A lot of work has been done on the townhomes of Prairie Court since our last visit in September. In that time, Summit Design + Build has done some major cinder-block stacking, window installing, and even bricked up the wall at the north end of the project. In all, there will be 55 four-story homes from Golub and Sandz Development, slated for completion in 2018.
Goodbye Museum of Contemporary Art, hello Aloft Chicago Mag Mile.
A demolition permit filed Tuesday by the City of Chicago looks like the beginning of the new Aloft Chicago Mag Mile. Brought to you by Tishman, designed by Valerio Dewalt Train Associates, the Aloft Chicago Mag Mile is slated to bring 336 rooms across 19 floors to 237 East Ontario Street in Streeterville, home of the former Museum of Contemporary Art. Taylor Excavating will handle the tear-down chores.
Rendering of the Aloft Chicago Mag Mile from Tishman.
Rendering of the Aloft Chicago Mag Mile from Tishman.
There are bricks in the wall at the new Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Near North. The 7-story design by Dixon + Associates of Salt Lake City, Utah has already climbed to the sixth floor. McHugh Construction has been on the job since May of last year.
Before we head to the photos, here’s a reminder of what David Dixon of Dixon + Associates sent us last summer:
The new building in Chicago is unique for the Church. While they typically complete a new standard single-story meetinghouse every day somewhere in the world, this project is specifically designed for Chicago. Following the Neoclassical Romanesque Revival style of architecture, the building will incorporate the traditional red brick and limestone appearance that is prevalent in this area of Chicago. It will be six stories above grade (three meetinghouse and three parking levels) with a partial story of parking below grade. The building will open in about a year with a two-story chapel and associated classrooms. The top floor can accommodate another smaller chapel and classrooms in the future. Three or four congregations from the downtown area will utilize the building with staggered meeting schedules. A unique feature of this building is a landscaped courtyard on the fourth story. The courtyard provides semi-private outdoor space that could be used for receptions, mingling between meetings, or children’s activities. Plans were presented to the local neighborhood and were very well received.
The Gallery on Wells.
The Gallery On Wells is taller than its neighbor across the street, 640 North Wells, and it still has a tower crane. So perhaps it really has won the War on Wells. The 39-story apartment tower at 167 West Erie Street (or 637 North Wells, if you prefer) from the Magellan Development Group looks to have reached about the 30-story level or so. Linn-Mathes is doing the honors, putting 442 rental units, 131 parking spots, and 7,500 square feet of retail space into the Loewenberg Architects design.
The Ronsley, 676 North Kingsbury Street in River North. Render from The Ronsley website.
There’s quite an ambitious renovation taking place in River North, and after a long period of interior work, the outside is catching up with the inside.
The Ronsley, at 676 North Kingsbury Street, is well on its way to being transformed into a stellar condominium building. The Ronsley renovation was designed by Antunovich Associates for LG Development, and includes adding four additional stories atop the original 5-story timber loft office building, as well as putting additions on the west and south sides of the structure. All that work, which LG Construction is doing themselves, will result in 41 luxury condos ranging from two to four bedrooms, plus parking for 50 vehicles, including hydraulic lifts for stacking cars on cars.
The Ronsley in August of 2015. Sadly, the water tank is gone.
The water tank that is no more.
The back of the original loft timber office building, which faces south. It was…gritty.
The rear of the building under transformation, April 2016.
On to May of 2016, and the interior gutting:
A month later, more interior work, the west addition takes shape, and there’s more work going on around the back:
October 2016, and here come the windows! The west addition rises up the side of the original building, and the south addition gets off the ground:
Finally, January of 2017. Those new windows look great against the brick. There’s ironwork on top, to the west, and in the rear:
That’s a pretty row of glass at 165 North Desplaines.
And the glass action suits it.
With lots of new construction comes lots of new glass work. Add 165 North Desplaines to the list of the newly glazed. The 199-unit apartment building has about a floor-and-a-half of glass installed just above the podium, while overall construction has reached the 14th floor. and since this is planned to be a 14-story tower, the math would tell you 165 North Desplaines is close to topping out.
There’s an embarrassment of riches of new glass around Chicago these days. The latest to show up for the party? 151 North Franklin. But you have to look carefully. There are a few panels visible from the corner of Franklin and Randolph, and then a couple rows along Couch Place (aka the alley between Randolph and Lake.)
Have a look:
A pretty yellow tower crane rises above Ancora, the first phase of the Riverline project from CMK Companies.
You can’t stop a development with a tower crane. You can’t even hope to contain one.
Riverline has one of the newest machines in Chicago construction. A pretty yellow one at that. And its first task is Ancora, the 29-story apartment tower at 720 South Wells Street in the South Loop previously known (according to permits) as “Building D.”
Perkins + Will designed Ancora for CMK Companies, and it will be the first of many structures erected in the Riverline project. There will be 452 apartments and 246 parking spaces included with this phase. Lendlease is taking care of the heavy lifting.
I don’t know much about construction, but I *do* know when a crane sits below the top of its tower, its time there has come to an end.
It was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it? Two tower cranes, standing on either side of Wells Street, looking like they’re begin jousting at any moment?
640 North Wells and The Gallery On Wells (then known as 167 West Erie, or 637 North Wells, or The Building On Wells Street Where Gino’s Used To Be) got started about the same time, then famously (to me) erected tower cranes nearly simultaneously. That’s how the War On Wells began. But when one tower rises 17 stories higher than the other, it’s not really a fair fight.
And so, having topped out at 23 stories, 640 North Wells took down the tower crane over the weekend. But shed no tears for that lost crane. We’re gonna need two tower cranes at the McDonald’s HQ. And have you seen Thursday’s agenda for the Chicago Plan Commission meeting? Tower cranes won’t be out of season in Chicago for quite some time.
The Hudson, 750 North Hudson Avenue, and its very impressive podium.
Once famous for its glow-in-the-dark tower crane, The Hudson, at 750 North Hudson Avenue in River North, is topped out, glassed up, and looking like it will easily meet its Summer 2017 opening. Pappageorge Haymes Partners designed The Hudson for Onni Group, which is not only the developer, but the general contractor as well. That summer opening will feature 240 apartments, 240 parking spaces, and 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.
The Hudson doesn’t need a glowing crane anymore to catch the eye.
