Twelve01West flying The Colors on Memorial Day.
Twelve01West, the new seven-story office building at 1201 West Lake Street from McCaffery Interests, is rising above street level out in the West Loop. W.E. O’Neil not only has the site all dressed up in the typical oranges and reds of construction material, but also had the Stars and Stripes draped over the top of the core, waving in the hot Memorial Day weekend breeze. Have a look:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjaperMBZ-8/
Well now, this is news.
A couple new Instagram accounts popped up in our feed last night. And they announced the same thing: There’s a new development coming to the southwest corner of Harrison and Wells in the South Loop: Alta Grand Central.
Alta Grand Central looks like it will be an apartment development comprised of two 14-story towers, with a total of 346 units. Wood Partners is the developer, Pappageorge Haymes Partners the design architect, and Walsh Construction will be the general contractor. If those names sound familiar, just look around the corner for Alta Roosevelt.
According to that Instagram post, site prep got started Wednesday. No permits as of Tuesday, but we should get a fresh round of those any minute now. Congrats, Alta Team!
Centaur Construction is back on the build at Nobu Hotel, 854 West Randolph Street in the West Loop.
After a brief (okay, kinda long) hiatus, Nobu Hotel on Randolph Street in the West Loop is back. Centaur Construction found the keys to their tower crane, and work is back in full swing now that financial details have been fixed on the hotel project.
Obviously, that delay has set completion back considerably. Originally planned to open late this year, updated expectations are now for late in 2019. Pending any other holdups, my money is on Centaur being able to push that timeline up a little bit. But we’ll see. We’re just happy to see the hotel wasn’t scrapped altogether.
You’ll now be able to see River North from your room, as Home2 SUites installs windows.
The 17-story Home2 Suites in River North has grown to exactly 17 stories. And to top off that topping off, M.A. Mortenson has also started adding windows to the exterior. That means two things (at least): Interior work can start ramping up in earnest, and that tower crane will probably come down very soon.
As seen from North Avenue Beach, 61 East Banks is making quite an impression along the Lake Michigan and Lake Shore Drive.
Granted, it would be even better with another 40 stories or so. But I can’t stop imagining the views from 61 East Banks, the new apartment building that took over a surface parking lot on Lake Shore Drive in the Gold Coast neighborhood.
At just eight stories, residents of the 60 new units won’t have elevated views of Lake Michigan, but since they’ll be right on the water, they won’t need height. Location is key here.
Draper & Kramer is the developer of 61 East Banks; Leopardo Companies is handling general contractor duties. Designed by Booth Hansen, 61 East Banks has already risen to its 8-story goal. That pretty yellow tower crane along the water will probably come down soon, but you can still marvel at it from the lakefront path for now.
Eight Eleven Uptown sits nearly complete at Montrose and Clarendon.
The tower crane is gone, cladding is complete, and Lendlease has entered the home stretch at Eight Eleven Uptown.
Designed by Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture, and co-developed by JDL Development and Harlem Irving Companies, the residential tower at 811 West Agatite in the Uptown neighborhood will deliver 381 apartments and 36,000 square feet of retail space upon completion.
Opening will include a new Treasure Island grocery store, which this neighborhood badly needs.
A rendering from CRG of Sheridan & Wilson, coming to 4555 N Sheridan in Uptown.
A foundation permit was issued Wednesday for 4555 North Sheridan Road in Uptown. Developed by CRG, Sheridan and Wilson will be a 12-story tower containing 149 apartments. Included will be 5,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, and outside parking spots for 29 cars.
This is a real in-house development. The design architect, BatesForum, and general contractor, Clayco, are both integrated companies with CRG under the Clayco brand. (You may recall this team from the Cook County Central Campus Health Center build.) Because when you want something done right, sometimes it’s best to do it all yourself.
As you can see in the photos, site prep is underway. No word yet on an anticipated opening date.
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.
Building Up Chicago 