Category Archives: New Construction

That’s a wrap for Panorama caisson work at 3300 North Clark

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bKL Architecture rendering of Panorama, 3300 North Clark Street in Lake View.

Panorama is an eight-story rental building coming to the Lake View neighborhood at 3300 North Clark. Developed by Blilzlake Partners and designed by bKL Architecture, Panorama brings 140 units a block away from the Belmont CTA station. It will include 140 units, 9,000 square feet of retail space, and parking for 20 cars.

I set out Monday morning to watch caisson work, and got there just in time to watch Revcon their caisson equipment onto flatbeds and haul it away. Time, you see, waits for no one. A return trip to the site Monday afternoon shows an empty site.

Power Construction is on this build. If you’re wondering whether Panorama’s eight stories are enough for a tower crane, and I know you are, a tower crane permit has already been issued for this construction, back on December 3rd.

800 Fulton is on the rise

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Three weeks ago, 800 Fulton was a difficult spectator sport. High fences, deep excavations, attack dogs that clearly knew my scent and were expecting me. Okay, the dog thing is a lie. But I digress. Point is, 800 Fulton is starting to jut above street level, and now we can get a great look at progress Lendlease is making on the future 19-story office tower from Thor Equities.

And so, without further ado, I present a whole mess o’photos:

Catching up on Wolf Point East

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Screen grab from the OxBlue construction cam at Wolf Point East.

This is embarrassing.

How many times have I walked by, and stopped at, the Wolf Point East construction site? If you guessed between 6,000 and 74 gazillion, you’re close. So how had I not figured out there was an OxBlue webcam aimed at the now-topped-off-and-craneless tower this whole time?

Wolf Point East, of course, is the second of three towers being built at the northeast corner of the Chicago River Triangle, if indeed a triangle can have a northwest corner. Developed by Hines in cooperation with the Kennedy family, Wolf Point East is bringing 700 rental units to the River North neighborhood. The 60-story tower will also include 200 parking spaces and 3,600 square feet of retail space.

Pelli Clarke Pelli is the design architect; Pappageorge Haymes Partners is the architect of record. That’s The Big Green W out there on the build. (Remember the trestle bridge?!)

Sorry, January 26, 2020 was a very grey day:

The Orchard is growing condos at The Lincoln Common

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This ridiculous sunrise shot from the tower crane, from Gilbane Building Company, taken at The Orchard.

Located next to the recently-opened matching towers of The Lincoln Common, The Orchard is a seven-story, 32-unit condominium building on the rise in Lincoln Park. There are two developers: McCaffery Interests and Hines. The design architect is Antunovich Associates. Gilbane Building Company is the general contractor.

The condo building has reached its final height of seven floors. There’s still a lot of exterior work to be done, and then there’s the matter of getting 32 condominiums move-in ready. The Orchard is on track to open later this year.

 

 

Stuff That’s Done: The Apartments at Lincoln Common

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The two apartment towers that anchor the new Lincoln Common development in Lincoln Park opened to residents in Spring 2019. The Apartments at Lincoln Common fill the pair of 20-story towers with 538 apartments, featuring studio, one-bed, two-bed, and three-bedroom units.

The sprawling complex is built on the grounds of the former Children’s Memorial Hospital, which was demolished after the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago was constructed in Streeterville. Children’s patients were moved there in the spring of 2012.

This phase of The Lincoln Common could have been called Noahville, because everything about this project came in pairs:

There are the two towers.

The two towers were erected by two tower cranes.

There are two developers: Hines and McCaffery Interests.

There are two design architects: Antunovich Associates and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Alas, there only needed to be one general contractor in charge of putting it all together; W.E. O’Neil filled those duties.

Included in the photo gallery below are a couple more pieces of the Lincoln Common puzzle:

  • A five-story boutique office building at 2350 N Lincoln.
  • A row of single-story retail spaces from 2316-2348 N Lincoln
  • The renovated “power station” buildings at 2355 N Lincoln
  • A new Chase Bank in the recreated building at 2377 N Lincoln

Updates to come: The Orchard, a seven-story condominium building currently under construction, and Belmont Village Senior Living, a completed seven-story residential facility at 700 West Fullerton.

Congratulations to all involved in the ongoing establishment of a great new neighborhood on Chicago’s north side.

 

 

Stuff That’s Done: Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago River North

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The brand new Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago River North at 110 West Huron.

And now, for another new hotel opened in Chicago while I wasn’t paying attention.

Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago River North opened at 110 West Huron Street in February 2019. The 17-story hotel boasts 206 rooms in the River North neighborhood. It is the only job this blog has covered in Chicago by general contractor M.A. Mortenson. It was designed by the Chicago architecture firm NORR, and developed by Akara Partners.

 

Stuff That’s Done: Hyatt House West Loop

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Hyatt House Chicago West Loop, 105 North May Street.

For awhile there, it was difficult to find overnight accommodations in the West Loop. That’s changed dramatically over the past year or two. (Big shock, right? Everything has changed dramatically around here in the past year or two. Hotels, office space, apartments, condos, restaurants. What a time to be alive in the West Loop.)

One new hotel option is the Hyatt House Chicago, now open at 105 North May Street.

Construction work by Skender began in Spring 2018. It opened in June 2019.

Sterling Bay developed the 16-story hotel, which offers about 200 rooms, conveniently located less than a block from the new McDonald’s HQ. Designed by Chicago firm Eckenhoff Saunders Architects, Hyatt House brought nearly 200 guest rooms to the neighborhood.

Stuff That’s Done: NEMA Chicago

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https://twitter.com/McHughConstruct/status/1220372622548119552

NEMA Chicago started out as One Grant Park. I liked that name. It didn’t give you the address, but you still knew right where it must be. You know, that really really tall one at the south end of the park. Alas, things and names change.

Thursday, James McHugh Construction sent out the above tweet, announcing they’ve done all they can do at NEMA, more than three years after taking control of the empty lot at Indiana and Michigan Avenues, and Roosevelt Road.

There are 800 apartments in this brand new 76-story skyscraper, and if the views of Chicago aren’t enough for you, it also has about a kajillion square feet of amenity space. It’s a marvelous design by Rafael Viñoly Architects. Crescent Heights is the developer. NEMA Chicago opened to residents in July 2019.

Uncraning 110 North Wacker

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A crane to remove a crane, and a plane, at 110 North Wacker.

I thought I’d head over to 110 North Wacker Sunday and watch the tower crane come down. The newsletter from the 42nd Ward warned us about street closures Sunday and Monday to facilitate the removal, and figured I’d make a day of it.

Yeah. I missed it. I can only assume the tower crane had been lowered section by section already, and this past weekend was just a matter of the final disassembly, and loading it up on trucks to haul it away. Cuz by the time I got there…no crane. Just a couple segments. The crane that took down the crane (yes, that’s a thing) is still up top; don’t be fooled by it.

The good news is, I still got to see a topped-out 55-story office tower with a nearly-finished curtain wall. In the sunshine. And that always makes for a good day.

Remember, this is the team that just finished 150 North Riverside and just started Union Station Tower. They know a thing or two about putting up sweet buildings. Clark Construction is on the build. Goettsch Partners is the design architect. Riverside Investment and Development Company, along with The Howard Hughes Corporation, are the developers.

110 North Wacker is scheduled to open late this year.

Vista Tower opens this year. It’s a pretty big deal.

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Soil sampling at Lower Wacker Drive and Field Boulevard, August 2016.

Vista Tower opens in 2020. That’s this year. Seems like a decade ago there was the occasional soil sampler in the lots bisected by Field Boulevard in Lakeshore East. But then earth was scraped, caissons were sunk, foundations were poured, two tower cranes were erected, frustums were frustummed, and here we are.

You know what we haven’t seen from this blog in a long time? A big ole Vista Tower photo dump. In part because once a tower under construction reaches 39,000 feet in the air, or whatever this glorious beast is, it’s hard to watch the work that’s being done. But I’ve passed by her a few times over the past several months, always snapping a few shots on the way. You might want to see them, so if you do, here they are.

Like I said, she’s glorious, ain’t she?