1000M, 1000 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago’s South Loop.
That’s “One” as in “One Thousand M,” though most folks ’round these parts refer to it as 1000M.
I know I was just here, but it wasn’t sunny that day. So I came back. Nuff said. Here are the pics:
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1000M construction progress, taken from Grant Park, looking west.
1000M got started, then it stopped. And we had to wait a long time for it to getting revved up again. Sort of like when the sequel to your favorite movie is announced, but then the release is delayed. Once it comes out, you’re the first in line to see it. Then you see it 17 more times over the nest week and a half. That’s what II was going to do; watch progress at the rejuvenated 1000M. But, well, I didn’t.
But I did take a look this past Sunday, in the cold of late January. The JAHN-designed tower bringing apartments in the sky to the South Loop looks to have reached the high 30s in floor count, with glazing covering about 20 0f those. And here are some photos to prove I was there:
Is that light? Is that blue sky? This was taken the same day as all the others.
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Topping out is such sweet sorrow. Sure, no one wants to live in a tower that hasn’t topped out yet. But at what cost? Losing another tower crane? Alas, The Reed at Southbank’s topping out meant the loss of its crane was inevitable, and the painstaking process of disassembly is underway.
I haven’t posted an update at 1400 South Wabash since May? That’s barely tolerable, if not entirely unacceptable. Let’s fix that now, as there’s been a lot of progress by Lendlease and Pepper Construction here. Looks like they’ve reached level 14-ish.
Some reminders: Developer – CMK Companies Design Architect – Pappageorge Haymes Partners General Contractor – Lendlease Concrete Contractor – Pepper Construction 30 stories 299 apartments 155 parking spaces 3,300 square feet of ground-level retail space Scheduled opening – early 2023 Quirky-but-true fact – Green and Orange line trains practically run right through the parking deck
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I haven’t been playing the construction game for long, so maybe things I see that surprise me aren’t really all that unusual. But I’ll be darned if I can recall ever seeing a highrise get its first panes of glass on the first floor.
That’s exactly what we’ve got at Helmut Jahn’s1000M (1000 S Michigan Ave.) If I hadn’t been expecting to see it (thanks to a Linkedin post) I might have missed it, since my eyes generally look up as these towers start their skyward climbs. But the glass is indeed there, along the east façade. You might need to peek over the fence to see it.
And now, a photographic progress update of McHugh & McHugh’s work (thanks for positioning the tower crane so I could get the mooncrane shot):
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I said I didn’t want to miss much of the construction at 1000M, yet here we are, more than a month since my last visit. Unacceptable. Let’s fix that now.
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The first two levels of glass are being installed on The Reed, the second residential tower at Southbank, Lendlease’s neighborhood development on the South Branch of the Chicago River. You’re probably familiar with The Reed because of the tower crane in the South Loop that looks like a red hammerhead shark. If you squint and are slightly dehydrated. Whatever. It’s a cool crane.
First glass is always a favorite milestone of mine when it comes to construction. So this was fun to see, which resulted in lots of photos. (And these don’t even include my two previous visits to The Reed that I didn’t get around to posting.) I know; you’re shocked.
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Construction can be confusing when you don’t pay close attention. There’s a world of activity on a site one day, then the next day all the equipment is gone, the dirt’s been smoothed over, and it looks like the lot has been abandoned.
And that’s my segue for the first visit to 633 South LaSalle in the South Loop. 633 got its first permit back in May of 2019, allowing for construction of an 18-story, 117-unit residential tower. Then, crickets. That permit was reinstated in April of 2020, but, pandemic. Now, two new permits have been issued this spring: the first, for caissons, on March 31. The second, for the full building, on May 10. These two latest permits have a new general contractor: Clark Construction. Berkelhamer and FitzGerald are the architecture firms. The Collective in NYC is the developer.
So that’s the permit sitch. What I can’t speak to is the progress. Like I said, construction can be confusing if you’re not paying attention. The current state of the 633 South LaSalle site looks like the caisson aftermath, when the slate looks clean and ready for foundations to be dug. But I can’t find anyone with caisson photos on the web. (I’m not the only one taking photos of such things, you know.) As a result, I can’t even tell you whether work has begun here.
Bonus gallery: The buildings on either side of 633 are magnificent.
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1000M is a little more than tree-height. Here’s proof.
Now that 1000M is back in business, we want to be sure not to miss much. So here’s another round of photos of construction progress, taken Sunday the 10th.
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