Category Archives: Residential

Boards outnumber the bored at an underway Chestnut Row Homes

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Chestnut Row Homes

Signs of life at 111 West Chestnut Street, the future Chestnut Row Homes.

There’s woodwork coming out of the woodwork at the long-delayed Chestnut Row Homes at 111 West Chestnut Street in Near North. Originally permitted for construction way back in October of 2015, the single-family rental homes from Tawani Enterprises has had trouble getting started. But there’s finally some action, and it looks like general contractor Berglund Construction has started filling in the excavated hole where the 7 (down from the initial 8) units by Booth Hansen will one day stand.

I mention this with each post about Chestnut Row Homes, but it’s worth repeating. The Chicago Plan Commission raved about this development when they approved it in February of 2015. So whatever has held up construction must have been a pretty big deal. Nice to see the ball rolling again here.

Eight Eleven Uptown driving iron at Montrose and Clarendon (Updated with Tower Crane news)

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Eight Eleven Uptown

Driving piles and breaking rocks at Eight Eleven Uptown.

Eight Eleven Uptown is the new apartment tower from JDL Development coming to the Uptown neighborhood. In the midst of clearing away remnants of the old Cuneo Hospital, foundation work is now underway on the 27-story, 381-unit tower at Montrose and Clarendon Avenues. Stalworth Underground is there as we speak, driving H-piles into the earth, even as American Demolition cleans up.

*** Look what came through Monday! It’s a tower crane permit. That was fast. ***

Eight Eleven Uptown

The tower crane permit, issued Monday April 3.

One Bennett Park adds the second tower crane

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One Bennett Park West Crane

Like the old NBA 3-to-make-2 free throw rule. Two cranes work together to build the third.

It’s an embarrassment of riches at One Bennett Park. Not only is it all blue and yellow and pretty on sunny days, but now it’s got a second tower crane. One Bennett Park joins Vista Tower and the McDonald’s Headquarters in the Two Crane Club. One big difference? McDonald’s and Vista got their two cranes at once; One Bennett Park planted its first tower crane way back in October.

Here are some photos from Saturday afternoon, as the second crane, West Crane, was being erected.

Life is a glass at 465 North Park

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465 North Park

465 North Park rises up in Streeterville.

465 North Park, the 48-story, 444-unit apartment tower from Jupiter Realty Company, continues to grow at East Illinois Street and North Park Drive in Streeterville. Power Construction has been working on the Pappageorge Haymes-designed tower since July of last year.

Work has climbed as high as seven stories now, but that’s not the best feature. That distinction belongs to a few windows lined up along the west facing. Unusual this early on in construction? Maybe. Am I complaining? Nope.

At The Sinclair, glass is almost up, and the tower crane is almost down

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The Sinclair

Tower cranes aren’t supposed to be lower than the top of the buildings their servicing. Unless they’re being removed.

The tower crane started coming down from The Sinclair last week. That may seem like sad news, but the glass is also more than half full, which is good news. So they cancel each other out.

McHugh Construction has been working on the Fifield Companies apartment tower since Winter 2015. Now, after two tower cranes and lots of concrete, the 35-story, 390-unit tower looks certain to make its Summer Opening goal.

 

 

One Grant Park plants a tower crane

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One Grant Park tower crane

Scratch One Grant Park off the tower crane waiting list.

https://twitter.com/PDNAChicago/status/847801738648268800

Thanks to that tweet from Twitter user @PDNAChicago, we now know One Grant Park has begun installing a tower crane. The crane permit was granted (heh…Granted) way back on February 1, so it’s been a long wait.

The highly-anticipated Rafael Viñoly Architects design for Crescent Heights is delivering 76 stories and 792 apartments, plus 12,000 square feet of retail space, to the South Loop intersection of Roosevelt Road and Michigan Avenue.

Soon, McHugh Construction will have a new tower crane with which to begin sending One Grant Park into the sky. Hopefully, it won’t be a two-month wait like we had for the seedling. (Spoiler alert: It won’t be.)

 

 

Quick Look: The Sinclair tower crane is coming down

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The Sinclair tower crane removal

I wasn’t fast enough on the draw to capture the tower crane at The Sinclair coming down this morning as the Purple Line passed by. But I recovered in time to get this shot between the Sedgwick and Armitage stops. That rooftop crane will handle the rest of the heavy lifting from here on out.

Riverline levels continue to rise

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Ancora at Riverline

Ancora represents the first phase of the Riverline development in the South Loop.

Progress continues at Ancora, the first phase of the huge Riverline project CMK Companies is building along the Chicago River in the South Loop. The 29-story tower is barely above street level, yet somehow it already appears to be soaring. With the help of Pepper Construction on concrete work, Lendlease has reached the third floor on some parts of the site.

The Perkins+Will design will bring 452 apartments to this first phase of Riverline. Future phases will ultimately bring nine more buildings, 16,500 square feet of retail space, and a new riverwalk to the neighborhood.

351 West Huron beaming itself into River North

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351 West Huron

351 West Huron is a condominium development in River North at — ready for this? — 351 West Huron Street.

351 West Huron is a new condominium building fast entering River North. A project from Regency Development Group of Northbrook, 351 West Huron won’t be your typical condo. The seven-story structure will contain just six full-floor units, every one of them with three/four bedrooms and 4,500 square feet, a two-car garage, private elevator entrances, and, from what the renderings illustrate, to-die-for balconies and terraces. Hartshorne Plunkard Architects did the design work on the building; Summit Design + Build is on the build.

There’s already lots of steel framing the building, and floor plates were being added during a recent visit.

Quick look: That’s a wrap on One South Halsted caisson work

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One South Halsted caissons

Unless there’s new technology allowing caisson to be dug without rigs, caissons look finished at One South Halsted.

A look after dark down on the One South Halsted site Monday night shows only one caisson rig remaining on site, and a horizontal one at that. The only logical conclusion one could make from this is that caissons are done.

As you may have guessed, I’m willing to skip straight to the tower crane portion of our program, but we’ll have to let Lendlease make that decision. For now, Case Foundation still has some equipment to remove from the lot, like augers and that big yellow rig lying on the ground. Then crews can get busy on the next phase of foundation work.

One South Halsted caissons One South Halsted caissons