Category Archives: Tower Cranes

Sometimes the tower cranes we miss are the tower cranes we miss the most

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Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center

Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes sent over this photo of the WESC from June, just as the second tower crane was coming down.

We love tower cranes at Building Up Chicago. That’s no secret. We’re especially fond of scenes like Vista Tower, The Simpson-Querrey Center, McDonald’s Headquarters, and One Bennett Park, each of which have two tower cranes on site. And don’t even get us started about the two projects we saw in London that had 10 apiece.

But we can’t get to them all.

We found out today, courtesy of Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes, that the tower crane we wandered to at the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center had a sibling. Up until a couple weeks before we stopped by, the parking garage being constructed next to the Milwaukee Bucks’ new arena had a second tower crane.

Hey! Why not keep a tower crane on a parking garage? Do you have any idea how helpful (and fun) it would be to use it to get cars up to and off the top level?

Curtis said neither tower crane remains on site now, so it looks like we got there just in time. Maybe one trip a year to Milwaukee isn’t often enough?

Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center

Only one tower crane remained when we visited the WESC in July.

Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center

Don’t get me wrong; there were still multiple cranes. Just not multiple tower cranes.

Uplifting news: Two towers, two tower cranes at The Lincoln Common

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The Lincoln Common

Caisson work at The Lincoln Common will include foundations for TWO tower cranes.

Friday was a busy day for important permits in Chicago.

You read in our August tower crane update that The Lincoln Common would soon be on the board with a tower crane for one of the two 20-story, 269-unit apartment towers going up on the site. Well, the City of Chicago just doubled down on that wager, permitting a second tower crane for the site.

We’ll need to work out some names for these. For now, the city’s permits dub them “East” and “West.” But since they’re in position to build the north and south (2335 and 2345 North Lincoln Ave) towers, we may need to use “North” and South” for them. Or, perhaps the cranes will share duties on each tower, as opposed to being dedicated to one single building. Minor details. East Crane and West Crane will suffice for now.

This means W.E. O’Neil will not only get on the board; they’ll storm it. And their two tower cranes will make up for the recent losses at Elevate Lincoln Park and the DePaul School of Music. And don’t forget, we could get a crane across the street when the Belmont Village senior-living facility gets rolling. Tower cranes galore for Lincoln Park.

The Lincoln Common

East Crane

The Lincoln Common

West Crane

🏗 Chicago begins August with *31 tower cranes in the air 🏗 (Correction: make that 30) 

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We last updated our “official” Chicago Tower Crane Survey back in June. So with August here, it’s time to get a current count of what’s in the sky right now.

New to the list since June’s count:

  1. Moxy Hotel. Not new because it was just erected; new because I erroneously left it off the count. It needed a permit, so it qualifies. It’s been up since May.
  2. 1326 South Michigan (soon to get a new name, according to Murphy Development Group)
  3. Essex On The Park

Gone since June’s count:

  1. Alta Roosevelt
  2. 625 West Adams
  3. The Apple Store
  4. Hubbard221/412 North Wells

Coming Soon:

  1. Nobu Hotel Chicago (Stub planted July 25; this will get Centaur Construction on the board)
  2. The Lincoln Common (Tower crane permit issued July 17; this will get W.E. O’Neil on the board)

Endangered Cranes?

  1. Solstice On The Park  (Topped out Monday, July 24)
  2. No. 9 Walton (Seems like it’s been topped out for weeks)
  3. *Elevate Lincoln Park (Topped out, I think)

*Not only topped out, but it’s coming down as of Tuesday morning, August 1.

Who has tower cranes?

  1. Lendlease – 9
  2. McHugh Construction – 7 (6, now that Elevate Lincoln Park is gone)
  3. Power Construction – 6
  4. Linn-Mathes – 2
  5. All tied with one apiece: Walsh Construction (1326 South Michigan), Clayco (CCCCHC), Pepper Construction (Moxy), Onni Group (Old Town Park), Macon Construction (No. 508), Tishman (Aloft Chicago Mag Mile), Norcon (Illume Chicago)

Here are Chicago’s 31 active tower cranes:

Three flags, a water tank, and a tower crane in the Prairie District

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Prairie District Flag Crane Tank

You get a 3-fer in the latest edition of American Flag, Tower Crane, Water Tank.

The flags fly above New City Alfa Romeo at 2401 South Michigan Avenue.

The water tank sits atop Motor Row Gallery at 2345 South Michigan Avenue.

The tower crane is lifting heavy stuff at the Triple-branded Hilton Hotel project at 123 East Cermak Road.

West Loop’s Nobu Hotel (finally) plants a tower crane

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Nobu Hotel tower crane

THERE IT IS! The Nobu Hotel has a tower-crane stub.

The biggest day in the history of the northeast corner of the intersection of Randolph and Peoria Streets on Restaurant Row in the West Loop has finally arrived.

13 months after breaking ground, nine months after receiving a tower-crane permit from the City of Chicago, one month after having that permit revised, and two weeks after having that revised permit revised yet again to relocate the tower-crane pad and caissons, the Nobu Hotel Chicago at long last has planted a tower crane.

And while there’s still a substantial amount of foundation digging to be done, the arrival of the tower crane signals a major step upward for the boutique hotel. With all the development ongoing in this part of the city, overnight accommodations had been sorely lacking, and Nobu’s 11-story, 119-room hotel will help fill that void. But first, it will have to fill the void left by all that foundation digging. Slow as it’s been getting started, Nobu still plans to have its first Chicago hotel open in 2018. Centaur Construction will do their best to reach that goal. (Nobu marks Centaur’s first tower crane on the official tower-crane count.)

Alta Roosevelt drops the tower crane

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Alta Roosevelt

This was the scene Saturday morning, as the Alta Roosevelt tower crane was turned parallel to Financial Place one final time, before beginning its descent to earth.

Always the saddest of positive milestones, Saturday marked the beginning of the end for the tower crane at Alta Roosevelt at 801 South Financial Place in the South Loop. Twitter user @GNWIII3 alerted us Friday to the pending dismantle. Then well into the evening hours, general contractor Walsh Construction, along with Morrow Equipment Company and Central Contractors Service, were pooling their talents to assure a smooth transition from towering crane to crane parts on trucks.

What’s next for the Pappageorge Haymes-designed apartment tower to achieve? Let’s guess the completion of cladding installation, as glass has moved within three levels of the top. Then it’s just a matter of finishing a mere 496 individual units, and folks can start moving in before winter hits Chicago.

 

Chicago’s official Tower Crane Count now stands somewhere in the 30s

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625 West Adams

Monday morning, crews began lowering the tower crane at 625 West Adams.

I’m not very good at math, so let’s slow things down a tad this morning. As you may know, the B.U.C. HQ is in the process of relocating, consolidating into the South Loop Bureau. That means far more attention has been paid to taping and painting walls, packing belongings, and mislabeling boxes, than to construction. And it looks like we’ve missed quite a bit over the past week or so.

As for that vague “30s” tower crane count, I think we’re at 32. We’ve lost two cranes this week, as 625 West Adams and the Apple Store are both on their way down, and we’ve gained one, as Essex On The Park now has a Crane On The Count. (33-2+1=32.) But until I can find which box I packed my compass, crayons, and Kodachrome, I won’t be confirming that for awhile.

That leaves Nobu on the clock. Anyone walk by this week?

Apple Store

The Yellow Street Crane of Doom was dismantling the Apple Store tower crane Wednesday morning, just before the weather took a turn.

Essex On The Park

The Essex On The Park tower crane is up and lifting heavy stuff.

 

1326 + 1 = 33: 1326 South Michigan erects Chicago’s 33rd tower crane

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It’s the new math. 1326 South Michigan put up a tower crane last week, raising Chicago’s total to 33.

https://twitter.com/skenrou/status/881190910649933825

That tweet from Twitter used @skenrou Saturday morning confirmed the shiny yellow luffer (not fighter) was up and ready to do Walsh Construction’s heavy lifting. 1326 still looks like a barren lot, albeit with a tower crane now poking up through the north edge of the site. But that will all change quickly, as the 47-story tower can now begin to go vertical.

Brace for an entire Summer of a Loop without a tower crane

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145 South Wells

The now-empty lot at 145 South Wells. Case Foundation will begin caisson work in September.

The Loop, Chicago’s central business district, has been without a tower crane since 151 North Franklin dropped its crane back in April. And it looks like The Loop shall remain craneless until late summer/early fall.

A Facebook post from Case Foundation on June 22 lets us know they’ll begin caisson work for Clark Construction in September at 145 South Wells, the office tower project from developer Moceri + Roszak and design architect Thomas Roszak Architecture.

There aren’t many jobs on the immediate horizon for The Loop, so it’s highly unlikely anything else will get started before 145 South Wells. Of course, we should keep our eye on the empty lot at 130 North Franklin, just to be safe.

1326 South Michigan is getting into the tower-crane game

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https://twitter.com/ChrisAHorney/status/878399659307347968

Shout-out to Twitter user @ChrisAHorney from Murphy Development Group, who let us know the tower crane stub spotted at 1326 South Michigan on Thursday, was planted on Friday. He also let us know full assembly will begin on Monday.

We’ve all seen Walsh Construction’s work around town, so it was pretty obvious they know a horizontal stub wasn’t gonna do them much good when building a skyscraper, but it’s nice to have photo confirmation anyway.

Walsh will put that tower crane to work erecting the SCB-designed 46-story, 500-unit tower that Murphy Development Group is bringing to the South Loop in partnership with CIM Group.