1044 West Van Buren was part of Chicago’s mini growth spurt of tower cranes in late May. And it’s doing what tower cranes do: turning empty lots into new buildings. This one in particular, designed by Antunovich Associates for Tandem (with Adjustable Concrete on concrete duty), will rise to 18 stories and deliver 196 apartments to the south end of the West Loop.
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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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It’s tough to see the demolition work Taylor Excavating has started at 210 North Aberdeen (fences and angles and whatnot), so the video above, taken from an outbound CTA train, was the best chance to watch. Soon, Taylor Excavating will bust through the backs of the buildings along May Street for better spectating.
LG Group has approval for 210 Aberdeen, a NORR-designed 19-story, 363-unit apartment project in the West Loop. To make way for it, demolition permits were issued May 11 for 213, 215, and 221 North May Street (the aforementioned “backs of buildings) as well as partial demolitions for 210 and 214 North Aberdeen. The original Arthur Harris & Company building, which encompasses both those Aberdeen addresses, is being preserved. Only the small addition on the south end of the building is being removed.
The handsome Arthur Harris & Company building stays put.See what I mean about fences?The backs, along May Street.
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Caissons are done, but foundation work continues for Embry at 21 North May in the West Loop. A 270-degree tour around the site last week shows piles have been driven into the ground, and a bunch more sat at the ready for their turn in the soil. That’s the firm of McHugh & McHugh (Construction & Concrete) on the job out there, getting this 16-story, 58-unit condo building from Sulo Development ready to go vertical. And remember, they’ll be getting a shiny yellow Liebherr tower crane soon, too.
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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A Linkedin post late last week from Thomas Roszak tells us concrete at 160 North Elizabeth has reached the 15th floor. This is a 27-story tower, so that’s more than halfway up. Because math. And I’m good at it. Clark and Adjustable are good at things too, because this building is flying upwards.
If you happened to make it outside Thursday, you noticed it was a sunny, gorgeous day. And sunny days are ideal for construction progress photos. So I took a few:
From way up northFrom way down south
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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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If you’re looking for the permits, 164 North Peoria is the address you’ll want. If you’re looking for details on the soaring new West Loop apartment Tower, 900 Randolph is the name you need.
Okay, it might not quite be soaring yet. But at 43 stories, 900 Randolph will soon be the tallest building in Chicago west of Halsted Street (not the Kennedy; I think that designation stays with 727 West Madison), as the West Loop and Fulton Market neighborhoods continue to grow upwards and outwards. And it’s making its way up, as the core appears to have reached the 14th or 15th floor.
Let’s catch you up on the latest progress, photographed Sunday, May 1.
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