One Grant Park is blueing up the South Loop

Posted on July 20, 2017 by danieldschell

The Big Blue Forms of One Grant Park.

Many legal-types will tell you to fill out your forms in blue. Which is exactly what McHugh Construction is doing at One Grant Park. Eschewing the usual yellow forms you see throughout Chicago, McHugh has opted for blue on Rafael Viñoly Architects’ 76-story apartment tower in the South Loop. And with Lake Michigan just a couple blocks away, why not? Working blue can be a bad thing for a comedian, but not for a construction company. Your children can watch. Blue screen of death? Nah, that’s for your old laptop. These are Blue Screens of Safety.

One Grant Park, a development from Crescent Heights, will stack 792 rental units atop 12 levels of parking. Work began on the lot at Roosevelt, Indiana, and Michigan back in December.

: All that’s visible of One Grant Park from the new B.U.C. South Loop Bureau. So far.

: #Mooncrane.

New Neighbor Eleven40 continues to rise in the South Loop

Posted on July 18, 2017 by danieldschell

A little project I’m working on in the back yard.

Of course, Eleven40 isn’t the new neighbor; I am. But so far, the new apartment tower from the CA Ventures – Keith Giles team doesn’t seem to mind its new spectators, as Lendlease keeps pushing the project skyward. The tower crane is still doing tower-crane things, and the cladding is starting to wrap around a fourth level.

A Spring 2018 arrival date for the 320-unit, SCB-designed South Loop tower fast approacheth, so don’t expect activity to slow down anytime soon.

: Night view.

: Construction at night is a beautiful sight.

: Anatomy of a Window Install, a play in six acts.

Wandering Milwaukee: The Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center

Posted on July 17, 2017 by danieldschell

The new of of the Milwaukee Bucks rises as part of the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center.

Another Summerfest has come and gone from Milwaukee. I like Summerfest. It gives me a chance to sample the unhealthiest of delicious festival foods, walk around downtown, and see a concert. Last year, it was Sting. This year, Paul Simon. And once a year, I get to check in on Milwaukee construction.

A rendering of the new Milwaukee Bucks arena.

Hands down, the most watchable construction site in Milwaukee right now is the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center. Including the future home of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks, the WESC is a design by Populous, the Kansas City-based architecture firm known in Chicago for its work on Guaranteed Rate Field and the United Center, with assistance from Eppstein Uhen Architects and HNTB Corporation. Populous has also done design work for features of the Wrigley Field renovation. Chances are, if you’ve been to more than two sporting events in your life, you probably watched them in a Populous facility. The M.A. Mortenson Company is the general contractor.

While the WESC will eventually be a 30-acre entertainment district, the center piece is the new 714,000-square-foot arena. That, along with a multi-level parking garage, are under construction now. The $524 million arena is scheduled for completion in time for the 2018-2019 NBA season.

You can learn *tons* more about the new arena from ICON Venue Group.

You can keep up with the WESC on Twitter here.

Follow M.A. Mortenson here.

Chicago’s official Tower Crane Count now stands somewhere in the 30s

Posted on July 12, 2017 by danieldschell

Monday morning, crews began lowering the tower crane at 625 West Adams.

I’m not very good at math, so let’s slow things down a tad this morning. As you may know, the B.U.C. HQ is in the process of relocating, consolidating into the South Loop Bureau. That means far more attention has been paid to taping and painting walls, packing belongings, and mislabeling boxes, than to construction. And it looks like we’ve missed quite a bit over the past week or so.

As for that vague “30s” tower crane count, I think we’re at 32. We’ve lost two cranes this week, as 625 West Adams and the Apple Store are both on their way down, and we’ve gained one, as Essex On The Park now has a Crane On The Count. (33-2+1=32.) But until I can find which box I packed my compass, crayons, and Kodachrome, I won’t be confirming that for awhile.

That leaves Nobu on the clock. Anyone walk by this week?

The Yellow Street Crane of Doom was dismantling the Apple Store tower crane Wednesday morning, just before the weather took a turn.

The Essex On The Park tower crane is up and lifting heavy stuff.

The B.U.C. HQ is changing Loops

Posted on July 7, 2017 by danieldschell

The B.U.C. is moving to the South Loop.

The time has come for Building Up Chicago to abandon its West Loop Headquarters and move the entire operation south. South Loop, that is. As we speak, ticker-tape readers, fax machines, and hand-cranked pencil sharpeners are being packed into boxes. After two years of towering above the Kennedy Expressway and all points west, our reporting will soon be done exclusively from the South Loop Bureau.

Fear not, good people. Divvy bikes and durable footwear will still allow us to move throughout the city to all points tower-crane. But expect things to be a little more South Loop-centric, just as they had been for the West Loop.

We watched the Parker Fulton Market grow up and open at 171 North Halsted Street.

No more eagle-eye views of One South Halsted.

We’ll miss you most of all, 625 West Adams.

Vista Tower takes a new angle

Posted on July 5, 2017 by danieldschell

The WOW Factor just kicked up a notch at Vista Tower.

There’s an age-old axiom in architecture that I just made up that says “You can’t build frustums without angling some columns.” And it makes a lot of sense, if you don’t give it much thought.

Frustums on frustum in this Studio Gang rendering of Vista Tower.

It’s happening now at Vista Tower. McHugh Construction has the beginnings of four concrete columns sticking out of the north elevation at an impossible-not-to-notice angle, to which they’re adding rebar and concrete forms, making an already photo-worthy work site nearly impossible to walk away from. It’s also what Paul Simon was referring to in You Can Call Me Al with the lyric “angles in the architecture, spinning in infinity…” That is, *if* you happened to get liner notes with typos in them. (**Graceland reference due entirely to Paul Simon concert in Milwaukee over the weekend. I won’t make it a habit.**)

Those cool new beams (that’s what the teenagers say all the time: “Cool beams!”) should keep Vista Tower construction very entertaining as they’re repeated throughout the process. Not that any of us needed another reason to keep going back. But we’ll take it.

1136 South Wabash gets a name change. Meet Eleven40

Posted on July 3, 2017 by danieldschell

New signage introduces Eleven40 to the South Loop.

In the midst of ongoing progress at 1136 South Wabash comes new signage announcing a new name: 1136 is now Eleven40. Follow that link to a whole bunch of shiny new renderings of the SCB-designed tower, as it continues upward toward its ultimate 26 stories. The CA Ventures – Keith Giles production will have 320 apartments and is being built by Lendlease. Spring 2018 is the projected opening.

Eleven40 continues its rise in the South Loop.

1136 South Wabash has been renamed Eleven40.

Rooftop rendering of Eleven40.

Nighttime rendering of Eleven40.

Pool rendering of Eleven40.

Essex On The Park celebrates the Poureth of July

Posted on July 3, 2017 by danieldschell

A swarm of activity at Essex On The Park as the concrete flows freely.

Monday is Concrete Day for Essex On The Park, as Power Construction crews spend the day between the holiday weekend and the actual holiday pouring concrete into the foundation for the new 56-story apartment tower from Oxford Capital Group. And of course, we’re not talking about little bits of concrete. We’re talking trucks lined up down the street, waiting to get their pour on.

One segment of the concrete being poured today is the foundation for the tower crane. The stub was planted almost two weeks ago, sitting there looking all lonely. But now it will have a home, and the crane can be fully assembled, and soon (we hope.) If it goes up before any other cranes come down, it will be #34 on the Chicago Tower Crane Survey.

1326 + 1 = 33: 1326 South Michigan erects Chicago’s 33rd tower crane

Posted on July 3, 2017 by danieldschell

It’s the new math. 1326 South Michigan put up a tower crane last week, raising Chicago’s total to 33.

https://twitter.com/skenrou/status/881190910649933825

That tweet from Twitter used @skenrou Saturday morning confirmed the shiny yellow luffer (not fighter) was up and ready to do Walsh Construction’s heavy lifting. 1326 still looks like a barren lot, albeit with a tower crane now poking up through the north edge of the site. But that will all change quickly, as the 47-story tower can now begin to go vertical.

: In the distance, a tower crane.

It’s demolition, man! Get ready for The Bentham

Posted on June 30, 2017 by danieldschell

Demolition started Thursday at the Erie-LaSalle Body Shop on Erie Street, making way for The Bentham.

As if this little corner of River North wasn’t busy enough…

Add The Bentham to the list. A little birdie let us know that Quality Excavation had begun demolition Thursday afternoon at the old Erie-LaSalle Body Shop at 146 West Erie Street, as well as the two-story building at 668 North LaSalle. Now a block that already includes work on The Ardus and Marlowe greets The Bentham.

The Bentham is the latest venture from Sedgwick Development. The 15-story, 172-foot-tall tower will have just 31 3-bed/3-bath residences.

We already know Adjustable Forms will handle the masonry work; they tweeted their excitement about getting started earlier in the week, along with a stellar rendering.

https://twitter.com/adjustableforms/status/879419107233456129

This lovely two-story model at 668 North LaSalle has to go as well.