Stuff That’s Done (and in Milwaukee): The Milwaukee Bucks’ new home, Fiserv Forum

Posted on June 12, 2021 by danieldschell

Look, I’m not posting this now in the hopes of scoring free Playoff tickets. Honest, I’m not. That I hadn’t been in Milwaukee in four years is purely coincidental. But anyway, good job by the Bucks in Game 3 after looking like they might be future venison steaks on the roof rack of a station wagon after that Game 2 horror.

Fiserv Forum was called the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center when I last stopped by, in July 2017.

Fiserv Forum is a design by Populous, the Kansas City-based architecture firm known in Chicago for its work on Guaranteed Rate Field and the United Center. They were assisted in the design work by Eppstein Uhen Architects and HNTB Corporation. The M.A. Mortenson Company was the general contractor.

The Forum opened in August 2018. It’s predecessor, the Bradley Center, was demolished soon after. That site remains empty now, but I doubt it’ll remain that way for long.

Enjoying the photos? Metra and CTA rides, Zipcars, Divvy Bikes, camera lenses, and comfortable walking shoes are adding up. You can help offset expenses by making a greatly-appreciated donation to Building Up Chicago.

Stuff That’s Done: Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago River North

Posted on January 26, 2020 by danieldschell

The brand new Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago River North at 110 West Huron.

And now, for another new hotel opened in Chicago while I wasn’t paying attention.

Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago River North opened at 110 West Huron Street in February 2019. The 17-story hotel boasts 206 rooms in the River North neighborhood. It is the only job this blog has covered in Chicago by general contractor M.A. Mortenson. It was designed by the Chicago architecture firm NORR, and developed by Akara Partners.

Home2 Suites River North brings the pane

Posted on May 29, 2018 by danieldschell

You’ll now be able to see River North from your room, as Home2 SUites installs windows.

The 17-story Home2 Suites in River North has grown to exactly 17 stories. And to top off that topping off, M.A. Mortenson has also started adding windows to the exterior. That means two things (at least): Interior work can start ramping up in earnest, and that tower crane will probably come down very soon.

Progress Update: Home2 Suites rising in River North

Posted on April 27, 2018 by danieldschell

Home2 Suites River North will be a 17-story hotel being developed by Akara Partners and designed by NORR. M.A. Mortenson Company is in town from Wisconsin to erect the 200-or-so-room tower at 110 West Huron Street in River North, and it looks like they’re just two or three levels from topping out. This is Mortenson’s one and only tower crane on our list.

Home2 Suites is Home2 Chicago’s newest tower crane

Posted on November 7, 2017 by danieldschell

Over there, in the trees! It’s Chicago’s 33rd tower crane!

As expected, and despite some sketchy weather, the tower crane went up this past weekend at 110 West Huron in River North. That’s the site of the new Home2 Suites Akara Partners is building, and it marks the entry into the Chicago Tower Crane count for M.A. Mortensen.

This is the 33rd tower crane now active in Chicago, though #34 is also up — the derrick crane at Simpson Querrey — which we got a sneak peek at yesterday, thanks to a little birdie. We’ll get a better look at it today, and share. But remember, that derrick’s sole purpose is to remove cranes. So don’t call it a hero.

Home2 Suites has a stub; expect the tower crane this weekend

Posted on November 2, 2017 by danieldschell

Home2 Suites River North is getting a pretty yellow tower crane this weekend.

The Home2 Suites at 110 West Huron in River North planted a tower crane stub some time during my absence, and we’re being told here at B.U.C. that crews will begin assembling the full tower crane Friday.

You’ll remember that the Home2 Suites River North will be a 17-story, 185-room hotel being developed by Akara Partners and designed by NORR. Stalworth Underground was out there doing caissons work last time we stopped by, but they’ve completed those and moved on. That means M.A. Mortenson Company has come down from Wisconsin to take complete control of the build.

: Stalworth Underground tackling caissons last month.

: Stub.

Home2 Suites by Hilton gets a caisson workout in River North

Posted on October 6, 2017 by danieldschell

The 17-story Home2 Suites by Hilton will stand atop caissons Stalworth Underground is drilling and filling now.

The Home2 Suites by Hilton coming to River North at 110 West Huron Street is in full-blown caisson phase these days. Stalworth Underground is doing the caisson work for general contractor M.A. Mortenson Company, and has their big blue machines hard at work on the corner of Clark and Huron. Akara Partners is developing the hotel, a design by NORR Inc., which will bring 185 rooms across the 17-story tower.

: Home2 Suites rendering, taken from across the street.

A ripped up lot signals the start of Akara Partners’ River North hotel

Posted on September 13, 2017 by danieldschell

Bye bye parking lot, hello hotel, as work begins at 110 West Huron Street in River North.

Piles of rubble and dirt have replaced the surface parking lot at Huron and Clark Streets in River North. That means work is officially underway for the 17-story, 185-room hotel at 110 West Huron from Akara Partners.

Akara received a foundation permit from the City of Chicago back on August 24. Curiously, they already have a tower crane permit as well, and it was issued more than two weeks before the foundation permit, on August 11. And to make things just a tad more confusing, the permit doesn’t actually say “tower crane” on it:

FOUNDATION DESIGN FOR THE INSTALLATION AN OPERATION OF LIEBHERR 316 EC-H12 LITRONIC

So unless you were paying ridiculously close attention, you may have missed it. I, for one, was indeed paying ridiculously close attention. But I missed it too. Anyway, I’m over that now. Pretty much.

The hotel is a design by Chicago’s NORR Inc on North LaSalle, and will include, according to the permit, ground-level retail space and a rooftop restaurant.

The general contractor is M.A. Mortenson Company of Wisconsin. You remember them from their work on the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center in Milwaukee we visited in July.

: The foundation permit, issued August 24.

: The tower crane permit, issued August 11.

Sometimes the tower cranes we miss are the tower cranes we miss the most

Posted on August 10, 2017 by danieldschell

Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center

Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes sent over this photo of the WESC from June, just as the second tower crane was coming down.

We love tower cranes at Building Up Chicago. That’s no secret. We’re especially fond of scenes like Vista Tower, The Simpson-Querrey Center, McDonald’s Headquarters, and One Bennett Park, each of which have two tower cranes on site. And don’t even get us started about the two projects we saw in London that had 10 apiece.

But we can’t get to them all.

We found out today, courtesy of Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes, that the tower crane we wandered to at the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center had a sibling. Up until a couple weeks before we stopped by, the parking garage being constructed next to the Milwaukee Bucks’ new arena had a second tower crane.

Hey! Why not keep a tower crane on a parking garage? Do you have any idea how helpful (and fun) it would be to use it to get cars up to and off the top level?

Curtis said neither tower crane remains on site now, so it looks like we got there just in time. Maybe one trip a year to Milwaukee isn’t often enough?

Only one tower crane remained when we visited the WESC in July.

Don’t get me wrong; there were still multiple cranes. Just not multiple tower cranes.

Wandering Milwaukee: Revisiting the Bucks’ new arena, vicariously, from the air

Posted on July 25, 2017 by danieldschell

An eagle-eye view of the Milwaukee Bucks’ new arena from pilot/photographer Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes.

Photo via Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes.

You’ve already seen my visit from the first weekend in July to the Milwaukee Bucks’ new arena. Dozens and dozens of photos. Yet there were still two angles of the construction site I wasn’t able to see: from the inside, and from overhead. The former I won’t likely see until I buy a basketball ticket. But the latter? Someone else has that covered for us.

Click this link to see the Milwaukee Business Journal story from July 6 that featured photos from aerial photographer Curtis Waltz. Not satisfied with drone footage, Mr. Waltz goes one step further. Or higher, as the case may be: he flies his own plane to get his shots.

You can see all of Curtis Waltz’s work at Aerialscapes.

The Bucks’ Twitter account tweeted the following drone video, which does include some inside footage:

Just over a year away from the opening of the @WisconsinESC!!#BuildTheFuture pic.twitter.com/Z4AZmr4Ebs

— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) July 22, 2017

Not enough for ya? Well, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has a drone video for you to check out as well.

http://www.jsonline.com/videos/sports/nba/bucks/2017/07/11/video-aerial-view-drone-future-milwaukee-bucks-arena/103568966/

There’s more to see at the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center News page here. They update it frequently, so check in early and often.

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