Tag Archives: Goettsch Partners

I Like Big Builds and I Can Not Lie — One Chicago Square Has It All

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A rendering of One Chicago Square from the JDL Development website. Dang.

One Chicago Square has it all right now. Construction has started going vertical above street level, but there’s also still a giant pit. There are yellow and orange wooden forms and beams, with blue fencing all around. Classic Chicago architecture, including Holy Name Cathedral and 30 West Chicago Avenue, provides spectacular photo backdrops. Giant round shoring tubes are still visible in the northwest corner. Excavating equipment is still on site. Oh yeah, and THERE ARE THREE TOWER CRANES!

I don’t use the designation “mixed-use” very often. Everything has retail space in it these days, so calling a residential tower “mixed-use” because there will be a drug store at street level isn’t really mixed-use to me. But One Chicago Square certainly qualifies, as it will include apartments and condos, office space, and retail space, all combined into its own city block.

Some project data: One 76-story tower, and one 49-story tower. More than 700 apartments, and 77 condos. 55,000 square feet of office space. Nearly 200,000 square feet of commercial space. And parking? Oh, lots of parking. Over 800 spaces.

And the team? All-Stars. JDL Development, with a hand from Wanxiang America, is the developer. Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture and Goettsch Partners have shared design duties. And Power Construction is the general contractor.

Yeah, One Chicago Square will be fun to watch for a long time. And then, it looks like it’ll be a fun one to live in. Stay tuned.

And now, a ridiculous number o’photos to keep you occupied. Scroll at your leisure:

 

Ground is broken and stirring at Union Station Tower

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Goettsch Partners rendering of Union Station Tower, or BMO Tower. Work has begun next to Union Station in the West Loop.

Cubs. Bulls. Bears. White Sox. Blackhawks. Most folks around Chicago know the names of those local teams. But there’s another team in town making a lasting impression on the city, and in particular, the city’s skyline.

Riverside Investment & Development, Goettsch Partners, and Clark Construction are teaming up again for the third in a trio of eye-popping office buildings along the Chicago River. Union Station Tower will join 150 North Riverside (completed in 2017) and 110 North Wacker (in progress, with completion slated for this year) in making Chicago River Architecture boat cruises much more attractive in the coming years.

They’re doing foundation work as we speak where that ugly parking garage used to be, next to the new CTA bus terminal in the West Loop. The lot, bounded by Clinton Street to the west, Van Buren Street to the south, Canal Street to the east, and the bus terminal to the north, is huge. And it looks even bigger despite the foundation equipment spread to all four corners. Heneghan Wrecking even has rigs on the site, as they finish up demolition work of the previously-mentioned ugly parking deck.

Now, about the tower. It’ll be 50 stories and 700 feet tall. There will be about a million-and-a-half square feet of office space, with a 1.5-acre public park at street level. Also known as BMO Tower, for its anchor tenant, its team celebrated with a groundbreaking ceremony December 20th. Completion and opening is expected in 2022.

 

110 North Wacker at night

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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:

It’s a Caisson Fest at 110 North Wacker

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110 North Wacker caissons June 2018

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.

 

110 North Wacker gets its foundations on

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110 North Wacker Foundation work

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.

110 North Wacker earns a foundation permit

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110 North Wacker

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!

All of the Morton Salt Building demolition pictures

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https://twitter.com/JoshatNRDC/status/978651006190931968

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.

General Destruction has begun at the General Growth building

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GGP Demolition 110 north Wacker

Big chunks are missing from the GGP building at 110 North Wacker. The barge is catching them.

It feels good to write something about activity in The Loop again.

The former GGP headquarters at 110 North Wacker Drive in The Loop has begun to crumble into the Chicago River. Not by accident, of course. And not actually into the water. There’s a barge out there on the river, and Heneghan Wrecking is using it to haul away debris from the demolition of the six-story building, making space for the much-anticipated 54-story, Goettsch Partners-designed office tower 110 North Wacker, from the Howard Hughes Corporation and Chicago’s Riverside Investment and Development.

The start of demolition at 110 North Wacker immediately vaults the site to the top of the official Tower Crane Anticipation list. Though that could change, if 145 South Wells gets underway. Stay tuned.

My really big, very good day: A view of Chicago from inside 150 North Riverside

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150 North Riverside

150 North Riverside is open and spectacular along the Chicago River.

If being obsessed with a building is a problem, then those of you who know me well (or know me at all, let’s be honest here) know I have a problem.

150 North Riverside is my obsession. And problem. If I ever manage to salvage the thousands of photos on the hard drive I dropped of construction of Goettsch Partners’ Chicago office tower, I’ll post them one at a time and you’ll understand what I mean. But you can see into a few of those portals via blog posts here, here, here, and most recently, here.

It started with the sinking of the Chicago River Barge, quite possibly the most famous demise of a water-going vessel in the history of mankind. And just like that, I became mesmerized by construction. I’d go downtown just to stand on the Randolph Street bridge and see how much progress had been made. When we moved to the West Loop, I’d go out of my way to get to and from the L so I could watch.

Before I was ready to let go, 150 North Riverside was done. And I’ll admit to a tinge of sadness in its construction coming to an end. Not just because there would be no more progress to mark, but because I feared the tower would now become a mystery to me. Sure, the plaza outside is a fantastic space, and open to the public 24/7 for wandering through, or enjoying an al fresco lunch. The lobby even has open hours too. But what reason would I ever have to go inside and see Chicago from this vantage point? Maybe I could find a lawyer with an office there, and threaten to sue someone so I could meet for a consultation.

But then along came my angel. Thanks to Shelby Edwards and the William Blair Company, which started moving its Chicago offices into the tower back in June, I got to go inside this magical building last week. William Blair occupies about a dozen floors in the upper half of the tower. I hung out for awhile on the 46th floor, the main reception area. An amazing space, it offers 360-degree views from a host of meeting rooms, classrooms, and small breakout offices.

And then there’s the art. I respectfully avoided photographing any of the artwork; that usually feels like something you shouldn’t do. But imagine two busts, made of layers hunks of drywall cut from the walls behind the busts. Yeah, it’s as cool as it is hard to describe.

I didn’t spend my entire hour with Shelby taking photos of tower cranes; I captured lots of Chicago views. But those memories are for me. To keep with the theme of this blog, here now are the shots I took to share with you; as many cranes as I could find from the 35th and 46th floors of 150 North Riverside:

Glass is almost full at the Marriott Marquis Chicago (Updated)

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Marriott Marquis Chicago

The Marriott Marquis Chicago towers above the American Book Company building, which is being renovated as part of the project.

The Marriott Marquis Chicago in the South Loop topped out back in February, and the curtain wall has risen almost to the roof now. Slated for opening this fall, the 39-story Marriott Marquis will boast 1,205 rooms. 25,000 square feet of ballroom space, and 90,000 square feet of meeting space. Clark Construction has been on the build of the Goettsch Partners design.

4.17.2017 *** Some clarification is in order here. Goettsch Partners is the architect-of-record on the Marriott Marquis Chicago project. Gensler is the design architect. My apologies for the omission. ***