks in the wall at the new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Near North. The 7-story design by Dixon + Associates of Salt Lake City, Utah has already climbed to the sixth floor. McHugh Construction has been on the job since May of last year.

Before we head to the photos, here’s a reminder of what David Dixon of Dixon + Associates sent us last summer:

The new building in Chicago is unique for the Church. While they typically complete a new standard single-story meetinghouse every day somewhere in the world, this project is specifically designed for Chicago. Following the Neoclassical Romanesque Revival style of architecture, the building will incorporate the traditional red brick and limestone appearance that is prevalent in this area of Chicago. It will be six stories above grade (three meetinghouse and three parking levels) with a partial story of parking below grade. The building will open in about a year with a two-story chapel and associated classrooms. The top floor can accommodate another smaller chapel and classrooms in the future. Three or four congregations from the downtown area will utilize the building with staggered meeting schedules. A unique feature of this building is a landscaped courtyard on the fourth story. The courtyard provides semi-private outdoor space that could be used for receptions, mingling between meetings, or children’s activities. Plans were presented to the local neighborhood and were very well received.

: Render from Dixon + Associates.

Construction Progress: The Gallery On Wells

Posted on January 18, 2017 by danieldschell

The Gallery on Wells.

The Gallery On Wells is taller than its neighbor across the street, 640 North Wells, and it still has a tower crane. So perhaps it really has won the War on Wells. The 39-story apartment tower at 167 West Erie Street (or 637 North Wells, if you prefer) from the Magellan Development Group looks to have reached about the 30-story level or so. Linn-Mathes is doing the honors, putting 442 rental units, 131 parking spots, and 7,500 square feet of retail space into the Loewenberg Architects design.

: In the foreground, 640 North LaSalle, where the amenities deck will be for the Gallery on Wells.

165 North Desplaines joins glass action

Posted on January 17, 2017 by danieldschell

That’s a pretty row of glass at 165 North Desplaines.

And the glass action suits it.

With lots of new construction comes lots of new glass work. Add 165 North Desplaines to the list of the newly glazed. The 199-unit apartment building has about a floor-and-a-half of glass installed just above the podium, while overall construction has reached the 14th floor. and since this is planned to be a 14-story tower, the math would tell you 165 North Desplaines is close to topping out.

: What? I think I rode one of those at Disney World.

If you’re clad and you know it… you might be 151 North Franklin

Posted on January 16, 2017 by danieldschell

There’s an embarrassment of riches of new glass around Chicago these days. The latest to show up for the party? 151 North Franklin. But you have to look carefully. There are a few panels visible from the corner of Franklin and Randolph, and then a couple rows along Couch Place (aka the alley between Randolph and Lake.)

Have a look:

: The glass along Franklin…

: …is hidden under the corner of Franklin and Randolph.

: Alley glass, from an unsafe angle.

: Alley glass.

Ancora aweigh: Riverline puts up a tower crane and gets busy

Posted on January 16, 2017 by danieldschell

A pretty yellow tower crane rises above Ancora, the first phase of the Riverline project from CMK Companies.

You can’t stop a development with a tower crane. You can’t even hope to contain one.

Riverline has one of the newest machines in Chicago construction. A pretty yellow one at that. And its first task is Ancora, the 29-story apartment tower at 720 South Wells Street in the South Loop previously known (according to permits) as “Building D.”

Perkins + Will designed Ancora for CMK Companies, and it will be the first of many structures erected in the Riverline project. There will be 452 apartments and 246 parking spaces included with this phase. Lendlease is taking care of the heavy lifting.

: The Ancora and Alta Roosevelt tower cranes, off in the distance.

Thus endeth the War On Wells, as 640 North Wells lowers its tower crane

Posted on January 16, 2017 by danieldschell

I don’t know much about construction, but I *do* know when a crane sits below the top of its tower, its time there has come to an end.

It was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it? Two tower cranes, standing on either side of Wells Street, looking like they’re begin jousting at any moment?

640 North Wells and The Gallery On Wells (then known as 167 West Erie, or 637 North Wells, or The Building On Wells Street Where Gino’s Used To Be) got started about the same time, then famously (to me) erected tower cranes nearly simultaneously. That’s how the War On Wells began. But when one tower rises 17 stories higher than the other, it’s not really a fair fight.

And so, having topped out at 23 stories, 640 North Wells took down the tower crane over the weekend. But shed no tears for that lost crane. We’re gonna need two tower cranes at the McDonald’s HQ. And have you seen Thursday’s agenda for the Chicago Plan Commission meeting? Tower cranes won’t be out of season in Chicago for quite some time.

: Severing the tie-in.

: Note the Gallery On Wells crane watching from above.

: A crane-removal crane.

It’s all downstream from here for The Hudson

Posted on January 16, 2017 by danieldschell

The Hudson, 750 North Hudson Avenue, and its very impressive podium.

Once famous for its glow-in-the-dark tower crane, The Hudson, at 750 North Hudson Avenue in River North, is topped out, glassed up, and looking like it will easily meet its Summer 2017 opening. Pappageorge Haymes Partners designed The Hudson for Onni Group, which is not only the developer, but the general contractor as well. That summer opening will feature 240 apartments, 240 parking spaces, and 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.