Sterling Bay gets a permit for offices at 210 North Carpenter

Posted on August 15, 2017 by danieldschell

Behold, the almighty Foundation Permit, issued Monday for 210 North Carpenter.

Monday, the City of Chicago issued a foundation permit for the parking lot at 210 North Carpenter Street in the West Loop, allowing Sterling Bay to begin construction on a new 12-story, 200,000-square-foot office building. 210 North Carpenter is a design from Solomon Cordwell Buenz, and will also bring 12,000 square feet of retail space to the scorching-hot West Loop/Fulton Market area.

Leopardo Companies is the general contractor. (They’re putting the finishing touches on Fulton West just a couple blocks from 210 North Carpenter.) Adjustable Forms will be the masonry contractor.

At 12 stories, we smell a new tower crane for the West Loop!

: Rendering of 210 North Carpenter from Sterling Bay.

: Rendering of 210 North Carpenter from Sterling Bay.

: Soil sampling last summer.

: Crude-but-effective Google Map of the 210 North Carpenter site.

Is that glass? Are those bricks? The McDonald’s Headquarters rolls on

Posted on July 27, 2017 by danieldschell

We’re starting to see the underside of the ninth floor at the northwest corner of McDonald’s HQ. Plus brick and glass!

The new McDonald’s Headquarters in the West Loop may not quite be ready for the top sesame-seed bun, but McHugh Construction keeps adding ingredients to the burger giant’s nine-story home. (I like to compare progress to building a hamburger, but with the new Apple Store looking like a gigantic Macbook, we can thank our lucky stars Sterling Bay and Gensler decided not to build this HQ to look like a Big Mac. You think the NIMBY’s would have thought that worked well with its surroundings?)

There are new glass panels on a couple sides now, and some sweet brickwork adorning parts of the exterior. If you take into account setbacks and the like, some of McDonald’s has reached nine stories high. It’s a tad early to start worrying about losing a tower crane or two, but the top-down strategy has paid off, as this project rises incredibly fast.

An overhead view of McDonald’s and its two tower cranes by Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes.

: New glass!

: New bricks!!

A Hard-Hat Tour of 625 West Adams with Power Construction

Posted on June 29, 2017 by danieldschell

Luis Monroy, Project Engineer at 625 West Adams, discusses all things tower crane with Emily East and Rashad Young. All three work for Power Construction.

A huge thank you to Luis Monroy and Power Construction, who led me on a hard-hat tour of 625 West Adams on Wednesday. Power topped out the SCB-designed office tower back on May 22. Now, cladding is being installed and has reached the 11th-floor terrace.

Come take a walk with me.

The bracing you see in the photo above (also visible in the top photo) is part of the tie-off reinforcement for the tower crane. The steel braces run from the crane to the core.

Remember the oculus I’ve been showing you on the 19th-floor terrace? We’re now looking at it from eye-level, way off in the corner. This is taken on the 21st (penthouse) floor. Yes, it’s a 20-story tower with a penthouse for a mechanical floor.

This is Eddie. Eddie is a master at hanging glass panels. You can watch him work in the time-lapse video below.

Luis, Emily, and Rashad standing out on the soon-to-be terrace of the 19th floor. Behind them, the inverted tripod that supports the oculus. You may also notice the Sears Tower.

McDonald’s Headquarters nears the middle bun, awaits second beef patty

Posted on June 27, 2017 by danieldschell

The brand new McDonald’s HQ is poking up through the top of the West Loop.

In one of the most ridiculous comparisons to date, if the new McDonald’s Headquarters being built in the West Loop was a Big Mac, it would be somewhere between the second all-beef patty and the middle bun, with the bottom bun and first patty already in place. That leaves the special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions to go before the top bun is craned into place and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

In more technical terms, The McD HQ is up to the sixth floor, as crews from McHugh Construction continue utilizing two tower cranes to get the nine-story, 550,000-square-foot Sterling Bay development in high gear. The Gensler-designed home of the Golden Arches is slated to open early in 2018, which looks like a sure thing the way progress is going.

: McDouble Tower Cranes.

: Well sure, it’s new construction. What’s not to love?!

: From the air.

412 North Wells climbs and curves into River North

Posted on June 20, 2017 by danieldschell

412 North Wells follows the curve of the CTA’s elevated railway.

412 North Wells, the nine-story office building from Centrum Partners and Hirsch Associates, continues to grow along, and with, the CTA’s Brown/Purple Line tracks in River North. Wedged as it is into the oddly-shaped lot at the corner of Wells and Hubbard Streets, 412 North Wells has no choice but to follow the path of the trains next to it.

If we’re grading on a curve, the future office tower gets an A so far. And just wait until that rounded wall gets all glassed in.

625 West Adams puts a ring on it

Posted on June 19, 2017 by danieldschell

Power Construction is doing everything they can to make 625 West Adams look like its renderings. Monday morning, a piece was set in place to form the oculus that will be featured on the upper of two outdoor terraces.

: This rendering of 625 West Adams shows what the oculus will look like when finished.

625 West Adams has topped out in the West Loop

Posted on May 30, 2017 by danieldschell

The final beam is lifted to the top of 625 West Adams. Photo courtesy of Power Construction.

Sadly, 625 West Adams, the 20-story office building from White Oak Realty and CA Ventures, topped out last week.

Let me explain. Of course, topping out is a huge milestone, and should certainly be celebrated. But it also means the days of that pretty yellow Liebherr tower crane right outside the B.U.C. HQ are numbered. Sadder still, 625 topped out while we were in London, so after countless hours of staring out the window at progress, I missed the soiree.

Power Construction was kind enough to share the photo above, taken as the last beam was lifted into place on Monday, May 22.

There are no tower cranes in The Loop. Will 145 South Wells end the drought?

Posted on May 10, 2017 by danieldschell

Rendering of 145 South Wells from Thomas Roszak Architecture. Yep, that’ll need a tower crane.

For all the development in Chicago, none of it includes a tower crane in The Loop. The two most recent cranes, at Linea (215 West Lake Street) and 151 North Franklin, have been gone since December and April, respectively. So who will swoop in to save us from this wretched cranelessness?

145 South Wells could be the right candidate. After receiving a demolition permit in mid-March to tear down the small parking garage on site, the lot looks clean and ready to be prepped for the latest project from developer Moceri + Roszak: a boutique office building that will re-team them with design architect Thomas Roszak Architecture. (They worked on Linea together.) Renderings show a tower somewhere in the 15-20-story range. That’s sure tower-crane territory. As for when construction gets underway (looks like Clark Construction will be the general contractor) that remains to be seen; permits have yet to be issued to start construction.

: That’s nice scaffolding and all, but it won’t do a tower crane’s job.

: My hunch about the GC is based on this sign.

Take a walk around McDonald’s

Posted on May 1, 2017 by danieldschell

The view from the B.U.C. HQ is still somewhat limited, until McDonald’s rises a few more floors.

If you live in a West Loop condo with a nice balcony (or a drone), you might just have a great view of construction from above the new McDonald’s Headquarters. For the rest of us, circling the block bounded by Randolph, Carpenter, Washington, and Aberdeen is the only way to get a good look at proceedings. So that’s what I did.

As Hubbard221 nears the top, 412 North Wells rises to the L

Posted on April 29, 2017 by danieldschell

You can get a train’s-eye view of 412 North Wells right now by taking a relaxing Brown Line ride from the Merchandise Mart up to the Chicago Ave stop. Linn-Mathes is pushing the 9-story office building skyward, now that the residential tower next door, Hubbard221, is nearly topped out. (Is that 22 stories I count?)

Hubbard221 is the 193-unit apartment tower from developer Centrum Partners and designer Hirsch Associates Architects, the team that just saw a tower crane rise on their Wicker Park Connection property. As for this tower crane, it now has double duty to pull, as it tops off the taller tower while beginning to stretch the smaller structure vertically.