Glass is now in session at 919 West Fulton

Posted on October 16, 2024 by danieldschell

If you look about midway up 919 West Fulton, you’ll see the first level of glass, plus a little bit of the second, has been installed on the curtain wall. I don’t know when that got started, but the last couple times I’ve gone by here (on the L) I’ve been looking toward street level to see if there were any windows in yet. So I might be lucky I didn’t miss them this time. I was walking west on Fulton east of Halsted, and that’s when I first noticed it, just beyond the FULTON MARKET DISTRICT sign. you see above.

So that’s another milestone reached, with topping out and removing the tower crane already achieved. Congrats to the team of:

Skender – General Contractor
Adjustable Concrete – Concrete Contractor
Fulton Street Companies – Developer
FitzGerald – Design Architect
And everyone else on the build.

The 11-story, 530,000-square-foot office building is scheduled for completion in 2025.

Trigger Alert: The Thompson Center looks ravaged

Posted on September 13, 2024 by danieldschell

The Thompson Center is open to the sky, but not to the public, during reconstruction.

Fear not. The Thompson Center *still* isn’t being demolished; it just looks that way. Its transformation into Google offices has taken a toll on the tri-colored exterior, and while the replacement skin might not be as colorful, it will make the building much easier to heat and cool. But for now, it looks rather bare. I almost feel guilty for looking at it, much less taking pictures. But it looks pretty dang cool this way. Now, to get them to let me stand in the atrium before they get the new cladding on…

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.

Skender proclaims topping out of 919 West Fulton

Posted on July 17, 2024 by danieldschell

919 West Fulton has topped out. Photo courtesy of Connor Hirsch at Skender Construction.

A post Wednesday afternoon on Skender’s Instagram Stories announced the topping out of 919 West Fulton in the Fulton Market District. The West Loop office building, now at its ultimate 11-story height, topped out less than 10 months after receiving a foundation permit, on September 29 of last year. The official groundbreaking was held in December 2023.

Congratulations to Skender and their concrete partner Adjustable Concrete, developer Fulton St. Companies, and design architect FitzGerald.

As of Friday July 12, curtain wall installation hadn’t begun, so that’s the next big milestone to watch for.

All photo were taken July 12:

919 West Fulton continues trending upward in the West Loop

Posted on April 24, 2024 by danieldschell

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Skender (@skenderbuild)

An overhead view of 919 West Fulton from Skender on Instagram.

As you can see from Skender’s Instagram post above, Fulton Street Companies‘ latest development, 919 West Fulton, an 11-story office building in the heart of the West Loop/Fulton Market District, continues its progress. All work is above street level now.

Photos were taken Monday, April 22:

919 West Fulton sprouts above street level

Posted on March 21, 2024 by danieldschell

919 West Fulton from under the L on Lake Street.

919 West Fulton had just started poking up out of the ground last time we visited. Now, you can walk along North Sangamon and look up to see progress, as the core juts skyward on this future office building from *Fulton Street Companies.

*Remember the whole 917 vs 919 thing from earlier this month? It looks like perhaps there’s a resolution, as that link from Fulton Street Companies now refers to this project as 919. The old link, the 917 link, is dead.

With the full building permit in hand for this one, having been issued back in November, here are a few more of the players on this team (shameless attempt on my part to chime in on March Madness):
FitzGerald – Design Architect
Thornton Tomasetti – Structural Engineer
Midwest Masonry – Masonry Contractor
Edwards Engineering – Refrigeration, Ventilation Contractor
DW Mechanical Group – Plumbing Contractor
Maron Electric Company – Electrical Contractor
MAP Strategies – Permit Expeditor

Progress continues from Skender and Adjustable. Check it out, photographed on Wednesday, March 20:

919 West Fulton goes construction progress 3D

Posted on March 5, 2024 by danieldschell

Skender and Adjustable have added the 3rd dimension to 919 West Fulton,

It’s true that we first visited 919 West Fulton* just last week to check on progress. But when in Rome, you snap photos of Rome. Or something. I had to go by the site over the weekend, and saw significant work to get this future office building up to street level. That’s worth documenting. Besides, there aren’t that many tower-crane jobs happening in Chicago at the moment.

*Yep, that link from developer Fulton Street Companies refers to this project as *917* West Fulton. Everything else uses *919* for it. The permits don’t help; they’re all addressed to 217 N. Sangamon.

For now, I’m going with 919, even though siding with the developer is generally the better way to go. I just like the “nine” ending instead of “seven.” We’ll get it straightened out in good time. Or maybe this building will get a random moniker that makes moot the whole 917/919 controversy.

First Visit: Office building at 919 West Fulton is underway

Posted on February 24, 2024 by danieldschell

Best place to view 919 West Fulton construction? The CTA Morgan Street Green/Pink Line platform.

The tower crane is up, and foundations are down — below street level that is — at the West Loop’s 919 West Fulton, an 11-story, 530-square-foot office building from Fulton Street Companies.

That address — 919 West Fulton Market — is probably where you’ll want your company’s mail delivered to if you lease office space here, but to the city of Chicago, the address is 217 North Sangamon Street, for permit purposes. And to date, those permits include:
“Deep” Foundations — issued 9-29-2023
Tower Crane — issued 10-12-2023.

Skender is your general contractor on this one, with an assist from Adjustable Concrete Construction as the concrete contractor. (Patting myself on the back because I never call concrete “cement”.) FitzGerald is the design architect. The new office building is going right next door to their old offices, which were located in Lake Street Lofts at Lake and Peoria.

I chose a less-than-perfectly-sunny day to check out the early stages of construction, but that’s a good thing, because it means I can go back for more pics much sooner than I otherwise would have when we get a nicer day. Win/win.

Darn Near Done: 732 West Randolph edition

Posted on August 20, 2023 by danieldschell

732 West Randolph is an edition, and an addition. The eight-story building in the heart of Restaurant row connects on all six floors of the exiting building to its east. Wait….I guess it’s more of an extension than an addition, but I’ve said what I’ve said.

Never forget, this humble eight-story edifice brought a tower crane to the West Loop. Be grateful for that, Construx Nerds.

Hey, there’s a sweet video in that link above. And the gallery shows what the almost-ready-for-business office building looks like right this very moment.

Topped-out 360 North Green office tower adds a touch of glass to a sunny day

Posted on March 28, 2023 by danieldschell

https://twitter.com/sterlingbay/status/1637856982244663297

Sterling Bay’s Twitter announcement on 360 North Green’s topping out.

You likely know by now that Power Construction has reached full height in the Fulton Market District at 360 North Green, even though it seems like they only broke ground about a week and a half ago. I know. The 24-story office tower by Gensler went up in a big hurry, did it not?

As I’m prone to do, I waited for the sun to come out, then waited even longer to get photos ready. But I walked around the construction site — you might even say I did a full 360 around 360 (you don’t have to say that if you don’t want to) — to catch you up on Sterling Bay’s newest West Loop creation. So here you go with the visuals. These are from way back on March 15, so more progress has been made, of course, but I know for sure it couldn’t have gotten much taller.

360 North Green is going skyward in a hurry

Posted on February 2, 2023 by danieldschell

Sterling Bay’s 360 North Green office tower.

You won’t be a tad surprised to hear that Sterling Bay continues to be busy in the Fulton Market District/West Loop neighborhoods. We caught up on 160 North Morgan yesterday; today, it’s 360 North Green.

360 North Green is a 24-story office building just across the street from Sterling Bay’s recently-completed 333 North Green. Designed by Gensler, this 500,000-square-foot tower still has about 235,000 available rentable office space. The remaining office space, across the upper 10 levels, will be occupied by Boston Consulting Group. 5,500 square feet of retail space will be included at ground level, while parking for 92 vehicles will be built into the second and third floors. Tenant amenities will occupy levels 4 and 5. A 21,000-square-foot park will surround the building.

Power Construction is on the build.