3Eleven doesn’t have glass yet. Or does it?

Posted on December 9, 2016 by danieldschell

A lone panel of glass adorns 3Eleven, at 311 West Illinois Street in River North.

You know that one guy who keeps showing up for work, so you find a job for him somewhere he can be on his own, out of the way, even though you don’t have anything for him to do? Meet the lone glass panel at 3Eleven in River North.

3Eleven has risen 8-10 stories high in River North, just enough to start rendering the parking garage next door obsolete for construction photos. And though it’s clearly too soon (or is it) to begin the curtain wall, there is one piece of glass securely fastened to the north wall. Some sort of place-holder, I presume.

You surely recall that 3Eleven is a development from the John Buck Company, featuring 25 stories of 245 apartments, and 3,000 square feet of retail space. There will also be parking, some for the apartments, and some set aside for the exclusive use of Assumption Catholic Church, from which the lot was purchased. The design is by FitzGerald Associates Architects; Power Construction is doing the heavy lifting.

: Lone glass, nighttime edition.

: it would be cool to have food delivered straight to your window like this.

A look into the core of the Apple Store

Gallery

Posted on December 6, 2016 by danieldschell

This gallery contains 16 photos.

Ace Hotel discards its tower crane

Posted on December 6, 2016 by danieldschell

The tower crane’s gone from the Ace Hotel.

It’s a sign of progress to see how many tower cranes are sprouting throughout Chicago. It’s another sign to see how many of those cranes are disappearing from construction sites around town. Done with one job; on to the next.

The Ace Hotel at 311 North Morgan Street in the West Loop is one of the latest area projects to lose its tower crane. The GREC Architects-designed 159-key, seven-story boutique hotel is topped out, and Sterling Bay is looking to have full houses in the very near future. General contractor Power Construction is doing what it can to make that happen soon.

: Gone too are the shipping containers that held the original facade in place during early construction.

The Viceroy Chicago covers up its jagged concrete with crooked glass

Posted on October 20, 2016 by danieldschell

Flat glass cladding? Not here at the Viceroy Chicago.

If you’re like me, you enjoy going from construction site to construction site, telling crews what they’re doing wrong.

Just kidding. Don’t ever do that. It wouldn’t be appreciated.

The Viceroy Chicago Hotel going up at 1118 North State Street in the Gold Coast has been showing some cool geometric concrete flooring of late, shapes that I assumed would disappear once cladding was put into place. Luckily, architects like Goettsch Partners and contractors like Power Construction know more about what they do than I. Because the best way to to compliment those patterns is to use glass that mocks them.

Glass is going up rapidly at The Viceroy, but this is no ordinary pane. (Sorry, Stevie.) These pieces of cladding come angled. But you’ll see what I mean when you look at the photos.

: This render from Viceroy Hotels shows the V-patterns that angled glass will form. V for Viceroy.

: See? These are the cool shapes in the concrete floors. Especially cool at the corner.

30 East Apartments tops off at 16 stories

Posted on October 20, 2016 by danieldschell

30 East has topped out at 30 East Balbo in the South Loop.

Enjoy the tower crane at 30 East while you can. The 16-story apartment building has topped off, meaning the crane has accomplished most of what it came here to do. 30 East will have 134 apartments ranging from studios to 4-bedroom units, all of them fully furnished. Gilbane Development Company has designs on filling the tower with the large student population in the South Loop. And speaking of designs, SCB is responsible for drawing up 30 East. Power Construction has been taking care of construction.

Gilbane’s goal is to open in time for Fall 2017 classes.

: The glass is more than half full.

: Leave the construction to the professionals.

: They had to demolish a mural depicting a water tank here. Sad.

: The start of caisson work, March 2016.

: If there were tower crane baby photos, this would be the ultrasound.

Addison & Clark has a clean slate to start building

Posted on October 19, 2016 by danieldschell

Cubs star Kris Bryant supervises removal of the last pile of rubble on the Addison Park on Clark site.

Call it Addison & Clark.

Call it Addison Park on Clark.

Either way, it’s about ready to roll. The land once occupied by Starbucks, Red Ivy, Mullen’s, and others, has been scraped clean and smooth, allowing construction crews to get to work. Case Foundation already has caisson equipment ready to drill, and general contractor Power Construction should be swarming onto the site in the coming days. Their task is 148 apartments, a 405-space indoor parking garage, and a whopping 146,000 square feet of commercial space.

: Case Foundation is ready to work.

: Dude’s everywhere.

: Gone.

: Gone.

: Gone.

: Gone.

: Render from addisonparkonclark.com

: Render from addisonparkonclark.com

: Render from addisonparkonclark.com

Construction Update: 1001 West Chicago rises in River West

Posted on October 17, 2016 by danieldschell

1001 West Chicago, with an impressive photobomb by Saint John Cantius, which I hope you visited during Open House Chicago.

1001 West Chicago is rising on the site of the old Gonnella Baking Company site, which is the yeast of the bread puns I could have made. Developed by Bond Companies and Morgan Holdings, designed by Fitzgerald Associates, the dual-tower project will deliver 363 apartments and 10,000 square feet of retail space. Power Construction is on the build.

: Gratuitous tower crane shot.

: Gloomy crane.

3Eleven grows, and Assumption Catholic Church gets a new story

Posted on October 13, 2016 by danieldschell

3Eleven, at 311 West Illinois Street in River North, being constructed on what used to be the parking lot of Assumption Catholic Church.

Progress continues on the 25-story apartment tower 3Eleven in River North. The future home of 245 “luxury” rentals, 3,000 square feet of retail, and 109 parking spaces by the John Buck Company broke ground back in June in the parking lot of Assumption Catholic Church. 3Eleven is a design by FitzGerald Associates Architects. Power Construction is doing the build.

A related project to this is the one-story addition Assumption Church is getting to the priory on the west end of the lot. The architecture firm of McBride Kelley Baurer Architects designed the priory portion; Norcon is the general contractor for the addition.

: The single-story addition to the priory at Assumption Catholic Church.

Construction Update: The Simpson-Querrey Biomedical Research Center

Posted on October 10, 2016 by danieldschell

https://vimeo.com/182715928

At the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, construction continues on the Simpson Querrey Biomedical Research Center. As the video above from Northwestern illustrates, work has been ongoing for over a year now. You know all about the two tower cranes on this job. What you should also know is the two-phase project will eventually provide 1.2-million square feet of research and support space next to the existing Lurie Medical Research Center at 303 East Superior Street.

Now that the digging, and more digging, and the last of the digging, are complete, those two tower cranes are starting to divvy up materials so Power Construction crews can get the 14-story tower of Phase One in the air. Designed by Perkins+Will, Phase Two will eventually bring 16 additional stories to the project, according to the SQBRC fact sheet.

Northwestern plans to have Phase One completed before the end of 2018. Here now, a few photos of progress.

: The old Prentice Women’s Hospital was demolished to make room for the research center.

: Early scraping of the ground, July 2015.

: Caisson work, December 2015.

625 West Adams, late-night edition

Posted on October 8, 2016 by danieldschell

625 West Adams, all aglow on West Loop Friday evening.

We’re getting to that time of year, when we have more free time after dark than we have during daylight hours. Fortunately for all of us, some construction looks darn cool after the sun goes down.

Join me for a quick walk around 625 West Adams in the West Loop, a Power Construction Production. 20 stories of offices when it’s complete; just a couple levels of lumber and supports right now. All aglow.