If you go by floor count, it looks like the Ancora tower at Riverline is a teenager now. The CMK Companies apartment-and-townhome building will grow to 29 stories when all is said and done, and Lendlease continues to build.
Like all new construction wrapped in multi-colored building materials, Ancora is best seen on sunny days. And the best-best views are in the evening, as the sun goes down, from the west side of the Chicago River.
Eleven40 is topped out, with forms remaining only on the east side. Prepare to lose that tower crane soon.
The way I figure it, as long as there are forms atop Eleven40 in the South Loop, I’ll still have a tower crane to see in the back yard. Once those are all down though, we can expect crane removal to happen post haste, as the apartment tower from CA Ventures and Keith Giles continues toward completion at 1136 South Wabash Avenue. And only the east elevation still has forms at all, so we’re getting down to crunch time.
Lendlease is crazy busy in the South Loop, with Eleven40, Ancora at Riverline, 1407 On Michigan, and Hilton Homewood Suites at 1101 South Wabash all climbing at the same time. Like Eleven40, 1407 is topped out, and its tower crane is expected to come down this weekend. Ancora is less than half way from its ultimate height, and the Hilton is just starting to go vertical.
But back to Eleven40. It will bring 320 apartments across its 26 stories when complete, with delivery expected in Spring 2018. As of Today 2017, there are 14 levels of glass installed above the podium, with crews banging and clanging pieces into place daily. From here, we’d say that Spring opening is a cinch.
Tower Crane Stub #2 at One Grant Park, courtesy of a reader.
A little birdie told us the second tower crane stub arrived at One Grant Park on Wednesday, and proved it with a couple photos. Birdies are smart. And good sharers.
McHugh Construction got the second permit on August 24, then got a foundation permit for it on August 29. 12 piles were driven into the ground for support, and now the stub stands ready for a “free-standing Pecco SN 160 tower crane.”
Essex On The Park is starting to rise alongside its mother ship, the Essex Inn.
One floor at a time, Essex On The Park is starting to show itself along the Michigan Avenue Streetwall in the South Loop. Of course, we ain’t seen nothing yet. What’s pictured is merely a fraction of the eventual 56 stories that will house 476 new apartments. And that’s a good thing. It means we have lots of progress still to come, lots of watching still to do.
Chicago Water Taxi cruises past Wolf Point East on Tuesday.
I thought the caissons were done. I guess they’re not quite. Sheeting might be done, because the pile driver is folded up like it’s driving away soon. But maybe not. I don’t know.
The Big Green W and Case Foundation are doing work at Wolf Point East, and I have no idea what it is. But they have cool toys, and they all seem to know what they’re doing. So I took some photos and now you can see them too.
The end.
Bye bye parking lot, hello hotel, as work begins at 110 West Huron Street in River North.
Piles of rubble and dirt have replaced the surface parking lot at Huron and Clark Streets in River North. That means work is officially underway for the 17-story, 185-room hotel at 110 West Huron from Akara Partners.
Akara received a foundation permit from the City of Chicago back on August 24. Curiously, they already have a tower crane permit as well, and it was issued more than two weeks before the foundation permit, on August 11. And to make things just a tad more confusing, the permit doesn’t actually say “tower crane” on it:
FOUNDATION DESIGN FOR THE INSTALLATION AN OPERATION OF LIEBHERR 316 EC-H12 LITRONIC
So unless you were paying ridiculously close attention, you may have missed it. I, for one, was indeed paying ridiculously close attention. But I missed it too. Anyway, I’m over that now. Pretty much.
The hotel is a design by Chicago’s NORR Inc on North LaSalle, and will include, according to the permit, ground-level retail space and a rooftop restaurant.
The general contractor is M.A. Mortenson Company of Wisconsin. You remember them from their work on the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center in Milwaukee we visited in July.
Even the rubble is gone, providing a blank canvas at Erie and LaSalle for The Bentham to begin.
The old Erie-LaSalle Body Shop has been torn down and hauled away, clearing the lot to make way for The Bentham. Sedgwick Development is building the 15-story condo tower, which they also designed. There will be 31 units, all of the 3-bed, 3-bath, open-floor variety. The 15th floor will be the rooftop deck.
NW Construction of Forest Park is the general contractor. Congrats, NWC, on getting on the Chicago Tower Crane board! Adjustable Forms will be on hand for masonry work.
Consumers arrive by boat to get in line for the October 20 opening of the new Chicago Apple Store. Probably.
Multiple outlets have reported (honestly, everyone has mentioned it. Call your Aunt Susie, and I bet it’s the first thing she wants to talk about) that Chicago’s new Apple Store will open October 20 on the Magnificent Mile. When it does, it will be the place to go for fancy smart phones, computers, watches, and more. But what it used to be was *the* place to see a really low tower crane. You tower crane you could just about reach up and touch.
Power Construction continues to add finishing touches to the two-story glass box at Michigan Avenue and the Chicago River. Once complete, they’ll turn their attention to building the Apple Store 2S. (Not true at all.)
Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes, killing the overhead shots at Addison & Clark.
That’s a big lot up that at Addison & Clark. And Addison & Clark is a big project. Seems like the prefect match, doesn’t it?
M&R Development and Bucksbaum Retail Properties are the co-developers on the sprawling mixed-use project, bringing 148 apartments and 146,000 square feet of retail space across the street from Wrigley Field. Power Construction is out there doing the heavy labor, and they’ve reached as high as the 5th floor, depending on which part of the site you look, of the eight floors in total. That includes lots of podium work, to be expected when the SCB design involves parking for 400+ cars.
The plan is to have residents and shoppers alike enjoying Addison & Clark in 2018. Progress looks well on the way to that goal.
No. 508, at 508 West Diversey in Lake View.
Crews from Macon Construction continue to grow No. 508 up on the city’s north side. A development from Boston-based Broder, the building at 508 West Diversey in Lake View will bring 53 luxury units to the neighborhood, and is designed by Pappageorge Haymes Partners.
The 12-story tower will include commercial space on the ground floor, parking on levels 2 and 3, residential units on floors 4-11, and amenities on the 12th floor, all topped off by a green roof.
The link to Broder’s website for No. 508 tells you it will be ready this year; don’t count on it. This project got off to a slow start, and with construction having only reached the fifth floor so far, a 2017 opening seems awfully ambitious. But, Macon *does* have an almighty tower crane at its disposal (they’re about to get their second one in the Chicago skies, at Hayden West Loop), so maybe we shouldn’t completely discount them.
Building Up Chicago 