If you look about midway up 919 West Fulton, you’ll see the first level of glass, plus a little bit of the second, has been installed on the curtain wall. I don’t know when that got started, but the last couple times I’ve gone by here (on the L) I’ve been looking toward street level to see if there were any windows in yet. So I might be lucky I didn’t miss them this time. I was walking west on Fulton east of Halsted, and that’s when I first noticed it, just beyond the FULTON MARKET DISTRICT sign. you see above.
So that’s another milestone reached, with topping out and removing the tower crane already achieved. Congrats to the team of:
919 West Fulton no longer has a tower crane, having taken it down last week. Skender (who watched crane removal up close and personal in that Instagram video) topped out the building in July, so it stuck around for a bit before being lowered to the ground.
The Fulton Market District still has one tower crane in operation, at 220 North Ada. There are six others around town:
2 at UChicago Medicine in Hyde Park Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park Project H.O.O.D. in Grand Crossing 1723 South Michigan in the South Loop 400 Lake Shore in Streeterville
We have one permit awaiting erection, at the Thompson Center in The Loop. I was told yesterday that should go up by the end of the month.
Craneless 919 West Fulton, photographed September 10, 2024:
919 West Fulton has topped out. Photo courtesy of Connor Hirsch at Skender Construction.
A post Wednesday afternoon on Skender’s Instagram Stories announced the topping out of 919 West Fulton in the Fulton Market District. The West Loop office building, now at its ultimate 11-story height, topped out less than 10 months after receiving a foundation permit, on September 29 of last year. The official groundbreaking was held in December 2023.
As of Friday July 12, curtain wall installation hadn’t begun, so that’s the next big milestone to watch for.
All photo were taken July 12:
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Chicago has begun June 2024 with eight working tower cranes around the city, down one from the nine we had in May. The base has been planted at 1723 South Michigan, but the crane won’t be erected there until early June.
The South Side still rules, with five of our eight cranes. One South Side crane came down in May (at 4822 S Cottage Grove) but two North Side cranes came down (O’Hare T5 garage and Illinois Masonic.) Here’s a quick survey for June:
What Community Area are the cranes in?
3 – Hyde Park (Hyde Park Labs, UChicago Medicine X2) 2 – Woodlawn (Obama Center, Project H.O.O.D.) 2 – Near West Side (220 North Ada, 919 West Fulton) 1 – Near North Side (400 Lake Shore)
Okay, but what neighborhood?
3 – Hyde Park (Hyde Park Labs, UChicago Medicine X2) 1 – Woodlawn (Project H.O.O.D.) 1 – Jackson Park (Obama Center) 2 – Fulton Market District/West Loop (919 West Fulton, 220 North Ada) 1 – Streeterville (400 Lake Shore)
What are they building?
Cultural Facility – 1 – 6001 S Stony Island (Obama Presidential Center) Healthcare – 2 – 5644 S Drexel X2 (UChicago Medicine Cancer Care) Office – 1 – 217 N Sangamon (919 West Fulton) Community Center – 1 – 6822 S MLK Drive (Project H.O.O.D,) Life Sciences – 1 – 5201 S Harper (Hyde Park Labs) Residential – 2 – 220 North Ada, 462 N Water (400 Lake Shore)
Cranes added in May:
220 North Ada 462 N Water Street (400 Lake Shore)
Cranes taken down in May:
900 West Nelson (Illinois Masonic) O’Hare Airport Terminal 5 parking garage 4822 S Cottage Grove (Northwestern Medicine Bronzeville)
Here are your June 2024 tower cranes, from north to south:
462 E North Water St. (400 Lake Shore)217 N Sangamon St (919 West Fulton)220 North Ada5201 S Harper Ave (Hyde Park Labs)5644 S Drexel Ave (UChicago Medicine)6001 S Stony Island Ave (Obama Presidential Center)6623 S Dr Martin Luther King Dr (Project H.O.O.D.)Partial credit for the stub at 1723 S Michigan Ave, to be erected first week of June.
An overhead view of 919 West Fulton from Skender on Instagram.
As you can see from Skender’s Instagram post above, Fulton Street Companies‘ latest development, 919 West Fulton, an 11-story office building in the heart of the West Loop/Fulton Market District, continues its progress. All work is above street level now.
Photos were taken Monday, April 22:
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919 West Fulton had just started poking up out of the ground last time we visited. Now, you can walk along North Sangamon and look up to see progress, as the core juts skyward on this future office building from *Fulton Street Companies.
*Remember the whole 917 vs 919 thing from earlier this month? It looks like perhaps there’s a resolution, as that link from Fulton Street Companies now refers to this project as 919. The old link, the 917 link, is dead.
With the full building permit in hand for this one, having been issued back in November, here are a few more of the players on this team (shameless attempt on my part to chime in on March Madness): FitzGerald – Design Architect Thornton Tomasetti – Structural Engineer Midwest Masonry – Masonry Contractor Edwards Engineering – Refrigeration, Ventilation Contractor DW Mechanical Group – Plumbing Contractor Maron Electric Company – Electrical Contractor MAP Strategies – Permit Expeditor
Progress continues from Skender and Adjustable. Check it out, photographed on Wednesday, March 20:
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Skender and Adjustable have added the 3rd dimension to 919 West Fulton,
It’s true that we first visited 919 West Fulton* just last week to check on progress. But when in Rome, you snap photos of Rome. Or something. I had to go by the site over the weekend, and saw significant work to get this future office building up to street level. That’s worth documenting. Besides, there aren’t that many tower-crane jobs happening in Chicago at the moment.
*Yep, that link from developer Fulton Street Companies refers to this project as *917* West Fulton. Everything else uses *919* for it. The permits don’t help; they’re all addressed to 217 N. Sangamon.
For now, I’m going with 919, even though siding with the developer is generally the better way to go. I just like the “nine” ending instead of “seven.” We’ll get it straightened out in good time. Or maybe this building will get a random moniker that makes moot the whole 917/919 controversy.
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Best place to view 919 West Fulton construction? The CTA Morgan Street Green/Pink Line platform.
The tower crane is up, and foundations are down — below street level that is — at the West Loop’s 919 West Fulton, an 11-story, 530-square-foot office building from Fulton Street Companies.
That address — 919 West Fulton Market — is probably where you’ll want your company’s mail delivered to if you lease office space here, but to the city of Chicago, the address is 217 North Sangamon Street, for permit purposes. And to date, those permits include: “Deep” Foundations — issued 9-29-2023 Tower Crane — issued 10-12-2023.
Skender is your general contractor on this one, with an assist from Adjustable Concrete Construction as the concrete contractor. (Patting myself on the back because I never call concrete “cement”.) FitzGerald is the design architect. The new office building is going right next door to their old offices, which were located in Lake Street Lofts at Lake and Peoria.
I chose a less-than-perfectly-sunny day to check out the early stages of construction, but that’s a good thing, because it means I can go back for more pics much sooner than I otherwise would have when we get a nicer day. Win/win.
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