There are tower crane parts all over the West Loop today. And you know what? It’s fantastic.
Crews continue assembly of the giant yellow Liebherr 542 HC-L 18-36 Litronic (I can read permits) at 625 West Adams.
This massive street crane was the first piece of equipment on hand for the tower crane assembly.
Most construction companies will tell you they have their own schedules to keep, unaffected by outside influences. That’s okay. I’m still going to pretend I’m responsible for getting the tower crane on site at 625 West Adams.
Parts began arriving Thursday, and crews immediately got to work putting them together. It looks like weather may slow things down today.
A crane grows up in Streeterville. A red crane up in Streeterville. (Apologies to Ben E. King)
You remember that tower crane bulb planted at Northwestern University’s Louis A. Simpson and Kimberly K. Querrey Institute for BioNanotechnology in Medicine from a couple weeks ago, right? Well, that has bloomed into a beautiful crane butterfly. Of sorts. But before you wander off aimlessly looking for more crane photo ops, bear in mind there will be another tower crane on this construction site. Though I’m told that likely won’t appear until the end of August at the earliest.
In the meantime, the foundation dig continues, particularly at that south end, where Crane #2 will rise from the earth. But for now, one is reason enough to snap off another round of pictures.
I should have waited one more day to post about the new Apple flagship store on the Magnificent Mile. Now, for one of the best possible reasons, I have to take you to 401 North Michigan Avenue for the second day in a row: Chicago’s new Apple store has a tower crane stub!
Power Construction, contractors general (is that a thing) for the new gadget haven, anchored the first section into the ground today. And as luck would have it, I was in the very same neighborhood today. Crazy, right?
A shiny yellow LaGrange Crane crane helps assemble a pretty red All Crane.
And you’ll need a crane-building crane to help you build that building. Which is what Onni Group is doing right now at Atrium Village in the Near North neighborhood. Now that it looks like the massive foundation digging is mostly complete, Onni can start going skyward on the 31-story tower. They put up the stem yesterday; today, they were adding pieces and parts.
And you can see more photos of the some-assembly-required tower crane and the big dig down below:
Here, through a scratched, filthy CTA window, is the Atrium Village tower crane.
I did what I could from a fast-moving Brown Line train Tuesday evening to capture an image or two of the tower crane being set up at Atrium Village in the Near North neighborhood. That’s where Onni Group is building a 31-story apartment tower designed by Hartshorne Plunkard Architects.
That’s one of the two tower cranes at The Sinclair in the background.
So it’s not rooted into the ground. Big deal. This one may be even better, because of that glorious steel truss anchoring it above street level.
151 North Franklin, the new CNA Center in The Loop, started putting up its tower crane this weekend. And while the permit only costs half as much as your standard tower crane permit, it’s full-price-impressive.
Standing on the southwest corner of Franklin & Randolph.
Lendlease, the general contractor for the office tower, will have the luxury of reaching across 4 different blocks if need be. Though I doubt that will be necessary. Or even encouraged. But yes, this monster stretches across the corner of Franklin and Randolph. (It’d be kinda fun to pluck cars from the corner parking lot and put them atop the the parking deck at 200 West Randolph. But that might be why I’m not allowed to operate cranes.)
WARNING: This is a lot of pictures of a tower crane. But when you see it being assembled, you can’t just walk away.
It’s here! 165 North Desplaines fully assembled its tower crane today.
If you’re on my list of having a tower crane permit, but you still haven’t erected your tower crane yet, please step forward.
Hey, not so fast, 165 North Desplaines.
Yep, it’s up. Today, and maybe parts of yesterday, crews in the West Loop assembled a tower crane over top of North Desplaines Street. As you can’t quite tell from the photo above, it extends out over Randolph Street. Not that it will be lifting things that way, but it needs the reach to cover the lot from Desplaines east to Jefferson.
And now, I bring you A Tower Crane From Every Angle:
The permit for the kinda-sorta tower crane at the CNA Center, 151 North Franklin Street.
On Thursday, I passed along the heartbreaking news that the new CNA Center, the 35-story office tower being built at 151 North Franklin Street in The Loop, wouldn’t have a regular tower crane, but instead would utilize a crane attached to the structure itself. Well, that apparatus still requires a permit from the City of Chicago, and it was filed on Friday.
Phase 1 Temporary construction of World Free Standing Tower Crane Model Potain MR608
World Free? Wasn’t he an NBA player?
Interesting factoid: The standard tower crane permit shows an estimated cost of $60,000. This pseudo-tower crane permit goes for just $30,000. So they’re saving half from the get-go. Let’s just hope it’s cool to watch.
Don’t hide from us, we want to watch you sprout!
It’s hard to be everywhere every day.
I don’t know what day Power Construction planted their tower crane at 165 North Desplaines in the West Loop. I just know it was there when I went by Thursday. And really, just seeing it there is enough.
To remind you, 165 North Desplaines will be a 14-story apartment tower from developer Gerding Edlen. Designed by Chicago’s GREC Architects, it will contain 199 units, with 99 parking spaces and some retail space on the ground floor.
Building Up Chicago 