An idle day at Wolf Point East.
Not Spire-abandoned, of course. But rainy-and-it’s-Saturday-so-there’s-no-good-reason-to-go-to-the-site abandoned. This was Wolf Point East over the weekend, when it was chilly, gloomy, and empty.
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GEMS World Academy Upper School rises on the south bank of the Chicago River.
Not many words needed for this one. Just showing you a few photos of Power Construction’s progress on the new GEMS World Academy Upper School in Lakeshore East. We tend to give a lot more attention to its supertall neighbor (that seems to be okay with GEMS’ neighbor bKL Architecture, the firm behind designs for both buildings), so let’s make sure GEMS gets its due too.
Construction fencing and Clark banners went up around the surface parking lot at 14th and Wabash in April.
CMK Companies has something big happening at the corner of 14th Street and Wabash Avenue in the South Loop. Maybe not Riverline big, but still big. And kinda mysterious.
Back in April, on the 19th and 20th, two separate foundation permits were issued by the City of Chicago for this site. The first called for H-Piles to be pounded into the earth to support a 10-story, 62-unit building at 1419 South Wabash. Then another permit was issued calling for more H-Piles at 51 East 14th Street, but these would be for a 14-story, 199-unit building. The permits show both structures to be Pappageorge Haymes Partners designs, and Clark Construction is named as the general contractor for both.
On May 16, a demolition permit was issued to wreck and remove the single-story mural-covered building at 1415 South Wabash that used to belong to Columbia College. (CMK bought that building back in October. Crain’s reported on it here.) And that work has indeed begun, courtesy of American Demolition.
The tower crane’s tower rises up from the GR333N construction site.
333 North Green (or GR333N if you prefer), the 19-story office tower Sterling Bay is putting up in Fulton Market, has Chicago’s newest tower crane working hard, as progress starts to push its way off street level. The lot at Green and Wayman Streets (yep, 333 North Green’s address for permit purposes is 810 West Wayman) is no small site, so the crane’s reach comes in handy as work spreads out. That’s Power Construction in charge of the goings-on. That shouldn’t be much of a surprise; Power is very busy in the West Loop.
***This tower crane snuck up on me. I knew there was a permit issued, but I didn’t know the stub had been planted until after the rest of the crane had been erected. So I have no stub photos. Sorry if I let you down, loyal readers.
With 6 other West Loop tower cranes playing back-up-singer roles, 333 North Green’s crane stands tall along N. Halsted Street.
Demolition is complete at the corner of Adams and Peoria Streets in the West Loop, leaving just a silky-smooth lot with which to begin Milieu, the 275-unit apartment project from co-developers White Oak Realty Partners and Crayton Advisors.
It looks like Stalworth Underground will hit the site first, as they’re equipment is already on the lot. They’ll help take care of foundation work for GC Power Construction, tasked with sending Milieu up to its desired 19-story height. Designed by the West Loop’s own FitzGerald, Milieu brings 13,000 square fete of retail space, as well as parking spots for nearly 200 cars.
For now, Power has a permit to build up to the 5th floor. Soon they’ll get a tower crane permit as well, then the full-build will follow. Milieu is expecting a Summer 2019 opening.
320 South Clinton is officially no longer a parking lot, as foundation work begins for the Toyoko Inn Chicago.
Stalworth Underground is on site at 320 South Clinton Street in the West Loop, drilling caissons upon which will stand the Toyoko Inn Chicago. A foundation permit was issued by the City of Chicago April 11. That permit shows the general contractor to be Denken USA, Inc., located in the Civic Opera Building at 20 North Wacker Drive, which also happens to be the address of the hotel’s ownership, again according to the permit.
The permit calls for a 24-story hotel, so of course there will be a tower crane. Not unusual lately for the West Loop, but a bit of an oddball in that it will be east of the Kennedy Expressway. We haven’t seen one of those since EMME at 165 North Desplaines, and 625 West Adams.
Caissons are going into the ground where this lame old parking deck once stood, at 145 South Wells.
The Loop’s next tower crane is right around the corner, as foundation work has begun at 145 South Wells. Case Foundation, whose rigs we spotted on site a week or so ago, have started drilling caissons to support the 20-story office building from Moceri + Roszak.
145 South Wells replaces a modest four-story parking garage in The Loop, and will replace it with a measly 24 parking spots. That’s a pretty good trade-off.
A train goes by as a crane goes bye-bye at 210 North Carpenter.
“Why is that big tall street crane in my shot?” I said to myself as I aimed the camera over the Chicago River into the West Loop. I knew I was looking at tower cranes from the Hoxton Chicago hotel and 210 North Carpenter, but couldn’t figure out what construction site I had missed that would have such a big crane. Then I zoomed in. Noticed the people up on top of the more distant crane. And realized 210 North Carpenter was, in fact, on its way down.
See? Those are people up there, removing the counterweights from the counterjib.
I had just been in the West Loop earlier in the day, and that street crane wasn’t erected yet. So this came as a surprise. Plus, it meant I had to walk all the way back over there to check things out. Central Contractors Service was on site with GC Leopardo Companies and concrete contractor Adjustable Forms starting to dismantle Manitowoc MD485 (don’t be impressed; I copied that info from the permit.) Leopardo is now one step closer to finishing their new headquarters.
***Whilst in the area of the West Loop Saturday, I stopped at the new McDonald’s HQ and had a go at those new Australian bacon-cheese fries everyone’s been talking about. I suggest you try them.
The tower crane sinks below the top of the 2 Hiltons in the South Loop. You know that means doom.
The Hilton Homewood Suites and Hilton Garden Inn aren’t finished yet, but the tower crane is. We got word last week that the tower crane would be removed any day now, and sure enough, crews from Central Contractors Service, Lendlease, and Pepper Construction (as the concrete contractor, it’s technically their crane) were out there Sunday, taking sections down and hauling them off the site.
There remains quite a bit of work to do to make this tower a hotel. Or two. But now the heavy lifting will be up to the skip hoist.
Is a tower crane still a tower crane if only the cab remains on the tower? I think not.
It was only November when Renelle on the River made news by erecting Chicago’s 60th tower crane of 2017. It took McHugh Construction and that tower crane just six months to erect the 18-story bKL Architecture design that will soon contain 50 of the city’s newest, nicest condominiums. last week, it came down.
Don’t worry though, there’s still a lot of work to be done here. Only one level of curtain wall has been installed so far, so we’ll have that to watch before all that’s left to do is interior work on those 50 condos.
