It’s just cool. So freakin’ cool.
March 2 marked the third time in nine days I’ve walked around One Chicago Square, snapping photos and marveling at the progress. Not sure what you do one your days off, but now you know where to find me when I have some spare time. I’ll do you a favor and not post every one of them, but there are a lot of pictures. Good news is, you don’t have to click through them until you really feel you’re ready.
448 North LaSalle got its tower crane on the March 2020 Chicago Tower Crane Survey just under the wire, getting it the air the 29th of February. Maybe it didn’t lift anything that day, or Sunday, or even Monday, which is Casimir Pulaski Day around these parts. But it still counts, because 18 is a relatively low number for cranes in Chicago, and we need to count as many as we can get.
So how about a few photos of a freshly-planted golden tower crane:
You can’t hide from me.
Looks like the crew from Pepper Construction, the concrete contractor at 448 North LaSalle, was busy this past week. Just as we hoped, they’ve got a tower crane stub in the ground to get Midwest Property Group’s 13-story office building going vertical.
Lendlease is the general contractor on 448 North LaSalle. Generally, we only shout-out the GC for tower crane cred here. But since tower cranes are what we care most about, aside from a nice hot breakfast, it’s been decided the concrete crews should get a lil more love, too.
Back to stubs. This ain’t no ordinary stub. In fact, in my short construction-obsessed existence, I don’t remember seeing a tower crane planted with more that one section of tower before. Comparatively, this one’s huge. And yellow. She’s gonna be a pretty one when she grows up.
iPhone only for this visit. That fencing is high and tight. (That means I couldn’t get the real camera over or through.)
A rendering of Superior House from FitzGerald.
A Superior House with superior homes is coming this spring to River North. 34 of them, in fact.
Ascend Real Estate Group is developing the condominium building at 360 West Superior. Once existing structures were demolished, construction got started with a permit back in January of 2019.
Superior House is a design by FitzGerald. They’ve teamed up with Ascend previously on Niche 905 in Near North, among other projects. Power Construction is the general contractor.
Rendering of 448 North LaSalle from its website.
Did you blink? Then you might have missed caisson work at 448 North LaSalle. Revcon got out there, got at it, and got out already, leaving a clean site on which to start construction for Midwest Property Group’s 12-story, 175,00 sf office building. Now Lendlease can get to work on going vertical.
When this lot first starting showing signs of action, workers from Pepper Construction were on scene starting site prep. Pepper is also listed in the foundation permit as the masonry contractor. I think, in this case, that means they’re handling concrete duties.
According to 448’s brand-spankin’ new website, MPG plans to have offices open to tenants before 2020 is over.
So how about an eclectic collection of site photos from the month of February, right up through Sunday’s snow-covered, waiting-for-a-tower-crane empty lot:
Renelle on the River, from Across the River.
Renelle on the River is an 18-story condominium tower in the River North neighborhood. It was built atop an existing parking garage at 403 North Wabash Ave once topped by a small plaza park. The garage was built with future use in mind, so no additional caissons were required. It was a unique project to watch get started.
Renelle on the River is a design by bKL Architecture, and was built by James McHugh Construction. Developer Belgravia Group delivered its 50 condos to residents last year.
Chicago’s coolest chasm, the Tower C cofferdam at One Chicago Square. Photo courtesy of Mike Conlon at Power Construction.
The calendar has flipped to February. That means it’s time to walk around the One Chicago Square site again and check on progress by Power Construction.
Let it be known that I walked around the site on the 10th, but it wasn’t sunny. So I went back Sunday. SUNday. Everything looks better on a sunny day.
