Anyone else ready for Nobu caissons? (corrected)

Posted on March 22, 2017 by danieldschell

Yes, let’s get that thing put together and rip up some earth!

*** STOP THE PRESSES!

Too late? Twitter user and follower @Rjoyce21 informs me that I’m not looking at the assembly of a caisson rig, but rather a “quad sheet press.” So, still a step toward foundation progress, but no caissons. Bummer.

Thank you, Ryan. ***

Because I sure am.

Construction of the Nobu Chicago Hotel at 854 West Randolph Street in the West Loop has been a roller coaster ride at best, a roller coaster ride where you stood in line for two hours and then they closed the ride for repairs just as you got to the front of the line at worst.

All exaggeration, of course. But it’s been interesting. Ground was broken in June. Soil was sampled in July. Then additional height was approved by the Chicago Plan Commission in September, and caisson material was delivered to the site. Then, those materials were gone. Then everything was gone. A foundation permit was issued December 1st, but still no action.

Finally, earlier this month, a crew from Taylor Excavating showed up and started digging. And now yesterday, folks from Hayward Baker were on site setting up a caisson rig. So it looks like the 11-story, 119-room hotel is really happening.

Illume Chicago plants a tower crane in the West Loop (Updated)

Posted on March 21, 2017 by danieldschell

Wait…is that…IT IS! It’s a tower crane at Illume Chicago!

Floating somewhere within the universe that is the City of Chicago’s building permit database that hasn’t updated since Friday, there lies a tower crane permit for 111 South Peoria Street in the West Loop. How do I know this? Well, it isn’t because I’m smart. No, it’s because I wandered past the Illume Chicago construction site, and was greeted by a tower crane stub sticking up out of the ground.

According to Norcon, the general contractor at Illume, full tower assembly will occur this weekend, weather permitting. And if weather doesn’t permit, it will be rescheduled for next weekend. That way, Green Street (at the east end of the site) can be closed for two days without impacting weekday traffic.

Look what popped up Tuesday afternoon: The tower crane permit, issued yesterday. The site finally updated.

P.S. A quick shout-out to Norcon, for strategically installing their crane between the two towers of Emerald Lofts, so I get a clear view of of it from the B.U.C. HQ. This one brings the total to six tower cranes I cold easily zipline to from here.

: Build it!

: Tower crane erection crew.

: Tower crane foundations are the best foundations.

165 North Desplaines goes craneless

Posted on March 6, 2017 by danieldschell

You are in no danger of losing your jobs to me. I’ll be fine down here on terra firma.

This past weekend at 165 North Desplaines in the West Loop was spent dismantling and hauling away the tower crane that had been erecting the rental development since June of last year. The 14-story building topped out in late January, and now it’s a matter of buttoning up the exterior, and getting to work on 199 apartment interiors.

: Saturday morning, and disassembly begins.

: Moon and crane.

: Saturday night, a partial crane remains.

: Back at it Sunday morning.

: Lots of NOPE here

: Top o’ the Tower.

: Flying The W until the very end.

: Down the road it goes.

Dig this: There’s action at Nobu. (No, really, there is!)

Posted on March 4, 2017 by danieldschell

https://twitter.com/MalcolmMossman/status/837021488054222849

Just when we were starting to believe the Nobu Hotel project might be kaput, there appears to be whole-scale excavation happening on the lot at Randolph and Peoria Streets in the West Loop.

Twitter user @MalcolmMossman tweeted the above photo on Wednesday, after wandering past the site and noticing Taylor Excavation’s equipment peeking out above the secretive fencing. And sure enough, a closer inspection shows some real-live digging. Foundation work? Let’s hope so. It’s nice to see some ground move after it was broken way back in June.

: A machine that makes big dirt small. Cool.

: Not seeing any action at Nobu was getting tired, so this makes sense.

165 North Desplaines tower crane comes down this weekend

Posted on March 3, 2017 by danieldschell

A friday-night look at the 165 North Desplaines tower crane, which comes down this weekend.

The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.

The West Loop got two new tower cranes within the past week, and on the same lot to boot, when McDonald’s erected a pair at 110 North Carpenter. But now we’ll have to give one back.

165 North Desplaines topped out over a month ago — on January 26th, to be exact — and now all the heavy lifting is done, and it’s time for this tower crane to move on. An email from the 42nd Ward tells us that happens this weekend.

As you shed a tear for the departing tower crane, remember we should have one soon at One South Halsted. And perhaps the Nobu Hotel, should this week’s excavation work be the real deal.

My iPhone and I stopped by 165 North Desplaines on the way home tonight, to take one last look.

: Crews were clearing access to the tower crane base Friday night.

Quick Look: Both tower cranes are up at McDonald’s

Posted on February 28, 2017 by danieldschell

West Crane and East Crane are both assembled at Sterling Bay’s new McDonald’s Headquarters in the West Loop. East Crane gave us quite a ride, as it started up Saturday, only to have the tower top and cab removed Sunday. But Monday it was erected in full.

Monday evening’s view.

Tuesday morning’s view, with brief sunshine.

The McDonald’s East Tower Crane goes up…wait…hold that thought…

Posted on February 27, 2017 by danieldschell

As of noon Sunday, a tower, but no crane.

Saturday saw a crew from Central Contractors erecting a free-standing Peiner SK415 tower crane (I know how to read a permit) on the new McDonald’s Headquarters site in the West Loop. East Crane seemed to coming along quite nicely, but Sunday morning saw the crew removing the tower top and cab from atop the tower. The good news here, obviously, is that we may get to watch the cab and turntable raised twice. Yep, that’d be an embarrassment of crane-assembly-watching riches.

Whereas late Saturday afternoon, the tower top and cab/turntable were in place.

Here are photos from Saturday’s partial assemblage. WARNING: Some of them are quite snowy:

Quick Look: Tower crane action in the West Loop and Prairie District

Posted on February 23, 2017 by danieldschell

The McDonald’s headquarters is erecting the first of its two tower cranes, while the triple-branded Hilton Hotel at McCormick Place planted a tower crane seedling in the South Loop.

: NOPE

: Raising the boom.

: So much NOPE

Landmark West Loop takes over where 1035 West Van Buren began

Posted on February 23, 2017 by danieldschell

From this day forward, 1035 West Van Buren would like to be called Landmark West Loop.

You know the guy at the office who refills the stapler for you, then staples the last four pages together and takes credit for the TPS reports you spent all week working on? Well, that’s a very vague analogy for what’s just happened at Related Midwest’s new apartment tower in the West Loop.

New signage had been spotted, and Stephanie Lulay at DNAinfo reported yesterday, that what had been called 1035 West Van Buren through all the digging and heavy lifting shall henceforth be known as Landmark West Loop.

There’s still a little ways to go to top off the 30-story tower, as it’s reached about 25 floors in height, but still, a lot of the work was done before this new name swooped in. Though to be fair, buildings named after their addresses aren’t especially clever, and three-word street names are just clunky anyway. Besides, no one has moved into any of the 300 new, unfinished rental units yet, so it isn’t like they’ll need change-of-address cards already. So a new moniker for this one seems fitting. Landmark West Loop it is.

Landmark West Loop rises along the Eisenhower Expressway.

Demolition at 1115 West Washington clears the way for Hayden West Loop

Posted on February 22, 2017 by danieldschell

Johler Demolition is tearing down 1115 West Washington Boulevard to make room for Hayden West Loop.

On January 19 of this year, the Chicago Plan Commission approved two nine-story condo buildings for construction in the West Loop. One would front the 1100-block of West Washington, the other the 100-block of North May. In an amazing coincidence, a demolition permit had been issued the previous day for the property at 1115 West Washington, and that demolition is going on now.

The new development, known as Hayden West Loop, is being built by Peerless Real Estate Investments, which also appears to be known as Sulo Development. Hayden West Loop is a design from Booth Hansen (The Parker Fulton Market, Chestnut Row Homes) and will bring 56 condominiums to the neighborhood.

In the meantime, Johler Demolition of Arlington Heights is on the scene, knocking down what used to be part of Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios. Demolition made the news back on February 6 when a small fire broke out (DNAinfo had the deets) but does that really do anything but speed up the demo process?