Tower-crane hunting from Brisbane’s Victoria Bridge

Posted on November 1, 2017 by danieldschell

I prepped for our Australia trip the same way I do for every city I visit; I jumped on Google Maps and tried to find the most advantageous spots for seeing tower cranes. (Actually, I don’t do it just for travel. I do that in cities all over the world, whether I have travel aspirations there or not.)

I found a great spot in Brisbane, Victoria. As you can see in the tweet below, I spotted 20 tower cranes from the Victoria Bridge by scanning 360 degrees from the span across the Brisbane River.

https://twitter.com/BuildUpChicago/status/909910318675103744

Even so, I still got there a little too late; a tweet from June 2016 claims 26 cranes were visible from the bridge:

https://twitter.com/mattdennien/status/747312201963167744

Obviously, I knew I had to make the pilgrimage. Alas, “all” I found were 19 tower cranes. Pretty impressive for standing in one spot (about 4/5 of the way across toward South Brisbane.

Without context, here they are:

: 1,2

: 3,4

: 5

: 6,7

: 8,9

: 10,11

: 12

: 13,14

: 15

: 16

: 17

: 18

: 19

: And one demo job.

Lendlease rolls a Lucky Seven at Darling Square in Sydney’s Darling Harbour

Posted on October 31, 2017 by danieldschell

Spotted from the Sydney Tower Eye: The Seven Tower Cranes of Darling Square, by Lendlease.

Please know for certain that I didn’t see every construction project in Australia. Come on. Two weeks? Just not enough time. But of what I saw, this one easily takes the award for Most Tower Cranes.

Darling Square is a mixed-use project being developed and built by Lendlease. Located along Sydney’s famed Darling Harbour, Darling Square will be comprised of many, many parts. So many parts, in fact, that I don’t know if I’ve got them all straight. The main portion of the development will have three towers of 41, 19, and 7 stories, and a 6-story podium, per design architects Tzannes Associates. There will be 581 apartments located here.

Rendering of The Darling Exchange from Kengo Kuma and Associates.

Darling Square will also include a public square, designed by Aspect Studios; a community hub called The Darling Exchange, designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates; and two retail pavilions designed by Archer Office. No wonder they need 7 tower cranes on the site.

And if all that doesn’t sound like enough of a task, Darling Square necessitated the demolition of a 13,000-seat stadium, Qantas Credit Union Arena (previously known as The Sydney Entertainment Centre) in order to clear space for the project.

Whether you’ve been able to process all of that info or not, here comes the photo gallery:

Students from the Mudgeeraba Special School named the five tower cranes at Jewel Gold Coast

Posted on October 31, 2017 by danieldschell

Monday’s post showed you four lighted tower cranes at Jewel Residences on Surfers Paradise Beach in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. As I mentioned in that story, Multiplex has five tower cranes in total at the job site, and they all have names. The video above, from 9 News Gold Coast, gives you some of the back story on where the names came from. And it’s fantastic.

Using five tower cranes, lighting four of them up at night, *and* involving special-needs children from Mudgeeraba Special School in naming them? Take a bow, Multiplex. Very well done.

: Sally Saphire. (One P on the crane; 2 Ps on the poster)

: Multiplexosaurus

: Lotty

: The Mighty Jewel

: Jake

Cranes From Planes: Sidney, New South Wales, Australia edition

Posted on October 17, 2017 by danieldschell

It’s time for a new segment here at Building Up Chicago that we like to call “Cranes From Planes.” It’s something I’ve never tried before because I’ve never thought about it until today, when I noticed a few cranes and we landed, then taxied, at Sidney Airport. Come to think of it, it’s rare we land anywhere in daylight, so I usually don’t have the camera at the ready as we make our approach.

The good thing about Cranes From Planes is that 1) the photos are taken through airplane windows, which make it impossible to focus, rendering decent pictures impossible, so I don’t have worry about whether or not any of the photos turned out well (they didn’t); and 2) since I have no way of getting close enough to the cranes to know what project they’re on, I don’t have to do any research on them. I can just post the photos with “Look! Tower cranes!” as the only text.

So here you go. A few random tower cranes as seen from Seat 16A of Qantas flight 418 as we landed at Sydney Airport.

I gotta jet, Chicago. Keep an eye out while I’m gone?

Posted on October 11, 2017 by danieldschell

Okay friends, we’re getting on an airplane soon, and staying on it for 142 hours, or something ridiculous like that. I’m going to miss a lot, but won’t be left in the dark, if you’ll be the Eyes of the Blog for the rest of October or so.

Here are a few things to watch for:

There’s a tower-crane stub planted at The Van Buren. **The tower crane is going up today, I’m told! (Weather permitting, of course.) And Hayden West Loop looks like it could get one at any time. Those are within a couple blocks of each other. They could be assembling tower cranes any day now.
A few other projects have permits, but no stubs. 3833 North Broadway and the Home2 Suites hotel at 110 West Huron are in the throes of foundation work. The Bentham, at 146 West Erie, has a permit, but demolition has just wrapped up, so we’ll have to wait a while for any signs of a crane there.
Wolf Point East foundation work is still ongoing, and spectacular to watch. Plus that trestle bridge. It’s going to get a tower crane permit soon, but I can watch for that remotely. Likewise, GEMS World Academy Upper School is in the midst of caisson work but it should be receiving a tower crane permit too.
Foundation work should start up very soon at 61 East Banks. That’s a 60-unit apartment building designed by Booth Hansen for Draper & Kramer. And it will require a tower crane in the future.
Renelle On The River could be in full-fledged construction mode soon, if it isn’t already. I haven’t been by in a good while. Site prep might be done. It too will get a tower crane eventually.
Demolition may have already started on 56 West Huron. Then site prep and construction will begin for…56 West Huron.
I should stop trying to guess when tower cranes are going to be taken down. But I will anyway: Eleven40 started coming down this week; No. 9 Walton *has* to come down some day soon; McDonald’s Headquarters has dropped one crane, and the second should be soon; The Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center has a permit for a derrick that will remove its 2 tower cranes, but the first one isn’t likely to come down until I’m back in town.

Of course, you can take voluminous photos of everything going on in Chicago’s construction boom and send them my way, if you’d like. It is, after all, about keeping everyone informed and entertained.

The West Loop is in a tower-crane frenzy

Posted on October 9, 2017 by danieldschell

You’ll have to look closely, but you can see (at least parts of) all 7 West Loop tower cranes in this photo from Halsted Street.

The West Loop is busy with construction. That’s the word we get from Captain Obvious, who sent an email to let us know. There are 7 active tower cranes in the neighborhood right now, with 2 more permitted and on the way.

McDonald's Headquarters west tower crane

The lone remaining tower crane at McDonald’s Headquarters still towers above the West Loop.

1. McDonald’s Headquarters

As you surely must know, McDonald’s used to have two tower cranes. East Crane is gone, but West Crane continues work on Sterling Bay’s future home for the fast-food giant.

The tower crane at Illume Chicago has been up since March.

2. Illume Chicago

Illume Chicago is a 10-story, 79-unit condominium building from LG Development, designed by Pappageorge Haymes Partners. It broke ground back in December 2016.

The pretty yellow Liebherr tower crane at 727 West Madison.

3. 727 West Madison

Taking over the parking lot of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 727 West Madison will be a 44-story, 492-unit apartment tower. This is the only active tower crane in the West Loop for Lendlease, which is very busy elsewhere in the city (One Bennett Park, Eleven40, and more.) But a second, at The Van Buren, is coming soon. Designed by FitzGerald, it’s a joint development from Fifield and F&F Realty.

The tower crane at the Hoxton Chicago, one of two cranes for Power Construction in the neighborhood.

4. Hoxton Chicago

One of two tower cranes in the West Loop for Power Construction, the Hoxton Chicago is a 12-story, 175-room hotel designed by local firm GREC Architects. It hasn’t begun to go vertical quite yet, but the foundation work continues.

The tower crane at 900 West is Power’s second in the West Loop. There’s only that one moon, though.

5. 900 West

900 West is the second Power Construction tower crane in the West Loop. 900 West is another condominium development, bringing 22 luxury units across its 9 stories.

Centaur Construction’s tower crane at the Nobu Hotel.

6. Nobu Hotel

The only Chicago tower crane for Centaur Construction, the Nobu Hotel got off to a slow start, but has now grown above street-level, on its way to 11 stories. It’s the other of two hotel projects underway in the West Loop.

Leopardo Companies’ only tower crane on the Chicago count is this brand-spankin’-new one at 210 North Carpenter.

7. 210 North Carpenter

The West Loop’s newest tower crane, and another Sterling Bay project, 210 North Carpenter will be the new home of the general contractor building it, Leopardo Companies. The 12-story office building is expected to open next year.

Coming Soon:

The tower crane stub at The Van Buren has its own, adorable house.

The Van Buren

The Van Buren, a 12-story apartment tower at 808 West Van Buren from Loukas Development and bKL Architecture, is one of two permitted tower-crane sites in the West Loop yet to be erected, though the stub has been planted. This is Lendlease’s second West Loop tower crane.

Hayden West Loop has a tower-crane permit, but no stub yet, as foundation work continues.

Hayden West Loop

Hayden West Loop is awaiting its tower-crane stub after receiving a permit on September 7. When erected, it will be the second Chicago crane for Macon Construction, the first being No. 508.

An October Flag Crane Tank shot, featuring Chicago’s newest tower crane

Posted on October 6, 2017 by danieldschell

Chicago’s newest tower crane, our 34th in the sky right now, provides us with today’s American Flag-Tower Crane-Chicago Water Tank shot.

We’ve been on this block before and featured the same flag and tank.

Sterling Bay is responsible for both the tower crane, now at work for Leopardo Companies at 210 North Carpenter…

..and for the flag, which sits atop Venue One at 1034 West Randolph.

The water tank is atop 1035 West Lake Street.

Tower Crane #34 is up and running at 210 North Carpenter

Posted on October 6, 2017 by danieldschell

Chicago’s 34th active tower crane, and 57th of 2017, is up and running at 210 North Carpenter. This is Leopardo Companies’ only tower crane on the official count, and their first since finishing the heavy lifting a few blocks away at Fulton West.

No time to celebrate #33, as Tower Crane #34 goes up in the West Loop

Posted on October 2, 2017 by danieldschell

The gang’s all here, as Leopardo Companies, Adjustable Forms, and Central Contractors Service set up the tower crane at 210 North Carpenter.

The West Loop is in a full-fledged tower-crane frenzy these days, and it won’t let up any time soon. We’ve barely had time to enjoy Tower Crane #33 in Chicago (raised over the weekend at 900 West) and already #34 is being erected, at Sterling Bay’s 210 North Carpenter.

This will be Chicago’s 57th tower crane of 2017, and the seventh crane operating currently in the West Loop.

Crews from Leopardo Companies, Adjustable Forms, and Central Contractors Service are all on site today, getting the Manitowoc MD485 set up, less than a week after the permit was issued, and only five days after the stub was planted in the ground.

: The cab was trucked in early this morning.

: The stub was planted Thursday.

: Crane parts await assembly on Randolph Street.

: Another crane will sit right next to the CTA Green and Pink Line L tracks.

🏗 Chicago rocks into October with 33 tower cranes in the air 🏗

Posted on October 1, 2017 by danieldschell

On the right is #33, Power Construction’s tower crane at 900 West, erected on the last two days of September.

With one new kid added at the last possible second (900 West got started Friday) Chicago enters the month of October with 33 operating tower cranes in the air.

New since September’s count:

One Grant Park #2 (1200 South Indiana)
The Lincoln Common North crane (2345 North Lincoln)
Hoxton Chicago hotel (200 North Green)
900 West (904 West Washington, just in the nick of time)

Gone since September:

McDonald’s East Crane
1407 On Michigan

Coming soon:

808 West Van Buren (stub in the ground)
210 North Carpenter (permit issued 09/26; stub planted 09/28)
Hayden West Loop (1109 West Washington; permit issued 09/07)
3833 Broadway (permit issued 09/06)
110 West Huron (permit issued 08/11)
The Bentham (146 West Erie; permit issued 09/11)

Who has cranes:

Lendlease – 8
Power – 8
McHugh – 6
W.E. O’Neil – 2
Nine companies have one crane each: Walsh (1326 South Michigan); Clayco (Cook County Central Campus Health Center); Pepper (Moxy Hotel); Centaur (Nobu Hotel); Norcon (Illume Chicago); Tishman (Aloft Chicago Mag Mile); Onni (Old Town Park); Linn-Mathes (Wicker Park Connection); Macon (No. 508)

What are they building:

Residential – 22
Hotel – 7
Medical – 3
Office – 1 (McDonald’s is the only tower crane in Chicago working on an office building right now.)

Where are they:

South Loop – 8
Streeterville – 6
West Loop – 6
New East Side – 2
River North – 2
Lincoln Park – 2
Lake View – 2
Five neighborhoods have one tower crane apiece: Illinois Medical District (Cook County Central Campus Health Center); Near North (Old Town Park); Gold Coast (No. 9 Walton); Wicker Park (Wicker Park Connection); Uptown (Eight Eleven Uptown)

Ready for the photos? Here you go, from north (Uptown) to south (Prairie District):