Category Archives: Tower Cranes

🏗 Chicago falls into September with 31 tower cranes in the air 🏗

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Our Chicago Tower Crane Survey for August was out of date about 3 hours before it was posted. Let’s hope this September count stays relevant a little longer than that.

New Since August:

  1. 1. The Lincoln Common South crane. The north crane should be here soon.

Gone Since August:

  1. Elevate Lincoln Park
  2. Solstice On The Park

Coming Soon:

  1. Lincoln Common North crane (Permitted 08/04/17)
  2. Hoxton Chicago Hotel (Permitted 08/04/17)
  3. One Grant Park #2 (Permitted 08/24/17)
  4. 900 West (Permitted 08/24/17)

Endangered Cranes:

  1. No. 9 Walton (This may stay forever.)
  2. Eleven40 (Topped out, forms coming down this week)

Who has tower cranes:

  1. Lendlease – 9 (1 more on the way) –
  2. Power Construction – 6 (2 more on the way)
  3. James McHugh Construction – 6
  4. Ten construction companies have a single tower crane: W.E. O’Neil (The Lincoln Common, with a 2nd on the way there); 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 these cranes building:

  1. Residential – 20
  2. Hotel – 6
  3. Medical – 3
  4. Office – 2

**I counted one of Vista’s tower cranes as residential, and one as hotel, for the Wanda Hotel.**

What else do you want to know? What else do you see? Which cranes have been taken down since I posted this? Let me know.

 

One Grant Park jumps the big tower crane as we wait for the little one

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One Grant Park tower crane jump

That’s a good looking group of recruits lined up for the One Grant Park tower crane jump.

Thursday was crane-jumping day at One Grant Park in the South Loop, as crews got ready to raise the tower crane to Phase Two. McHugh Construction got a permit tie in for phases 2-thru-5 back on August 4. How many tower-crane phases will there be for the 76-story tower? Well, that’s a question I wish I hadn’t asked, because I have no idea. Let’s pretend that sentence isn’t here.

The second tower crane permit, issued 08/24/17.

As for the “little one,” the City of Chicago issued a permit for a “FREE STANDING PECCO SN 160 TOWER CRANE” on the 24th of this month, then followed it up with a foundation permit for said crane on Tuesday of this week, the 29th. So yes, One Grant Park will have two tower cranes.

Wandering Milwaukee: Honorable Tower Crane mention at the Pabst Brewery

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The Brewery Pabst site Milwaukee

I see you. I’ll get over there in a bit.

There sure seems to be a lot going on at, and around, the old Pabst Brewery complex in Milwaukee’s Westown neighborhood. Visitors might not notice construction happening here, were it not for the warning beacon of a crane hovering above the site. That’s what caught my eye during my July 1 visit, and what kept me wandering The Brewery grounds for the afternoon.

I don’t know if the City of Milwaukee considers this crane an official tower crane or not, but since you’d need a permit to fly that thing here in Chicago, I’m counting it.

Developer Joseph Zilber is responsible for rejuvenating the Pabst site. Go there. (The website, not The Brewery. But then you should definitely visit the Pabst grounds in Milwaukee.)

The Milwaukee Independent has a great story about the history of The Brewery redevelopment.

I won’t even try to explain what is taking place here, except to point out that it appears there are at least 18 buildings involved. That’s over-simplifying at best. What I can do is share some photos from my walk through the neighborhood, all the while applauding all involved creating what already feels like a fun place to live, work, and play, and will only get bigger and better in the coming years.

Look, it’s way too many photos. And in no particular order. I know that. But I get carried away some times. And you should know that I still left out more than I included.

Night time along the Wabash Avenue Tower Crane Corridor

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The Wabash Arts Corridor gets the bulk of the attention, but hovering over Wabash Avenue like superheroes are a number of Chicago’s working tower cranes. Yes, the South Loop is booming with development. Just like every other section of the downtown area.

There are only two good times to view construction: when there’s daylight, and when it’s dark. Here are some night shots of South Loop construction along and near Wabash Avenue.

Essex On The Park

Essex On The Park will be a 56-story, 476-unit apartment tower to the immediate south of the existing Essex Inn hotel. Power Construction is the general contractor. Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture is the design architect, with Oxford Capital Group the developer.

Homewood Hilton Suites

The Homewood Hilton Suites will be a 30-story, 281-room hotel. Lendlease is the general contractor. Lothan Van Hook DeStefano Architecture is the design architect. S.B. Yen Management Group is the developer.

Eleven40

Eleven40 will be a 26-story, 320-unit apartment tower, which may or may not be topped out now. Work has for sure reached the 26th floor. Lendlease is the general contractor. Solomon Cordwell Buenz is the design architect. CA Ventures and Keith Giles are the co-developers.

One Grant Park

East of Michigan Avenue but too close to exclude, One Grant Park will be a 76-story, 792-unit apartment behemoth with a possible future tower next door. James McHugh Construction is the general contractor. Rafael Viñoly Architects is the design architect. Crescent Heights is the developer.

1326 South Michigan

1326 South Michigan is the New Kid On The Corridor, and there isn’t much to see yet of this future 47-story, 500-unit apartment tower. Walsh Construction is the general contractor. Solomon Cordwell Buenz is the design architect. CIM Group and Murphy Development Group are the developers.

1407 On Michigan

1407 On Michigan will be a 15-story, 199-unit apartment building, with a Rush Primary Aid Specialty Care center on the ground floor. Lendlease (they’re really busy down here) is the general contractor. BKV Group is the design architect; Russland Capital Group is the developer. It, too, is very close to topping out.

W.E. O’Neil erecting Chicago’s 31st tower crane at The Lincoln Common

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The Lincoln Common south tower crane

The Lincoln Common south tower crane makes its appearance in the Lincoln Park skyline.

It’s almost here.

Chicago’s 31st (and, eventually, 32nd) tower crane is just about ready to lift the heavy stuff at The Lincoln Common in Lincoln Park. W. E. O’Neil and Central Contractors Service have been on the site since Wednesday setting up the South Tower Crane. That means crew members are climbing around at scary heights, fastening what needs to be fastened, tightening what needs to be tightened. By the looks of progress, there’s no reason to believe Southy won’t be operational for work on Monday.

Still no sign of North Tower Crane, but I don’t want to sound greedy. We can just enjoy one for now.

First of two tower cranes begins at The Lincoln Common

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The Lincoln Common south tower crane

The south tower crane starts to rise at The Lincoln Common, seen from the Fullerton “L” platform.

On the red, purple, or brown line today? Take a look to the east from the Fullerton station, and you’ll see the first of two tower cranes being erected at The Lincoln Common. That’s where I spotted it from, because for some reason, I wasn’t staring at my phone as we pulled up. I jumped out and walked over to take a look.

And Twitter noticed. Users @kgburke3 andi @ChiBuildings (too early for a #FollowFriday? You should be following Chicago Cityscape for all things Chicago development) pointed out the street closure of North Lincoln Avenue between Belden and Fullerton Avenues through Friday for the big event. 

https://twitter.com/ChiBuildings/status/900581897985810432

https://twitter.com/kgburke3/status/900526288670216192

There’s still a lot of foundation work going on for this dual-tower, 540-unit mixed use project. W.E. O’Neil is the general contractor, and they’ve got a busy site in the works. You’ll see that in the photos below. No word yet though on when to expect the north tower crane to arrive.

Pictures from Solstice On The Park as the tower crane comes down

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Solstice On The Park tower crane removal

Local 63 Ironworker Nick Barwegen gets up close and personal with the tower crane at Solstice On The Park.

Local 63 Ironworker Nick Barwegen sent over some stellar photos from Solstice On The Park this morning, as Chicago’s south-most tower crane is being lowered to the ground. Sad as it is to see it come down, it sure does make for a cool photo-op.

Thanks, Nick!

It’s a tower-crane wash, as Chicago puts one up (Nobu Hotel) and takes one down (Solstice On The Park)

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Nobu Hotel Chicago tower crane

Say hello to the tower crane at the Nobu Hotel Chicago…

For a brief moment, while it was still dark Monday morning, Chicago had 31 tower cranes in operation across the city.

Centaur Construction completed assembly of their tower crane at the Nobu Hotel Chicago site over the weekend. But word came from a Little Birdie Friend last week that today would be the beginning of the end for the tower crane at Solstice On The Park, as Linn-Mathes and Adjustable Forms begin taking theirs down from the Hyde Park skyline.

So if you’re doing the math at home, this equation’s pretty simple: 30 + 1 – 1 = 30.

Solstice On The Park tower crane

…And say goodbye to the tower crane at Solstice On The Park, as it comes down this week.

 

Centaur Construction joins Chicago’s Tower Crane Party

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Centaur Construction is entering the tower crane count this weekend with their assembly of the crane at the Nobu Hotel Chicago site, and they’re relishing the moment.

Christina Pascente at Centaur took a bunch of great high-res images of the tower crane going up on Friday and sent them to us. So of course, we’re sharing them. Enjoy!

It’s tower crane time at Nobu Hotel

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https://twitter.com/JPGraziano/status/896001886859526144

Everybody’s talking about the new crane in town. Even purveyors of fine sandwiches.

As you read these words, Central Contractors Service and Centaur Construction are on the Nobu Hotel Chicago site in the West Loop, assembling the tower crane that will send the 11-story boutique hotel vertical. It’s also the reason you can’t drive on Peoria Street between Randolph and Lake. We’ve waited a long time for this one, so let’s enjoy it while it lasts. If it lasts. Now that Nobu will start going vertical, it won’t take long to stack its 11 floors on top of each other.

*** Centaur CEO Spiro Tsaparas called the B.U.C. to let me know a correction is in order on the Nobu project. I’ve reported that Walsh Construction was assigned the task of concrete work. That information, listed in Nobu’s building permits, is incorrect. Pepper Construction is, in fact, the masonry contractor for the Nobu Hotel.***