“Hey, that’s topped out” I said out loud (I talk to myself constantly when I walk around town) as I neared 160 North Elizabeth in the Fulton Market District. And it usually doesn’t take long for a topped-out tower to drop the tower crane. Sure enough, one day after setting our crane count at 20, came word that we’d already dropped into the teens. Ah, progress.
160 North Elizabeth seemed to go up in a hurry. This is progress by Clark Construction as of Friday, July 29, with the tower crane still intact:
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A demolition permit was issued 11/05/2021 to make space A pile and foundation permit was issued 11/24/2021 A permit to build through the third floor was also issued on 11/24/2021 A tower crane permit was issued 11/30/2021 A full permit for 27 stories was issued 02/04/2022 A hoist permit was issued 02/09/2022
And now, lots of photos of a little bit of glass. But it’s not just any glass; it’s the first glass.
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Construction can be confusing when you don’t pay close attention. There’s a world of activity on a site one day, then the next day all the equipment is gone, the dirt’s been smoothed over, and it looks like the lot has been abandoned.
And that’s my segue for the first visit to 633 South LaSalle in the South Loop. 633 got its first permit back in May of 2019, allowing for construction of an 18-story, 117-unit residential tower. Then, crickets. That permit was reinstated in April of 2020, but, pandemic. Now, two new permits have been issued this spring: the first, for caissons, on March 31. The second, for the full building, on May 10. These two latest permits have a new general contractor: Clark Construction. Berkelhamer and FitzGerald are the architecture firms. The Collective in NYC is the developer.
So that’s the permit sitch. What I can’t speak to is the progress. Like I said, construction can be confusing if you’re not paying attention. The current state of the 633 South LaSalle site looks like the caisson aftermath, when the slate looks clean and ready for foundations to be dug. But I can’t find anyone with caisson photos on the web. (I’m not the only one taking photos of such things, you know.) As a result, I can’t even tell you whether work has begun here.
Bonus gallery: The buildings on either side of 633 are magnificent.
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A Linkedin post late last week from Thomas Roszak tells us concrete at 160 North Elizabeth has reached the 15th floor. This is a 27-story tower, so that’s more than halfway up. Because math. And I’m good at it. Clark and Adjustable are good at things too, because this building is flying upwards.
If you happened to make it outside Thursday, you noticed it was a sunny, gorgeous day. And sunny days are ideal for construction progress photos. So I took a few:
From way up northFrom way down south
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The University of Chicago’s tower crane at 1306 E 61st
Up until about a week ago, the tower crane building a parking garage for the University of Chicago at 1306 E 61st in Woodlawn was our southernmost and easternmost tower crane. That title vanished when the Obama Presidential Center erected the first of its three rigs. Thankfully for U of C, that designation comes with neither a trophy nor a monetary award, so they didn’t miss out on much more than a mention on B.U.C.
Clark Construction is the CG on the parking structure. They received the full build permit December 8 of last year, the caisson permit on November 18, and the tower crane permit on September 21. No idea how long the crane’s been up, but they’ve gotten a lot done so far.
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Progress at 160 North Elizabeth has doubled since our last visit, though the change seemed much more dramatic on first glance. This morning, Adjustable Concrete shared on its Linkedin page that they’re working on Level 9. They’re the concrete contractor for GC Clark Construction, so they would know.
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160 North Elizabeth added another tower crane along Randolph in February.
160 North Elizabeth is a brand-spanking-new 27-story, 375-unit West Loop apartment tower from Moceri + Roszak. You know that name from the office building at 145 South Wells, apartment towers Parkline Chicago and Linea, and other developments.
160 North Elizabeth was approved by the Chicago Plan Commission on March 18, 2021. To date, it has received: a foundation permit on 11/24/2021 a tower crane permit on 11/30/2021 a full build permit on 2/4/2022.
The following photos were taken back on March 21.
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Parting is always such sweet sorrow, but tower cranes don’t stay in one place forever, so shed no tears for the Potain MR298 Luffing Jib workhorse atop 320 South Canal in the West Loop. Last week, a derrick crane was installed to dismantle and lower the tower crane, and that it did, with removal, from what I could see 52 stories below, wrapping up Monday.
I made it over here in time to see a couple crane sections on the ground, and one loaded up onto a truck to be hauled away. I tried to wait for the truck to pull out of the construction site, for the dramatic grand exit, but I lack patience. I also tried waiting around long enough to see the derrick crane lift a load of steel up to the top. I didn’t last that long. This was interesting though. I’m going to make some assumptions here, but that load of steel looked heavy, and that derrick crane doesn’t have much reach away from the glass cladding on the west face of the tower. There were guy-wires on each end of the load, running on tracks running up the side of the tower, to keep the steel from rotating, which would have sent one end or the other crashing through the façade. Or at least scratching the heck out of the glass. Who knows, maybe these are common, but they’re something I’d never noticed before. The photo in the gallery below with the two red circles shows those attachments.
15 minutes elapsed between the time I took this first photo of the steel lift and the second photo, and it’s only about 3/4 of the way up. Glad that crew has more patience than I.
15 minutes later . . .
Also: Can we talk about that giant Suction Cup Monster for those gargantuan panes of glass?
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Shaky video because I refuse to lug a tripod around with me. Sorry. I hope the guys up there aren’t anywhere near as unsteady.
A curtain wall panel is set in place at 320 South Canal, Union Station Tower.
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When completed next summer, American House Oak Park will deliver a mix of 174 units, including studio, one-bed and two-bedroom apartments, as well as shared units.
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