Old Glory waves triumphantly at the foot of 727 West Madison in the West Loop.
It’s only reached about half of its eventual height, and already 727 West Madison is cutting quite a figure along the Kennedy Expressway in Greektown. The FitzGerald-designed apartment tower, like most under-construction skyscrapers, is best seen on a sunny day, and that was the case on Tuesday when we strolled over to the West Loop for a peek.
This gallery contains 12 photos.
Vista Tower continues to rise along the Chicago River.
We’re long overdue for a few shots of the progress McHugh Construction is making at Vista Tower. This thing has grown like mad since our last visit. Sorry to have missed so much. Without further ado, here are the latest shots from the soon-to-be 94-story hotel-and-residential combination.
And don’t miss out on the newly-updated Earthcam shots from Lake Point Tower. You’ll want to check it out at night, for sure.
The tower crane at No. 9 Walton is slowly lowering itself to the ground, one segment at a time.
If you thought No. 9 Walton at 9 West Walton Street in the Gold Coast neighborhood topped out months ago, and that it seemed strange how long that hammerhead tower crane remained aloft, you were on to something. While we can’t confirm anything, we’ve got our suspicions that the $58.5 million sale for the top four floors may have had something to do with the longevity of the crane. (Dennis Rodkin over at Crain’s Chicago had the scoop back in January.)
The stub was planted at No. 9 Walton in March of 2016, after getting its permit on the first of February. By my calculations, that’s about two years ago. That’s a long time for a tower crane to be on a job site, especially one that’s “only” 38 stories high.
No. 9 Walton is a project from JDL Develoment. You may recall hearing that JDL’s president and founder, James Letchinger, had set aside a unit in this tower for himself. That’s a pretty good indication he’s paid very close attention to every facet of its construction.
The design was by Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture. Lendlease handled the GC duties.
Expect No. 9 Walton to be open in 2018.
The University of Illinois at Chicago is building a 10-story academic and residential complex, and this tower crane will help.
There’s no substitute for walking the streets of Chicago on a regular basis. Otherwise, you’re going to miss things. For example, the new 10-story residential & academic complex being built by the University of Illinois at Chicago. It looks, according to the Chicago Tribune, like construction started way back in December. But darned if I can find any building permits for it. But sure enough, the surface parking lot is gone, Revcon is on site drilling caissons, and there’s a bright yellow tower crane stub planted in the middle of the site, at Harrison and Morgan Streets.
Solomon Cordwell Buenz designed the complex, which marks the first new dorm facility for UIC since 2007. Included in the residential hall will be 550 student beds, with 16,000 square feet of community space for scholars to share, a top-floor sky lounge, and 1,600 square feet of retail space. Pepper Construction is the general contractor, and that tower crane will be their first in the Chicago sky since the removal of the crane at the Moxy Hotel in River North. Construction is expected to extend into Fall 2019.
The Hayden West Loop tower-crane stub stands amidst erected steel, waiting for the rest of its parts to arrive.
Unless that’s a Magic Tower Crane Stub planted at 1109 West Washington, Hayden West Loop is erecting an impressive amount of steel on the site at Aberdeen and Washington without the use of a tower crane. That should change very soon, as the tower crane, permitted way back on September 7, should be erected within the first few days of the new year. Hayden West Loop will be Macon Construction’s second tower crane in Chicago, joining No. 508 at 508 West Diversey.
There won’t be much competition to be first in 2018; the only other permits outstanding are for Wolf Point East, which has a bit of digging left to do and hasn’t planted a stub yet, and The Bentham in River North, which has gone eerily silent.
Back those caissons right on in here! It’s go time at 61 East Banks.
The 8-story, 60-unit apartment building at 61 East Banks is in site-prep mode, and caisson equipment is starting to pour into the lot. The Booth Hansen design is parking itself on the former surface parking lot at Banks Street and Lake Shore Drive, assuring spectacular Lake Michigan views for some lucky tenants.
According to Booth Hansen, expect two-story townhomes on the first two floors, with one, tow, and three-bedroom apartments on the levels above. A shared amenity terrace will adorn the green roof, and parking will be added below grade.
Draper & Kramer is the developer of 61 East Banks; Leopardo Companies is handling general contractor duties. Expect to see Stalworth Underground out there in the cold starting caisson work very early in 2018.
5 degrees in Chicago, but some still insist on having the windows open.
As if being curvy wasn’t enough, 727 West Madison is gettin’ all glassy now too. The first two levels of curtain wall above the podium are complete, and a third level has been started. Overall, it looks like Lendlease has progressed up to about the 20th story. Almost halfway home!
We told you last week that Illume Chicago had topped out over in the West Loop. And topping out always means certain doom for tower cranes. Sure enough, over this past weekend the crane came down from the construction site at 111 South Peoria. We all got an up-close look from Instagram user @skyboom150 that you see above.
Then first thing Monday morning, Twitter user @WestLoopTom tweeted the photo below, showing the tower crane has been completely removed. Here’s hoping it finds another gig soon.
With that Instagram photo, One Bennett Park posted a selfie and announced last week that Lendlease crews have reached to within five floors of topping out the 69-story residential tower.
The Related Midwest project is combined design of Robert A.M. Stern Architects and GREC Architects, bringing a mix of 348 apartments and condominiums to the Streeterville neighborhood. Completion is scheduled for 2019 move-ins, so there’s still a lot of work to be done. But topping out soon will be a big milestone, even if it means the beginning of the end for One Bennett Park’s two pretty, yellow tower cranes.
Building Up Chicago 