Progress continues on Sterling Bay’s topped-out 4-story C.H. Robinson HQ

Posted on September 8, 2017 by danieldschell

https://twitter.com/SOM_Design/status/893523011860664320

Gone is the red monster crawling crane that helped 1515 West Webster top out in early August. But there’s still a lot to see, including a crane on a barge, as Power Construction continues working on Sterling Bay’s new office building along the North Branch of the Chicago River.

Destined to become the new home of C.H. Robinson, the four-story, 60-foot-high structure is a design from Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and will grow to over 200,000 square feet when finished next year.

Progress on 1515 West Webster is seen from the 46th floor of 150 North Riverside.

Heneghan Wrecking is tearing out concrete slabs at the old Finkl Steel site

Posted on September 8, 2017 by danieldschell

Heneghan Wrecking is tearing up and hauling off the concrete slabs that remain at the old Finkl Steel site.

This blog has no inside information on what exactly Sterling Bay has in store for its recently-purchased* Finkl Steel site. But we’re heartened by activity, as Heneghan Wrecking is back on site, removing the concrete slabs from the empty lots, virtually all that remains of the once-mighty steel yard.

DNAInfo? That’s another story. They *do* have some inkling of what could be coming, and they posted about it back in July here.

*While still at Crain’s, Ryan Ori reported on the Finkl site deal late in 2016. And then the Chicago Tribune’s Ryan Ori reported in July about Sterling Bay adding even more land to its portfolio.

Whatever is coming, it can’t get started without wiping the slate clean of the Finkl remnants. That’s what Heneghan is up to. Does it mean new construction is imminent? That remains to be seen. But we can hope.

: A last reminder of the Finkl Steel site.

: I’d like to have this for my office.

Leopardo, Michels have begun caisson work at 210 North Carpenter

Posted on September 7, 2017 by danieldschell

Leopardo and Michels have begun drilling and filling caissons at 210 North Carpenter.

They’re digging holes and filling them with concrete at 210 North Carpenter, the 12-story, 200,000-square-foot office building from Sterling Bay. Crews from general contractor (and future tenant) Leopardo Companies and Michels Corporation are sending caissons into the West Loop soil for what’s been dubbed the “McDonald’s Vendor Village” along the 1000-block of West Lake Street.

Sterling Bay rendering of 210 North Carpenter.

Crain’s had the announcement last month that Leopardo had signed on the be the first 210 North Carpenter tenant, turning construction into a quasi-D.I.Y. project, if you will. Leopardo’s corporate offices are in Hoffman Estates, and will remain there, but the Chicago staff will relocate from 333 West Wacker Drive when the new space is completed in 2018.

By the way, we tweeted to Adjustable Forms last month about their involvement as the masonry contractor, and they confirmed our suspicion that 210 North Carpenter *will* require a tower crane. Everyone wins.

Ordering two McDonald’s tower cranes to go

Posted on September 6, 2017 by danieldschell

McDonald's Headquarters tower crane removal

A yellow street crane waits at the foot of East Crane, ready to bring her down.

Strong Chicago breezes kept Tuesday from being a sad day in the West Loop, but once those winds calm down, the two tower cranes at the McDonald’s Headquarters will be removed.

The Yellow Street Crane Of Doom was on-hand Tuesday, but couldn’t get started on East Crane because of conditions. Wednesday calls for lighter winds, so there’s a good chance crane removal will begin.

Both cranes were erected on the McDonald’s site back in February within a couple days of each other. McHugh Construction was said to be utilizing the top-down method, which allows the frame of the building to go up faster than normal. According to a story by Curbed at ground-breaking time, that shaved off about four months from the construction schedule. Now, a little over six months after the cranes went up, they’ve completed their duty, and it’s time for them to move on.

The Stars & Stripes, and the Stars, fly just below the criss-crossing tower cranes at the McDonald’s HQ. Tuesday, September 5, 2017.

More tower cranes, more patriotism.

Sterling Bay gets a permit for offices at 210 North Carpenter

Posted on August 15, 2017 by danieldschell

Behold, the almighty Foundation Permit, issued Monday for 210 North Carpenter.

Monday, the City of Chicago issued a foundation permit for the parking lot at 210 North Carpenter Street in the West Loop, allowing Sterling Bay to begin construction on a new 12-story, 200,000-square-foot office building. 210 North Carpenter is a design from Solomon Cordwell Buenz, and will also bring 12,000 square feet of retail space to the scorching-hot West Loop/Fulton Market area.

Leopardo Companies is the general contractor. (They’re putting the finishing touches on Fulton West just a couple blocks from 210 North Carpenter.) Adjustable Forms will be the masonry contractor.

At 12 stories, we smell a new tower crane for the West Loop!

: Rendering of 210 North Carpenter from Sterling Bay.

: Rendering of 210 North Carpenter from Sterling Bay.

: Soil sampling last summer.

: Crude-but-effective Google Map of the 210 North Carpenter site.

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!!

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.

Take a walk around McDonald’s

Posted on May 1, 2017 by danieldschell

The view from the B.U.C. HQ is still somewhat limited, until McDonald’s rises a few more floors.

If you live in a West Loop condo with a nice balcony (or a drone), you might just have a great view of construction from above the new McDonald’s Headquarters. For the rest of us, circling the block bounded by Randolph, Carpenter, Washington, and Aberdeen is the only way to get a good look at proceedings. So that’s what I did.

As McDonald’s progresses, Sterling Bay pitches @1045 retail space

Posted on April 11, 2017 by danieldschell

The McDonald’s HQ in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago.

Along with construction progress at the new McDonald’s Corporation Headquarters in the West Loop comes signage for available retail space, which Sterling Bay has dubbed @1045. An homage to its north frontage at 1045 West Randolph Street, @1045 is 48,000 square feet of ground-floor space, divisible to 2,000-square-foot parcels.

But enough of the real estate talk. What matters here is that McHugh Construction continues to push off the ground and into the sky. The @1045 signage is a nice touch, but construction is the real attraction.

: The Golden Arches have arrived on site.

: 7

: The Two Cranes.

Sterling Bay’s C.H. Robinson HQ taking shape at 1515 West Webster

Posted on March 22, 2017 by danieldschell

At left, 1515 West Webster. In the foreground, the Chicago River. In the background, that magnificent Chicago Skyline.

Construction progress has already reached the third dimension at Sterling Bay‘s development at 1515 West Webster Avenue on the western edge of Lincoln Park. The four-story, 207,000-square-foot facility will be the new headquarters of third-party logistics juggernaut C.H. Robinson. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Sterling Bay expects to have the new office digs open in mid-2018. For now, that’s up to Power Construction, who look to be making good headway toward that goal.