Is that glass? Are those bricks? The McDonald’s Headquarters rolls on

Posted on July 27, 2017 by danieldschell

We’re starting to see the underside of the ninth floor at the northwest corner of McDonald’s HQ. Plus brick and glass!

The new McDonald’s Headquarters in the West Loop may not quite be ready for the top sesame-seed bun, but McHugh Construction keeps adding ingredients to the burger giant’s nine-story home. (I like to compare progress to building a hamburger, but with the new Apple Store looking like a gigantic Macbook, we can thank our lucky stars Sterling Bay and Gensler decided not to build this HQ to look like a Big Mac. You think the NIMBY’s would have thought that worked well with its surroundings?)

There are new glass panels on a couple sides now, and some sweet brickwork adorning parts of the exterior. If you take into account setbacks and the like, some of McDonald’s has reached nine stories high. It’s a tad early to start worrying about losing a tower crane or two, but the top-down strategy has paid off, as this project rises incredibly fast.

An overhead view of McDonald’s and its two tower cranes by Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes.

: New glass!

: New bricks!!

One Grant Park is blueing up the South Loop

Posted on July 20, 2017 by danieldschell

The Big Blue Forms of One Grant Park.

Many legal-types will tell you to fill out your forms in blue. Which is exactly what McHugh Construction is doing at One Grant Park. Eschewing the usual yellow forms you see throughout Chicago, McHugh has opted for blue on Rafael Viñoly Architects’ 76-story apartment tower in the South Loop. And with Lake Michigan just a couple blocks away, why not? Working blue can be a bad thing for a comedian, but not for a construction company. Your children can watch. Blue screen of death? Nah, that’s for your old laptop. These are Blue Screens of Safety.

One Grant Park, a development from Crescent Heights, will stack 792 rental units atop 12 levels of parking. Work began on the lot at Roosevelt, Indiana, and Michigan back in December.

: All that’s visible of One Grant Park from the new B.U.C. South Loop Bureau. So far.

: #Mooncrane.

Vista Tower takes a new angle

Posted on July 5, 2017 by danieldschell

The WOW Factor just kicked up a notch at Vista Tower.

There’s an age-old axiom in architecture that I just made up that says “You can’t build frustums without angling some columns.” And it makes a lot of sense, if you don’t give it much thought.

Frustums on frustum in this Studio Gang rendering of Vista Tower.

It’s happening now at Vista Tower. McHugh Construction has the beginnings of four concrete columns sticking out of the north elevation at an impossible-not-to-notice angle, to which they’re adding rebar and concrete forms, making an already photo-worthy work site nearly impossible to walk away from. It’s also what Paul Simon was referring to in You Can Call Me Al with the lyric “angles in the architecture, spinning in infinity…” That is, *if* you happened to get liner notes with typos in them. (**Graceland reference due entirely to Paul Simon concert in Milwaukee over the weekend. I won’t make it a habit.**)

Those cool new beams (that’s what the teenagers say all the time: “Cool beams!”) should keep Vista Tower construction very entertaining as they’re repeated throughout the process. Not that any of us needed another reason to keep going back. But we’ll take it.

McDonald’s Headquarters nears the middle bun, awaits second beef patty

Posted on June 27, 2017 by danieldschell

The brand new McDonald’s HQ is poking up through the top of the West Loop.

In one of the most ridiculous comparisons to date, if the new McDonald’s Headquarters being built in the West Loop was a Big Mac, it would be somewhere between the second all-beef patty and the middle bun, with the bottom bun and first patty already in place. That leaves the special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions to go before the top bun is craned into place and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

In more technical terms, The McD HQ is up to the sixth floor, as crews from McHugh Construction continue utilizing two tower cranes to get the nine-story, 550,000-square-foot Sterling Bay development in high gear. The Gensler-designed home of the Golden Arches is slated to open early in 2018, which looks like a sure thing the way progress is going.

: McDouble Tower Cranes.

: Well sure, it’s new construction. What’s not to love?!

: From the air.

Construction Update: Elevate Lincoln Park getting literal as it hits the tenth floor

Posted on June 26, 2017 by danieldschell

Steven Vance at Chicago CityScape elevated high above Elevate Lincoln Park for this fantastic shot!

Elevate Lincoln Park, the ten-story, 191-unit apartment complex from Baker Development, has elevated just about as high as it’s ever going to get. McHugh Construction crews have reached the tenth floor just over one year after demolition started on the site. And as if that isn’t accomplishment enough, the first row of glass has begun installation.

Rendering of Elevate Lincoln Park.

In addition to residences, Elevate Lincoln Park will include ground-floor retail space and three levels of parking. As you can see in the above photo from @ChiBuildings, the SCB design fits perfectly into the odd-shaped lot bounded by Lincoln Avenue, Altgeld Street, and the CTA’s elevated tracks.

Construction Update: The Three Hiltons at McCormick Place

Posted on June 7, 2017 by danieldschell

Hilton’s first Triple-Brand Hotel begins to rise at 123 East Cermak Road in the South Loop.

There are three Hilton hotels being built into one structure down at 123 East Cermak Road in the Prairie District “sub neighborhood” of the South Loop. That’s really all you need to know, but for the sake of word count, they are the Hilton Garden Inn Chicago McCormick Center, the Hampton Inn by Hilton Chicago McCormick Center, and the Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago McCormick Center.

Developers First Hospitality Group and Hilton are banking on McCormick Place visitors appreciating having lodging options to choose from, hence the optimal location between the convention campus and the revitalized Motor Row.

A couple sunny days, including Tuesday’s unlocked doors at the McCormick Place rooftop garden, provided perfect conditions to catch up on McHugh Construction’s progress on Antunovich Associates’ design.

: Mooncrane.

One Grant Park rising up from the corner of Roosevelt and Indiana

Posted on June 6, 2017 by danieldschell

One Grant Park has begun making its push toward the sky in the South Loop.

One Grant Park has begun going vertical at the south end of Grant Park, and the corner of Roosevelt and Indiana will never be the same. The shiny 76-story, 792-unit apartment tower from Rafael Viñoly Architects is a busy site these days, and you know longer have to stand on tip-toes and peer over the fences to catch the action. In fact, you could pack a picnic and sit amongst those leg-statue thingies and watch McHugh Construction work whilst you dine in the park.

Catching up at Vista Tower

Posted on June 5, 2017 by danieldschell

Vista Tower continues to rise.

It’s been a month since we took a look at progress on Vista Tower, the magnificent supertall by Studio Gang and bKL Architecture. You may think workers would be discouraged that I haven’t been dropping by daily, but McHugh Construction crews seem to be getting a lot done despite my absence. Certainly not because of it.

Anyway, I’ll need to borrow some balconies soon, for as Vista climbs higher, our scenic views from Wacker Drive and Lakeshore East are going to be well below where the action is.

Scenes from One Grant Park

Posted on May 15, 2017 by danieldschell

Before we get to the many many photos, a quick recap of One Grant Park:

The address is 1200 South Indiana Avenue in the South Loop. The 76-story apartment tower will have 792 rental units, 622 parking spaces(!), and 12,000 square feet of retail.

Crescent Heights is the developer, Rafael Viñoly Architects did the design, and McHugh Construction is the general contractor. (One Grant Park is one of seven McHugh tower cranes in Chicago right now.)

: Tower Crane #7 for McHugh.

: Don’t know what happened here, but I like it.

More from Vista Tower, just because

Posted on May 5, 2017 by danieldschell

The two cores of Wanda Vista Tower, Chicago’s best free entertainment.

I could do three posts a week on the changing landscape that is Vista Tower construction. The site looks that different from day to day. The number of small individual projects going into making this one huge project a living, breathing being are fascinating to watch, even when I have no idea what most of it is. Combine that with the viewing platforms of Upper Wacker Drive to the north and the walkways along the south, and Vista Theater provides hours of entertainment for passing construction nerds.

But pulling up a lawn chair and camping out is not only discouraged by nearby residents and construction firms alike, but somewhat impractical in spring’s temperamental weather conditions. I can still offer to go by a few times each month though, and when I do, I’ll share bunches and bunches of photos with you, and then it’s like we’re all camped out there. And remember, when this thing climbs above Upper Wacker level, there won’t be nearly as much to see. You won’t get tired of photos before that happens.

Sound like a plan?