LaGrange Crane | Building Up Chicago

Chicago saw three tower cranes erected last week as the city continues to overcome that five-count from a few months back.

One of the new ones is a shiny yellow Liebherr number at Sterling Bay’s 160 North Morgan. I dropped by twice on Thursday to check it out. I would have stayed all day, but tower cranes take a looooong time to go up safely, and there are a lot of lulls in the action. Unless, of course, you’re part of the crews from Walsh Construction and LaGrange Crane. For them, assembly action never slows down.

Bet you’ve never seen this many photos of a tower crane that wasn’t even half built yet. Unless it was another post on this blog… but tower crane builds deserve this much attention.

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.

A shiny yellow LaGrange Crane crane helps assemble a pretty red All Crane.

And you’ll need a crane-building crane to help you build that building. Which is what Onni Group is doing right now at Atrium Village in the Near North neighborhood. Now that it looks like the massive foundation digging is mostly complete, Onni can start going skyward on the 31-story tower. They put up the stem yesterday; today, they were adding pieces and parts.

And you can see more photos of the some-assembly-required tower crane and the big dig down below: