The way 920 North Wells keeps crashing through milestones, I’m worried if I blink, it’ll be done. Its latest trick is planting the tower crane stub, which was permitted May 17. Keep an eye out, as it’s likely, the way things are going, for the tower crane to be completely erected by the end of this week.
In the meantime, have a whole mess o’ photos of a tower crane base at a construction site. (iPhones come in handy for peeking over fences)
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How cool is this crane at The Seng/Common Lincoln Park?!
I should have known this sooner so I could make a Big Deahl out of it.
This is my apology to Power Construction, Structured Development, GREC Architects, and everyone else affiliated with construction on The Seng and Common Lincoln Park. While I was bemoaning only having one lighted tower crane in Chicago, we actually had two of them. This one at 853 West Blackhawk being the second one.
I’ll get more photos of it ASAP, but in the meantime, I’m sorry, all. This sucker is cool, and I missed it. Once I’m forgiven, I’ll ask about lighting up the other Big Deahl crane at 1475 North Kingsbury… (too soon? pushing my luck?)
One of you up there in those existing towers should have turned me on to this. Shame. Shout-out to Jimmy Freer for clueing me in on Facebook.
The view of the Fulton River District’s 354 North Union from the Fulton Market District.
The coolest of Chicago’s current tower crane crop is at 354 North Union. No contest. The lighted crane always wins. Kudos to Onni Group for lighting up yet another.
I stopped by Saturday night to take a few shots in the dark. Wish my photography skills were better, but even bad photos of lit up tower cranes are cool. Also in the gallery are some progress shots taken throughout the month of May.
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The first two of three tower cranes at the Obama Presidential Center.
Chicago has 19 active tower cranes in the sky to begin the month of June, 2022, as of the end of Memorial Day weekend. The variable here is 513 South Damen. The crane was still up Sunday, but the tower has been topped out, and it’s *slightly* possible it has started its descent before June 1. But it’s being included in the count as “active.”
Okay, *two* variables. 732 West Randolph wasn’t completely erected as of Sunday, but we’re counting that one as a June crane.
Where are the cranes?
West Loop – 6 South Loop – 3 Near North – 3 Woodlawn – 2 Five “neighborhoods” have one crane each: Illinois Medical District (513 South Damen); Fulton River District (354 North Union); Lake View (3501 North Halsted); River North (HUGO); Irving Park (4445 W Irving Park)
What are they building?
Residential – 14(wow) Medical – 2 Cultural Institutions – 2 Office – 1 (732 West Randolph)
How many cranes are lit up at night?
Just one: 354 North Union
This month, we’re starting up north and heading south:
4445 West Irving Park3501 North Halsted1475 North Kingsbury and 853 West Blackhawk (Big Deahl)808 North Cleveland751 North Hudson (HUGO)354 North Union166 North Aberdeen164 North Peoria (900 Randolph)160 North Elizabeth160 North Morgan732 West Randolph1044 West Van Buren513 South Damen234 West Polk (The Reed at Southbank)1000 South Michigan (1000M)1400 South Wabash6001 South Stony Island (The Obama Presidential Center)
As always, the Building Up Chicago Tower Crane Survey is not a scientific poll. If I’ve missed any, hit me up. And if you know of a tower crane out in the ‘burbs, let me know about those too. I hope to get to the outskirts some time soon.
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Power Construction and Central Contractors Service were out in the elements (it was a beautiful day) Thursday erecting the second tower crane at the Big Deahl development. While the first crane builds The Seng and Common Lincoln Park, this second rig will handle the taller task of 1475 North Kingsbury.
Dedicated crane chaser that I am, I stopped by here twice on Thursday to supervise things. As an added bonus, I have a few progress shots of The Seng and Common Lincoln Park too.
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Chicago saw three tower cranes erected last week as the city continues to overcome that five-count from a few months back.
One of the new ones is a shiny yellow Liebherr number at Sterling Bay’s160 North Morgan. I dropped by twice on Thursday to check it out. I would have stayed all day, but tower cranes take a looooong time to go up safely, and there are a lot of lulls in the action. Unless, of course, you’re part of the crews from Walsh Construction and LaGrange Crane. For them, assembly action never slows down.
Bet you’ve never seen this many photos of a tower crane that wasn’t even half built yet. Unless it was another post on this blog… but tower crane builds deserve this much attention.
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The base section of a tower crane was set in pace Thursday at 732 West Randolph.
What an embarrassment of tower-crane riches we’ve along Randolph Street in the West Loop. Even though recent rigs at 609, 1371, 1400 and 1454 are gone, we have cranes operating at the corners of Randolph and Peoria (900 Randolph), Randolph and Aberdeen (166 North Aberdeen), and Randolph and Elizabeth (160 North Elizabeth.)
And now, 732 West Randolph has entered the chat. Thursday, general contractor Maris Construction and concrete contractor Pepper Construction planted the base for a tower crane that will build an eight-story (plus basement) office building. Designed by Hirsch MPG, 732 will connect on its first six floors with 730 West Randolph next door, and will include a rooftop deck and basement fitness center.
732 West Randolph got its first construction permit way back on March 03, 2020, as a renovation/alteration permit to add the eight-story building to the aforementioned six-story building at 730 West. A revised New Construction permit was issued September 23 of 2022. Both of those permits were reinstated in August of last year, and the tower crane was permitted February 1 of this year.
As you can see, work is in progress. All that rebar around the base of the crane will be smothered in concrete for the crane foundation on Monday.
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The 18-story, 196-unit apartment tower by developer and general contractor Tandem took a big step forward this week, planting a tower crane stub in the ground at 1044 West Van Buren in the West Loop. The crane will be erected early next week, I’m told, in what looks to be nice weather.
My first visit here was April 7; I went back May 1 and saw some digging had been done. The kind of digging you expect *after* caisson work is done; the kind of digging that makes you think “hole up; did I miss caissons?” Yep. Somehow, I completely missed caisson work, which must have been done with lightning speed. Oh well. You snooze, you miss out. Or something.
Here are more stub pics, and a few shots of foundation work from the May 1 visit:
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A tower crane stub juts from the ground at 1475 North Kingsbury
1475 North Kingsbury (Blackhawk?) is doing its part to get Chicago another new tower crane. Thursday morning, we found a brand-spankin’-new stub sticking out of the ground. It sure looked by the efforts at the base of the base that the stub had had just been set, but I was too timid to interrupt a very busy crew to get confirmation on its arrival date. The important thing is, it’s there, and the rest of the crane should soon follow.
As we noted in this very space back in April:
1475 North Kingsbury received a caisson permit and a tower crane permit Wednesday, April 6. Designed by FitzGerald, it will be a 27-story tower with 327 rental apartments. Along with Structured Development, two other developers join the team for this one: White Oak Realty Partners, and Ponsky Capital Partners. Ponsky’s website uses the name “Blackhawk” for this one; we’ll see if that moniker sticks. (Reminder: The Seng and Common Lincoln Park are both addressed on Blackhawk Street.)
Next up, photo. The first gallery is from Thursday’s crane discovery. Then you’ll see a batch taken May 1 of the last remnants of caisson work.
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