Tag Archives: South Loop

One Grant Park caisson work rolls along

Posted on by
Reply
One Grant Park caisson work

A gorgeous rendering of One Grant Park from Rafael Viñoly Architects.

When it rains, it pours. Cement into caissons, that is.

Add One Grant Park to the list of skyscrapers getting busy in Chicago. Permitted for foundation work back in October, the empty lot bounded by Michigan Avenue, Roosevelt Road, and Indiana Avenue finally saw some action in December, when crews started site prep. Now, the familiar blue and gold of Case Foundation is on the scene, drilling holes into the South Loop soil to support the 76-story, 792-unit Rafael Viñoly Architects design.

That foundation permit includes twelve (!) levels of parking, so we could see a lot of time and concrete trucks pass between now and the full building permit. But it’s all good; we can kill time running back and forth between One Grant Park and another McHugh Construction supertall in progress, Vista Tower.

Essex Inn looks under all the mattresses, comes up with money to begin demolition

Posted on by
Reply
Essex on the Park demolition

It’s demo time! Goodbye parking garage and swimming pool, hello 475 apartments.

As Crain’s Chicago Business reported on Tuesday, Essex Inn at 800 South Michigan Avenue has secured the funding necessary to upgrade the hotel, and add a new a 56-story apartment tower as its new next-door neighbor.

Essex on the Park demolition

The Demolition Permit.

And no sooner had the ink on the check dried, crews were out on Michigan Avenue, setting up barriers and scaffolding for the temporary sidewalk that will keep pedestrians safe during demolition of the 5-story garage next to the hotel, while also making sure bloggers and skyscraper nerds can’t get too close to the goings-on.

None other than Heneghan Wrecking (we need t-shirts with Heneghan Again on them) will be making space for the new tower, with a demolition permit having been filed way back on October 27.

The Chicago Plan Commission approved the development back in May of 2016, and I quote:

The Applicant intends to create two subareas within the overall 28,744 square foot site. Subarea A, located at 800 South Michigan Avenue consists of an existing 160’ hotel building and will be rehabbed to include a maximum of 290 hotel keys. Subarea B, located at approximately 812 South Michigan Avenue, will be redeveloped with an approximately 620’ residential building including a maximum of 476 dwelling units, 100 hotel keys as well as 100 parking spaces and commercial space.

Essex on The Park, the name of the Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture-designed tower according to Crain’s, should be complete in 2018, and coincide with completion of the hotel renovation.

Essex on the Park demolition

This rendering, from the Crain’s story,  is from Hartshorne Plunkard Architects. Too pretty not to include.

1411 South Michigan gets in on the tower crane fun

Posted on by
Reply
1411 South Michigan Avenue

I see you over there.

What is it, Spring already?

Tower crane seedlings are sprouting all over Chicago, proving there’s no season like Construction Season. You may have read a thing or two about the pair of cranes being erected at Vista Tower, but those aren’t the only ones in town. 1411 South Michigan planted its own tower crane stub Thursday in the South Loop, marking the next big step in the development process for Russland Capital Group’s 15-story, 199-apartment tower. Lendlease is on the build, responsible for getting the design from Boarman Kroos Vogel Group completed in time for opening late this year.

Parking garage turned empty lot in South Loop is getting a hotel

Posted on by
Reply
1101 South Wabash

I don’t know what this steel-and-wood sculpture, in the lot at 1101 South Wabash, is called. But I like it.

At 1101 South Wabash Avenue, directly behind the Best Western Grant Park Hotel in the South Loop, the City of Chicago has filed a permit to begin construction of a 30-story hotel. According to the permit, this will be a design by  Lothan Van Hook DeStefano Architecture. And according to the Chicago Plan Commission agenda for November of this year, the hotel will have 281 rooms and 57 parking spaces.

The two-story parking garage on the site got its demolition permit in January of this year, and by the middle of February, it had been reduced to an empty lot.

Currently, there are a couple of cool abstract pieces of iron artwork on site, but I can’t say for sure those are permanent. Lendlease is the general contractor on the hotel project; we’ll let them decide what stays and what goes.

Construction Update: You can call it Wintrust Arena now

Posted on by
Reply
Wintrust Arena

Wintrust Arena, from the corner of Cermak Road and Indiana Avenue.

What was once the McCormick Place Event Center is now, through the miracle of naming rights, Wintrust Arena. The 10,000-seat basketball arena/300,000-square-foot event space by Pelli Clarke Pelli is almost fully enclosed on all four sides now. Sadly, no access to the McCormick Place rooftop garden this visit. Pictures from street level will have to suffice.

 

Topped off and glassed up, 30 East heads toward the home stretch

Posted on by
Reply
30 East

A CTA Orange Line train passes 30 East, 30 East Balbo Avenue, in the South Loop.

You can see the light at the end of the tunnel for 30 East, the 16-story rental high-rise from Gilbane Development Company. The 134 student-centric apartments at 30 East Balbo Avenue in the South Loop are 99.8% cladded, with only a few panels yet to be installed near the top of the tower. Sadly, I hadn’t been by the site since the October topping-out, so I missed the tower crane’s departure. Which is okay in the end, because the same crane has probably already been installed atop another Chicago project.

 

A permit makes it official: Motor Row is getting a new hotel

Posted on by
Reply
123 East Cermak

Fresh off the presses, Monday’s permit for 22 stories and 466 units at 123 East Cermak Road.

Last week, a permit to prep the lot at 123 East Cermak Road was filed by the City of Chicago, and it appeared at the time there would be a new hotel coming to the north end of Motor Row. Now it’s official.

A permit was filed Monday, allowing for:

466 UNITS, 22 STORIES, MIXED USE-HOTELS, ASSEMBLY AND MERCANTILE, NO PARKING

As mentioned last week, McHugh Construction owns the lot, and they’ll serve as their own general contractor. Antunovich Associates handled design duties.

Now that construction can begin, it’s time to crowd-source a name. The Hughtel?

overhead

New hotel coming to Motor Row?

Posted on by
Reply
111-123 East Cermak

Looks like it’s finally time to move some soil at 123 East Cermak.

Yesterday, a permit was filed by the City of Chicago for “SITE PREPARATION WITH SOIL RELOCATION AND RE-GRADING” at 123 East Cermak Road. That’s a lot owned by McHugh Construction, and a site where Antunovich Associates has helped design a mixed-use development along East Cermak between Michigan and Indiana Avenues.

A couple years ago, those plans included a hotel, data center, and retail space, all to be located within a block of the new Wintrust Arena. Which of these plans are becoming reality? Could it be all of them?

111-123 East Cermak

The small empty lot in the background is 123 East Cermak, with 111 up front.

111-123 East Cermak

 

1411 South Michigan starts driving piles into the South Loop

Posted on by
Reply
1411 South Michigan

Those are H-piles that have been driven into the ground at 1411 South Michigan.

If you’re within a 4-to-6-block radius of 1411 South Michigan Avenue in the South Loop, then you’re fully aware that piles are being driven into the ground as work has begun on Russland Capital Group’s 15-story apartment tower. That’s where we’ll see 199 new units, along with 40,000 square feet of commercial space, opening late in 2017. The ever-busy Lendlease is the general contractor for the Boarman Kroos Vogel Group-designed project.