This crane’s Chicago business will be renovating the Thompson Center

Posted on January 25, 2025 by danieldschell

You can check one of those pending tower cranes off the waiting list. Clark Construction & team began erecting the tower crane at the Thompson Center this weekend. They got decent weather for late-January to do it, so hopefully there will be no setbacks through Sunday to getting setup complete.

This is the only tower crane operating in The Loop right now, and one of only six throughout the city. It joins Streeterville’s 400 Lake Shore in the downtown area, and four South Side cranes, including Project H.O.O.D. in Woodlawn, the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, and two at the AbbVie Foundation Cancer Pavilion in Hyde Park. It was permitted on July 03, 2024, with word on the site to expect assembly around Labor Day. That, of course, was four months ago, so we’ve been waiting on this one.

The Thompson Center, as I’m sure you know by now, is being renovated for Google. It has been completely stripped of its exterior skin, to be replaced by a much more energy-efficient glazing. If the building looks like a shell of its former self, that’s because it is. Google hopes to have employees move into the 17-story building mid-2026.

Enjoying the photos? Metra and CTA rides (and Amtrak trains to Milwaukee), Zipcars, Divvy Bikes, camera lenses, domain fees, snacks & energy drinks, and comfortable walking shoes add up. You can help offset expenses by making a greatly-appreciated donation to Building Up Chicago.

Trigger Alert: The Thompson Center looks ravaged

Posted on September 13, 2024 by danieldschell

The Thompson Center is open to the sky, but not to the public, during reconstruction.

Fear not. The Thompson Center *still* isn’t being demolished; it just looks that way. Its transformation into Google offices has taken a toll on the tri-colored exterior, and while the replacement skin might not be as colorful, it will make the building much easier to heat and cool. But for now, it looks rather bare. I almost feel guilty for looking at it, much less taking pictures. But it looks pretty dang cool this way. Now, to get them to let me stand in the atrium before they get the new cladding on…

Tower crane permit issued for Google’s Thompson Center renovation

Posted on July 4, 2024 by danieldschell

https://twitter.com/BuildingChi/status/1805302058016190689

Ok, it just *looks* open.

As Clark Construction continues demolition work on the Thompson Center for Google, a tower crane permit has been issued by the City of Chicago. My guess is, the crane will be installed on the Clark Street (east) side of the building, where a gaping hole in the exterior would allow tying off to the concrete core.

Google’s transformation of the Thompson Center will add the 10th crane to Chicago. We started July with nine in the air. Projects at Hyde Park Labs and The Obama Presidential Center Museum Tower have topped out, but I don’t have info on when those two cranes will be taken down.

Tower crane permit via Chicago Data Portal

Cladding is Darn Near Done at 633 South LaSalle

Posted on June 10, 2024 by danieldschell

Top off your glass for you? That’s what they’re doing at 633 South LaSalle, as the curtain wall/cladding/whatever you wanna call it rises up Q Investment Partners’ 18-story residential tower in the South Loop. Only about one-and-a-half floors remain in need of glazing.

Clark Construction has been working on this FitzGerald-designed development for awhile now, before and after a slight pause in the financing game, with the goal of having residents begin moving in next year. It looks more and more every day like they’ll easily meet that deadline.

As you’ll see by clicking on the Melrose Ascension Capital link above, 633 South LaSalle will have units starting under $1,700/month. For being so close to The Loop, that seems like a nice price.

Glass goes up, tower crane comes down, at 633 South LaSalle

Posted on April 8, 2024 by danieldschell

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Carl Simmons (@life_in_da_rustbelt)

Carl, working high atop the South Loop, taking down the tower crane.

There’s glass, but alas, the tower crane has passed. And so 633 South LaSalle attains a couple milestones of progress.

Friday and Saturday were the crane-removal days, as you can see in Carl’s Instagram video above (give him a LIKE). That’s Central Contractors Service’s rig out there wrapping up the dismantling. As for glass installation, that’s been going on for a couple weeks now.

As a reminder: Q Investment Partners and Melrose Ascension Capital are adding 358 beds (apartments and co-living units) to the South Loop, next to Metra’s LaSalle Street station. As long as all goes to plan from here on out, those beds should be sleep-in-able early in 2025.

Photos were taken on the second day of crane removal, April 6:

633 South LaSalle has topped out in the South Loop

Posted on March 15, 2024 by danieldschell

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A post shared by Clark Construction Group (@clarkbuilds)

Clark Construction’s Instagram announcement that 633 South LaSalle has topped out.

633 South LaSalle has topped out in the South Loop. Clark Construction said so on their Instagram (and Twitter) account Friday afternoon, stating the project had topped out earlier in the week. The 18-story tower will have apartments and co-living spaces.

Congratulations are in order for the entire 633 team, including:

Q Investment Partners – Developer
Melrose Ascension Capital – Developer
Clark Construction – General Contractor
Adjustable Concrete Construction – Concrete Contractor
FitzGerald – Architects
Berkelhamer – Architects

Completion is expected in 2025.

Fear not. 633 South LaSalle is back in action

Posted on March 6, 2024 by danieldschell

633 South LaSalle under bright sunny skies.

If you compare today’s photo gallery with those from our last visit to 633 South LaSalle, you may be a tad taken aback by the elevation change. You’d be forgiven, as this one seemed to go on a brief sabbatical over the winter.

Chicago YIMBY has the story of some new financial arrangements that assure 633 South LaSalle will continue on to completion.

The Team:

Q Investment Partners – Developer
Melrose Ascension Capital – Developer
Clark Construction – General Contractor
Adjustable Concrete Construction – Concrete Contractor
FitzGerald – Architects
Berkelhamer – Architects

The Permits:

Tower crane – issued 03/24/2023
Caissons – issued 04/25/2023
Full building – issued 06/01/2023
Passenger elevators – issued 09/06/2023
Hoist – issued 09/08/2023

The Pics (taken 03/02/2024):

Progress Update: 633 South LaSalle

Posted on October 31, 2023 by danieldschell

The 633 South LaSalle construction crane towers over the South Loop.

Some progress photos at 633 South LaSalle, as Clark Construction and Adjustable Concrete Construction continue work on the Berkelhamer-designed 18-story, 117-unit student-living tower in the South Loop.

633 South LaSalle (at long last) puts up a tower crane and rises out of the ground [Corrected]

Posted on August 20, 2023 by danieldschell

This post has been corrected to show Q Investment Partners of Singapore as the developer.

The tower crane at 633 South LaSalle in the South Loop.

633 South LaSalle has avoided a forced vacation to Spireville and is now underway in the Printers Row area of the South Loop. The tower crane is up, the core has gone 3-D, and any and all delays — pandemic-related or otherwise — are a thing of the past. Thrilled and relieved to see this one get going.

This will be an 18-story co-living development, consisting of 117 units and 381 beds. Why co-living in the South Loop? Students. Roosevelt University, Columbia College, DePaul, East-West University, etc. Lots of kids need lots of places to stay.

Tip o’the cap to Chicago Cityscape for letting me know the tower crane was up.

Here are the players at 633 South LaSalle:

Clark Construction is the general contractor.
Adjustable Concrete Construction is the concrete contractor.
Berkelhamer is the design architect.
FitzGerald is the architect of record.
Q Investment Partners is the developer.

Was I hallucinating when it came to old permits here? There were a bunch of them, I swear. But now there are only three on the City of Chicago website:

Tower crane, issued 3/24/2023
Caissons, issued 4/25/2023
Full build, issued 6/1/2023

Here are some pics. Some much more compelling pics than the bare lot I’ve visited in recent months:

At Fulbrix, glazing is still going up. And coming down.

Posted on September 1, 2022 by danieldschell

160 North Elizabeth shall henceforth be known as Fulbrix.

You’re excused if you don’t know what the heck I’m talking about with “Fulbrix.” It was news to me too.

Fulbrix is the new moniker for 160 North Elizabeth. If if the “glazing coming down” thing sounds like a typo to you, that’s my way of pointing out that as glass continues to rise up the sides of Fulbrix, it’s also working its way down from the top. And there’s always something cool to me about seeing glazing up top with unglazed floors below.

Anyway, congrats to the development team of Moceri + Roszak, Thomas Roszak Architecture, Clark Construction, and Adjustable Concrete Construction on the new name, topping out, glassing up, and all the other milestones you’ve reached. There was a big crew meeting outside just before I walked around the site Wednesday, and I bet they were all celebrating their achievements.