Category Archives: Tower Cranes

The University of Illinois at Chicago has its own tower crane

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UIC tower crane

Central Contractors Service was on the UIC campus Tuesday, schooling the masses on proper tower-crane assembly procedures.

What a teaching tool it could be, that big yellow tower crane across the street from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Higher learning, or something like that.

Anyway, tower-crane assembly at the academic/residential complex UIC is building on West Harrison Street between Peoria and Morgan began Monday, and Tuesday saw the jib lifted into place. A few gears and cables will be attended to Wednesday, and it should be ready to go as we enter March.

This marks Pepper Construction’s first tower crane in town since they removed the self-erecting crane from the Moxy Hotel job in River North.

Normally, the photo gallery below would include the building permit for that shiny yellow crane. However, this project isn’t being built on city land. Therefore, the City of Chicago doesn’t issue any permits at all for it. UIC is responsible for making sure the tower crane is erected properly and safely.

 

Bidding a foggy adieu to the Ancora tower crane at Riverline

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Ancora at Riverline

The tower crane servicing Ancora at Riverline was at half-mast last week.

The skies over Chicago weren’t very cooperative last Thursday, as we made the pilgrimage down to Riverline to bid a fond farewell to the tower crane that has topped out Ancora, the 29-story apartment tower representing Phase One of CMK Companies’ and Lendlease’s South Loop community. We shouldn’t have to wait too long for another crane to show up on site; there’s already quite a bit of earth moving to prep the site for more development, which may or may not be a tower named “Current.”

The tower cranes, they are a-falling

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A quick L ride to the South Loop and back revealed a couple new developments (no pun intended) in Chicago’s tower crane landscape on Tuesday. The crane building No. 508 (508 West Diversey) in Lake View was being taken down, and the crane at Ancora at Riverline (720 South Wells) in the South Loop has also begun its final descent.

Sorry I have no photos of the dis-assemblage for now. My phone was ready at Diversey as our train stopped at the platform, but a perfectly-timed northbound Brown Line train blocked my view. As for Ancora, that one surprised me as we went around the bend off Wells Street onto Van Buren. The least I can do is remind you what those two tower  cranes looked like when they were still in service.

No. 508

No. 508 back in August. Macon Construction still has one tower crane in Chicago, at Hayden West Loop.

Ancora at Riverline

Ancora at Riverline in December. Lendlease has plenty more around town.

One of Chicago’s longest-running shows, No. 9 Walton lowers the curtain on its tower crane

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No. 9 Walton tower crane

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.

Twitter introduces Chicago’s two newest tower cranes

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Chicago started 2018 with 30 tower cranes in the air. Now, that number of 2018 cranes has risen to 32.

Recent tweets from Twitter users @WestLoopTom and @TheBigGreenW introduced me to the two latest cranes, at Hayden West Loop and Wolf Point East, respectively. For Walsh Construction, WPE marks their second currently operating crane in Chicago, along with 1326 South Michigan. Also celebrating their second crane is Macon Construction over at Hayden.

You can see the tweeted photos of the pretty yellow Liebherr cranes below:

🏗 Chicago rings in 2018 with 30 tower cranes on the skyline 🏗

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Belmont Village

W.E. O’Neil’s tower crane at Belmont Village (700 West Fullerton) was the 62nd and final crane erected in Chicago in 2017.

Chicago had 62 tower cranes in the air during 2017. 2018 starts out with 30 of them. Sure, there are a bunch of jobs in the pipeline that will require a crane, but erecting 32 more of them to tie our record seems unlikely. But we can hope, right? Records are made to be broken, after all.

Let’s take a look at our initial 30 for 2018:

New since December 2017 count:

  1. Belmont Village (700 West Fullerton)

Gone since December 2017:

  1. Moxy Hotel
  2. Old Town Park
  3. Illume Chicago

Coming soon:

  1. Hayden West Loop (1109 West Washington – permit issued 09/07; stub planted)
  2. Wolf Point East (343 West Wolf Point Plaza – permit issued 11/20)

    Hayden West Loop stub

    Hayden West Loop, likely to be the first tower crane erected in 2018.

Who has tower cranes?

  1. Lendlease – 8
  2. Power Construction – 6
  3. McHugh Construction – 5
  4. W.E. O’Neil – 3
  5. 8 companies have one tower crane apiece: Walsh (1326 South Michigan); Centaur (Nobu Hotel); Leopardo (210 North Carpenter); Tishman (aLoft Chicago Mag Mile); Linn-Mathes – Wicker Park Connection); Macon Construction (No. 508); DLG Development (3833 North Broadway); M.A. Mortenson (Home2 Suites River North)

Where are they?

  1. West Loop – 6
  2. South Loop – 6
  3. Streeterville – 5
  4. Lake View – 3
  5. Lincoln Park – 3
  6. Lakeshore East – 2
  7. River North – 2
  8. Three neighborhoods have one tower crane each: Gold Coast (No. 9 Walton); Wicker Park (Wicker Park Connection; Uptown (Eight Eleven Uptown)

What are they building?

  1. Residential – 22
  2. Hotel – 6
  3. Medical – 1 (Simpson Querrey)
  4. Office – 1 (210 North Carpenter)

 

📸 The Year in Pictures: All 62 Chicago Tower Cranes of 2017 🏗

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Chicago had 62 tower cranes in 2017

Chicago closes 2017 having had a record 62 tower cranes operating across the skyline throughout the year. Before 2018 takes over, let’s recap them all.

Who had tower cranes in 2017?

  1. Power Construction – 13
  2. Lendlease – 13
  3. McHugh Construction – 11
  4. Linn-Mathes – 4
  5. Walsh Construction – 3
  6. W.E. O’Neil – 3
  7. Clark Construction – 2
  8. 13 companies had one tower crane in 2017: Pepper Construction (Moxy Hotel); Macon Construction (No. 508); Centaur Construction (Nobu Hotel); Onni Group (Old Town Park); Optima (Optima Signature); M.A. Mortenson Company (Home2 Suites River North); Norcon (Illume Chicago); Bulley-Andrews (DePaul School of Music); Clayco (Cook County Central Campus Health Center); Novak Construction (171 Aberdeen); Leopardo Companies (210 North Carpenter); Tishman (aLoft Chicago Mag Mile); DLG  (3833 North Broadway)

Where were they?

  1. West Loop – 13
  2. South Loop – 11
  3. River North – 9
  4. Streeterville – 8
  5. Lincoln Park – 5
  6. Lake View – 4
  7. Near North – 2
  8. Gold Coast – 2
  9. Lakeshore East – 2
  10. Six neighborhoods had one crane each in 2017 – The Loop (151 North Franklin); Illinois Medical District (Cook County Central Campus Health Center); Uptown (Eight Eleven Uptown); Hyde Park (Solstice on the Park); River West (Spoke); Wicker Park (Wicker Park Connection)

What were they building?

  1. Residential – *40.5
  2. Hotel – 10
  3. Office – *5.5
  4. Medical – 3
  5. There was one Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Meetinghouse) one School (DePaul School of Music) and one Commercial building (The Apple Store)

* One crane built Hubbard 221 (residential) and 412 North Wells (office) hence the half-crane in those two categories. The two tower cranes at Vista Tower are building residences and a hotel, so one crane goes to each of those two categories.

And now, photographs of all our 2017 Chicago Tower Cranes:

Gallery On Wells

Enjoying the photos? Metra and CTA rides (and Amtrak trains to Milwaukee), Zipcars, Divvy Bikes, camera lenses, domain fees, snacks & energy drinks, and comfortable walking shoes add up. You can help offset expenses by making a greatly-appreciated donation to Building Up Chicago.

The tower crane comes down from Illume Chicago

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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.

https://twitter.com/westlooptom/status/940227771502071808

Chicago’s 62nd (and final?) tower crane of 2017 is up at Belmont Village

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Belmont Village tower crane

This shiny red tower crane is ready to lift heavy stuff at Belmont Village.

Unless you’re a big Tunch Ilkin fan, the number 62 might not mean all that much to you. But it’s somewhat of a landmark here in Chicago, as we’ve reached 62 tower cranes for the year.

And while we still have a stub planted in the ground (at Hayden West Loop) we don’t have a date on that tower crane going up, so Belmont Village may very well be our final tower crane of the year.

Chicago surpassed its all-time high (heh — high) in tower cranes back in September, when the Mayor’s office announced we’d erected our 54th crane of the year. But we didn’t stop there.

The crane at Belmont Village, the 7-story senior living facility being built at 700 West Fullerton, marks the third tower crane for The Lincoln Common, GC W.E. O’Neil, and for Lincoln Park. They make a handsome trio.

If indeed this is our final tower crane of 2017, it deserves a big photo gallery of assembly. So here you go, taken over the course of three days (Dec 6-8)

Belmont Village hides a tower crane stub in Lincoln Park

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Belmont Village tower crane stub

Deep down, that’s a very nice tower crane stub at 700 West Fullerton for the Belmont Village project.

It’s there, the tower crane stub that will soon grow into W.E. O’Neil’s third tower crane at The Lincoln Common development on the old Children’s Memorial Hospital site in Lincoln Park. But you have look hard.

The red stub is planted along the east side of the new Belmont Village senior living site, along Orchard Street, at 700 West Fullerton. But it’s rooted so deep into the foundation that, until the rest of the crane is erected, it goes largely unnoticed.

We expect the tower crane to be erected in full this week, which would make it our 33rd active tower crane in Chicago, and #62 for 2017.