160 North Elizabeth brings the pane

160 North Elizabeth on May 28. Don’t know if it had glass on it yet, but I love me some night photos.

Let’s recap some particulars on 160 North Elizabeth before we get to the pics.
Moceri + Roszak is the developer.
Thomas Roszak Architecture is the design architect
Clark Construction is the general contractor
Adjustable Concrete Construction is the concrete contractor
It will be a 27-story, 375-unit apartment tower
There will be 144 parking spaces across the first three levels

A demolition permit was issued 11/05/2021 to make space
A pile and foundation permit was issued 11/24/2021
A permit to build through the third floor was also issued on 11/24/2021
A tower crane permit was issued 11/30/2021
A full permit for 27 stories was issued 02/04/2022
A hoist permit was issued 02/09/2022

And now, lots of photos of a little bit of glass. But it’s not just any glass; it’s the first glass.

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.

Permit issued, work underway on Rush Specialty Hospital

A caisson juts from the ground at Harrison & Loomis.

A very busy two-block space on the west side of the city just got a little busier, as Rush University Medical Center began construction on a new RUSH Specialty Hospital facility.

A permit was issued May 23rd for a five-story “inpatient hospital building” at 516 South Loomis. Earlier anticipation of this project may show an address of 1400 West Harrison. Either way, this is the place. Rush is developing the hospital along with Select Medical.

This is what Rush had to say in a news release for the groundbreaking:

Select Medical and Rush University System for Health held a ceremonial ground-breaking to celebrate the new RUSH Specialty Hospital being built on Chicago’s West Side.

The 100-bed facility will be a combined critical illness recovery and inpatient rehabilitation hospital on the RUSH University Medical Center campus. The hospital is slated to open in 2024 and will feature 44 critical illness recovery and 56 inpatient rehabilitation beds. 

“It is the beginning of what will be excellent care for our community,” said RUSH CEO Dr. K. Ranga Rama Krishnan.

To celebrate the construction of the future hospital, RUSH and Select Medical executives were joined by local leaders, including 28th Ward Alderman Jason C. Ervin and Illinois state Rep. Lakesia Collins.

“It’s a phenomenal partnership that speaks to innovation and brings patients the care they need when, where and how they need it,” said RUSH University Medical Center President and CEO Dr. Omar Lateef.

Together as partners, Select Medical and RUSH are delivering a world-class acute to post-acute continuum of care for Chicagoans. 

“The promise of excellence is often achieved through our joint ventures,” said Tom Mullin, executive vice president of hospital operations for Select Medical.

Select Medical and RUSH entered a joint venture partnership agreement on Sept. 24, 2020, to build and manage operations of the new hospital.

In addition to the new RUSH Specialty Hospital, Select Medical contributed 63 of its outpatient centers to the joint venture. Today, those locations are rebranded RUSH Physical Therapy, and the footprint has expanded to 71 centers, including 19 dedicated to pediatrics under the RUSH Kids Physical Therapy brand.

Power Construction is the general contractor, with assistance on concrete from Adjustable Concrete Construction. Stalworth Underground rigs are on site drilling caissons. Like I said, this is a very busy two-block area, with the Joan and Paul Rubschlager Building nearing completion, along with its adjoining parking garage. The photos below include all three projects.

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.

Beneath the surface, work for Northwestern Medicine at 4445 W. Irving Park continues

The tower crane at 4445 W Irving Park

Ride the #80 bus past 4445 West Irving Park Road and you won’t see many new signs of construction on Northwestern Medicine’s 4-story facility. But get off the bus and take a peek into the abyss and you’ll see there’s a lot going on below street level. The block-long site still looks like a deep excavation, but not nearly as deep as the first visit back in April.

Compare those April photos to the gallery below, and you’ll see how far the tag-team of Power Construction and UJAMAA Construction has come on the CannonDesign facility.

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.

That new tower crane has Tandem’s 1044 West Van Buren going vertical

1044 West Van Buren was part of Chicago’s mini growth spurt of tower cranes in late May. And it’s doing what tower cranes do: turning empty lots into new buildings. This one in particular, designed by Antunovich Associates for Tandem (with Adjustable Concrete on concrete duty), will rise to 18 stories and deliver 196 apartments to the south end of the West Loop.

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.

Howard Brown Health foundation work continues at 3501 North Halsted

The tower crane at 3501 North Halsted, seen from a Brown Line train

My last visit to 3501 North Halsted featured a half-built tower crane. That crane is now fully functional, as work by McHugh Construction continues below street level. Soon, they’ll go vertical on the new healthcare facility from Howard Brown Health and Inland National Development Company.

Want to spot the tower crane but don’t have time to stop for it? Take a Brown Line train north out of the Belmont Station, then have your camera ready as you go over the Red Line Bypass. Don’t have time to do even that? Stare at the photo above.

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.

Got a light? Onni Group does it again at 354 North Union

The view of the Fulton River District’s 354 North Union from the Fulton Market District.

The coolest of Chicago’s current tower crane crop is at 354 North Union. No contest. The lighted crane always wins. Kudos to Onni Group for lighting up yet another.

I stopped by Saturday night to take a few shots in the dark. Wish my photography skills were better, but even bad photos of lit up tower cranes are cool. Also in the gallery are some progress shots taken throughout the month of May.

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

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

Another walkaround at 1000M

I said I didn’t want to miss much of the construction at 1000M, yet here we are, more than a month since my last visit. Unacceptable. Let’s fix that now.


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 Photos: 1400 South Wabash


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.

You Got This. (It’s glass; The Reed’s got glass)

Lendlease has got this, indeed.

The first two levels of glass are being installed on The Reed, the second residential tower at Southbank, Lendlease’s neighborhood development on the South Branch of the Chicago River. You’re probably familiar with The Reed because of the tower crane in the South Loop that looks like a red hammerhead shark. If you squint and are slightly dehydrated. Whatever. It’s a cool crane.

First glass is always a favorite milestone of mine when it comes to construction. So this was fun to see, which resulted in lots of photos. (And these don’t even include my two previous visits to The Reed that I didn’t get around to posting.) I know; you’re shocked.


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.