Contemporary Concepts | Building Up Chicago

Demolition of the former United Christian Church is ongoing.

It’s all about The Base, ’bout The Base, no rubble, on the corner of Diversey and Seminary in Lincoln Park. That’s where the former United Christian Church is being razed for a new residential development called “The Base” from Contemporary Concepts. And, obviously, there’s lots of rubble.

The five-story building, designed by Studio Dwell, will contain 24 apartments with a roof deck atop them. There will be one off-street parking space, with access to the Diversey Brow/Purple line elevated platform just three blocks to the east.

A demolition for the church, at 2761 North Seminary, was issued on September 25, with Brophy Excavation handled demo work. The new construction permit, issued to 2763 North Seminary, was issued on September 4, with developer Contemporary Concepts also fulfilling general contractor duties for their own project.

The following gallery shows demolition progress as of October 20, with a few earlier images of demo work and some of the church before razing began:

Spotted Stalworth’s rig from a rooftop during Open House Chicago 2024.

Aberdeen Crossing is the name of the residential development coming to 1100 West Grand Avenue in West Town, and it is now under construction. Rebar cages have been rolled on the site in preparation for caisson work, and Stalworth Underground has a rig on site to move that caisson equipment around.

Aberdeen Crossing is a project from developer Wildwood Investments. They are delivering 99 units to the neighborhood across a seven-story building designed by bKL Architecture. The will be 1,700 square feet of ground-floor retail space and parking for 28 cars, plus storage space for 99 bicycles. Contemporary Concepts is the general contractor, with Adjustable Concrete Construction as the concrete contractor.

The project replaces a service station on the plat of land that includes Sterling Bay’s Grand Flag. A demolition permit for the former improvement was issued July 17 under the address of 540 North Aberdeen. Precision Excavation handled the razing.

Despite its modest seven-story height, Aberdeen Crossing will be adding a tower crane to Chicago’s construction skyline. A permit for that crane was issued on August 19. The caisson permit preceded that, with an issue date of August 10, while the full building permit came through on October 11. Wildwood Investments plans on welcoming their first tenants in 2025.