This past weekend, Open House Chicago gave the public access to the 55th floor of 110 North Wacker. That’s a vantage point most of us rarely see without ponying up the dough to visit an observation deck.
Very few of you will be surprised to learn I took advantage of that vantage by snapping a ton of pics of Salesforce Tower. (I took a few from the ground too.) Hey you go.
110 North Wacker (Bank of America Tower to some of you) is open to the public this weekend for Open House Chicago 2021. The 55th floor is a continuous, wide-open space, and a great vantage point to see Chicago. If you’re like me, and think the Sears Tower is just a tad too high for your modest camera-lens collection, this is the ticket.
I got a good view of our five remaining tower cranes from up here.
And an honorable mention for 300 North Michigan, which is being taken down.
The space:
A crane to remove a crane, and a plane, at 110 North Wacker.
I thought I’d head over to 110 North Wacker Sunday and watch the tower crane come down. The newsletter from the 42nd Ward warned us about street closures Sunday and Monday to facilitate the removal, and figured I’d make a day of it.
Yeah. I missed it. I can only assume the tower crane had been lowered section by section already, and this past weekend was just a matter of the final disassembly, and loading it up on trucks to haul it away. Cuz by the time I got there…no crane. Just a couple segments. The crane that took down the crane (yes, that’s a thing) is still up top; don’t be fooled by it.
The good news is, I still got to see a topped-out 55-story office tower with a nearly-finished curtain wall. In the sunshine. And that always makes for a good day.
Remember, this is the team that just finished 150 North Riverside and just started Union Station Tower. They know a thing or two about putting up sweet buildings. Clark Construction is on the build. Goettsch Partners is the design architect. Riverside Investment and Development Company, along with The Howard Hughes Corporation, are the developers.
110 North Wacker is scheduled to open late this year.
110 North Wacker (right) with WOlf Point East rising in the background. I like where the Chicago River is heading.
Wolf Point East
110 North Wacker
110 North Wacker is rising along the Chicago River on the former site of the Morton Salt building.
Want to know what I did last weekend?
Yep. I went to 110 North Wacker and snapped some photos in the dark. Haven’t been here since it was barely more than a hole in the ground. Nice work on the build so far by Clark Construction.
Have a look:
Picture yourself, on a rebarge, by the river.
There’s something you should know about ongoing caisson work at 110 North Wacker.
Case Foundation is doing the dirty work at The Loop construction site. They have a crew on a barge making the rebar cages that will be sunk into the ground to reinforce the caissons. You know what that means?
They’re using a REBARGE! Sorry, not sorry.
Clark Construction is the GC on this one. They’re tasked with getting the Goettsch Partners-designed office tower to rise to its 54-story goal.
One more thing you should know is that caisson work along the river is very photogenic. Especially on a bridge-lift day. Have a look for yourself in the gallery below.
Foundation work is underway at 110 North Wacker, as Case Foundation gets busy in The Loop.
The rubble of the old Morton Salt Building (or the GGP Building–Don’t @ me) is long gone, and now Case Foundation is on the job, doing the dirty work to get 110 North Wacker started.
A permit was issued by the City of Chicago on April 9, allowing work to be done on the two below-grade levels, on up to the 4th floor. We’re hoping for a tower crane permit sooner rather than later to get this one up to its ultimate 54-story height, but that might take some time. But don’t worry; there’s already plenty to see. Get yourself a comfy lawn chair and go hang out on the Washington Street Bridge and watch the show.
A rendering of 110 North Wacker, which received its foundation permit from the City of Chicago Monday, from Goettsch Partners.
A foundation permit was issued Monday for 110 North Wacker, the 54-story office tower that will replace the now-demolished (and much-photographed-in-the-process) Morton Salt Building. Case Foundation will be out on site in the very near future, handling the foundations alongside general contractor Clark Construction.
All yous up there in the surrounding high-rises, get those demolition cameras down, put up your construction cams, and be ready to send in your bird’s-eye views!
It’s gone now.
The former Morton Salt building, more recently the former home of GGP (General Growth Properties) at 110 North Wacker Drive, is a dirt lot now, as can be seen in the above photo shared by Twitter user @JoshatNRDC. (Great view of the new tower construction, Josh! I’ll bring the coffee if I can borrow your windows for a few hours a day.)
You can kinda sorta watch the demo work by Heneghan Wrecking along the way in the photo gallery that follows. Coming soon: a shiny new 54-story office tower from Howard Hughes Corporation and Riverside Investment & Development, designed by Goettsch Partners.
The video above was taken Thursday from across the Chicago River, looking through the windows of 110 North Wacker as Heneghan Wrecking worked from the inside out to demolish the six-story building. There are about four million office windows around this site with better views than I can get, so if you’re in one of those offices, share your views with the rest of us!
Building Up Chicago 