Category Archives: Stuff That’s Done

Stuff That’s Done: Elevate Lincoln Park

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Elevate Lincoln Park, 930 West Altgeld in Lincoln Park.

Elevate Lincoln Park is an 11-story horseshoe-shaped apartment building along North Lincoln Avenue in Lincoln Park. If you’ve ridden the Brown, Purple, or Red Line CTA trains between Fullerton and Diversey, you’ve brushed right up against it.

Developed by Baker Development and designed by SCB, it delivered 191 new apartments, plus 16,000 square feet of retail space and 160 parking spaces, upon its opening in July 2018. McHugh Construction was the general contractor.

 

Stuff That’s Done: The Apartments at Lincoln Common

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The two apartment towers that anchor the new Lincoln Common development in Lincoln Park opened to residents in Spring 2019. The Apartments at Lincoln Common fill the pair of 20-story towers with 538 apartments, featuring studio, one-bed, two-bed, and three-bedroom units.

The sprawling complex is built on the grounds of the former Children’s Memorial Hospital, which was demolished after the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago was constructed in Streeterville. Children’s patients were moved there in the spring of 2012.

This phase of The Lincoln Common could have been called Noahville, because everything about this project came in pairs:

There are the two towers.

The two towers were erected by two tower cranes.

There are two developers: Hines and McCaffery Interests.

There are two design architects: Antunovich Associates and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

Alas, there only needed to be one general contractor in charge of putting it all together; W.E. O’Neil filled those duties.

Included in the photo gallery below are a couple more pieces of the Lincoln Common puzzle:

  • A five-story boutique office building at 2350 N Lincoln.
  • A row of single-story retail spaces from 2316-2348 N Lincoln
  • The renovated “power station” buildings at 2355 N Lincoln
  • A new Chase Bank in the recreated building at 2377 N Lincoln

Updates to come: The Orchard, a seven-story condominium building currently under construction, and Belmont Village Senior Living, a completed seven-story residential facility at 700 West Fullerton.

Congratulations to all involved in the ongoing establishment of a great new neighborhood on Chicago’s north side.

 

 

Stuff That’s Done: Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago River North

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The brand new Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago River North at 110 West Huron.

And now, for another new hotel opened in Chicago while I wasn’t paying attention.

Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago River North opened at 110 West Huron Street in February 2019. The 17-story hotel boasts 206 rooms in the River North neighborhood. It is the only job this blog has covered in Chicago by general contractor M.A. Mortenson. It was designed by the Chicago architecture firm NORR, and developed by Akara Partners.

 

Stuff That’s Done: Hyatt House West Loop

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Hyatt House Chicago West Loop, 105 North May Street.

For awhile there, it was difficult to find overnight accommodations in the West Loop. That’s changed dramatically over the past year or two. (Big shock, right? Everything has changed dramatically around here in the past year or two. Hotels, office space, apartments, condos, restaurants. What a time to be alive in the West Loop.)

One new hotel option is the Hyatt House Chicago, now open at 105 North May Street.

Construction work by Skender began in Spring 2018. It opened in June 2019.

Sterling Bay developed the 16-story hotel, which offers about 200 rooms, conveniently located less than a block from the new McDonald’s HQ. Designed by Chicago firm Eckenhoff Saunders Architects, Hyatt House brought nearly 200 guest rooms to the neighborhood.

Stuff That’s Done: NEMA Chicago

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https://twitter.com/McHughConstruct/status/1220372622548119552

NEMA Chicago started out as One Grant Park. I liked that name. It didn’t give you the address, but you still knew right where it must be. You know, that really really tall one at the south end of the park. Alas, things and names change.

Thursday, James McHugh Construction sent out the above tweet, announcing they’ve done all they can do at NEMA, more than three years after taking control of the empty lot at Indiana and Michigan Avenues, and Roosevelt Road.

There are 800 apartments in this brand new 76-story skyscraper, and if the views of Chicago aren’t enough for you, it also has about a kajillion square feet of amenity space. It’s a marvelous design by Rafael Viñoly Architects. Crescent Heights is the developer. NEMA Chicago opened to residents in July 2019.

Stuff That’s Done: 727 West Madison

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727 West Madison takes me back. There was a time, at this blog’s busiest, that I spent many many hours staring out over the West Loop. Not only was I checking up on the explosion of development, but I wasted an awful lot of time watching traffic zoom (or crawl) by on the Kennedy, Ryan, and Eisenhower Expressways. Not to mention the ongoing revamp (no pun intended) of the Jane Byrne Interchange.

I watched from above as the Crowne Plaza parking lot was fenced off and torn up, and construction commenced on 727. I would move from the neighborhood before it leveled up too high, but it was amazing to watch the start from that vantage point.

727 West Madison is the first tower I think about if a return to the West Loop makes sense. Skyline views? Check. Traffic views? Yup. Sweeping views of the booming West Loop and Fulton Market development? Serious check.

FitzGerald is the design architect of 727 West Madison. Fifield Companies and F&F Realty are the developers. Lendlease did the dirty work. Have a look. It’s shiny, curvy, and perfectly located.

P.S. I still think One South Halsted was a better name, but I wasn’t consulted. I’m over it.

Photos follow of 727 West Madison in its completed stage, and in its infancy, as One South Halsted, taken from the original B.U.C. HQ high above the West Loop. (Oh how I miss it)

Stuff That’s Done: Harrison Hall at UIC

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Harrison Hall, on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

While this blog was taking intermittent breaks over the past couple years, Chicago construction has gone on without us. The nerve, right? Many of the projects I started covering from their outset have wrapped up, and though there may be too many to get to, this is my attempt to show you some or those final results. I couldn’t think of a fancier title to use. Stuff That’s Done will have to suffice for now. This is the first of what may or may not be a series.

I wandered past Harrison Hall on the UIC campus this week. Cool piece of architecture. I last checked on it in June 2018. It was designed by SCB and built by Pepper Construction.

**NOTE** Stuff That’s Done may sometimes refer to projects that aren’t completely “done,” but are open.