Vista Tower continues to rise along the Chicago River.
We’re long overdue for a few shots of the progress McHugh Construction is making at Vista Tower. This thing has grown like mad since our last visit. Sorry to have missed so much. Without further ado, here are the latest shots from the soon-to-be 94-story hotel-and-residential combination.
And don’t miss out on the newly-updated Earthcam shots from Lake Point Tower. You’ll want to check it out at night, for sure.
Night time is the right time to see Vista Tower.
This thing is gonna be HUGE.
Vista Tower continues its climb along East Wacker Drive and the Chicago River. And the more it grows, the more it’s visible from new vantage points. For instance, you can now stand on the Chicago Riverwalk and look straight up and see construction. It may be a little too cold to stand there for long, though.
Vista Theater is fading; the best views of Vista Tower are no on the north side of the Chicago River.
I saw construction on three Wanda Vista Tower projects during October: the one you’re most familiar with, Vista Tower here in Chicago, plus two in Australia: one in the demolition phase in Sydney, New South Wales, and the three-tower Jewel Residences project on the beach in Gold Coast, Queensland. I managed to get to Chicago’s site on the last day of the month to make sure McHugh Construction crews hadn’t finished up while we were gone. Thankfully, they had not.
Vista Tower glows from across the Chicago River at River Esplanade Park.
Vista Tower has been under construction for just over a year now. This blog has featured approximately 17,648 posts about progress on the 95-story hotel and residential tower. And yet, I’ve somehow managed to neglect it. How? By not stopping by the site after dark. That situation has been rectified, as of this past weekend.
I know, you just saw a bunch of photos of Vista Tower yesterday. But here we go again.
This gallery contains 29 photos.
A view of Vista Tower from the lower deck of the Lake Shore Drive bridge.
I know I get carried away when I walk around Vista Tower, but come on. So much going on, in such a large area. Think about the skyscrapers being built in New York City: straight up in the air, over tiny footprints. (Well, except Hudson Yards, of course.) Not Vista. That’s a big, sprawling site. With beams and columns and scaffold and concrete rigs. Oh, that’s right, don’t forget the two tower cranes.
So, with yet another hearty “Thank You” to Magellan Development Group for bringing the project together, Studio Gang and bKL Architecture for designing it, and McHugh Construction for doing all that hard, pretty work, here we go with another set of Vista Tower progress photos:
Local 63 Ironworker Nick Barwegen gets up close and personal with the tower crane at Solstice On The Park.
Local 63 Ironworker Nick Barwegen sent over some stellar photos from Solstice On The Park this morning, as Chicago’s south-most tower crane is being lowered to the ground. Sad as it is to see it come down, it sure does make for a cool photo-op.
Thanks, Nick!
Removing forms from the angled concrete columns at Vista Tower.
Vista Tower column b/w Tribune Tower.
“I was just at Vista Tower. No need to go by there again.” I said to myself as I walked in the general direction of Lakeshore East. An hour or so later…
Just that process of taking forms off the angled concrete columns had me staring for a solid 30 minutes. Throw is some signage that looks like it came straight from a European auto race, plus non-stop work seemingly 24/7 considering the progress that’s been made, and there’s a lot to see that’s new.
So yeah, as long as they (they being McHugh Construction) keep doing cool stuff here, I (and everyone else in Chicago with a camera) will keep snapping photos.
Solstice On The Park, the 27-story residential tower in Hyde Park, topped on on Monday, according to a tweet to us from Studio Gang. Also on Monday, Studio Gang also shared a photo on its LinkedIn page showing some pretty impressive glass panels being installed on the ground floor. What does one do when there’s new glass to be seen? One heads down the Metra Electric Line and has a look for oneself.
https://twitter.com/studiogang/status/890302868527435776
Glass installation at Solstice On The Park, from Studio Gang’s LinkedIn post.
Congratulations to Studio Gang, Linn-Mathes, Antheus Capital, Mac Properties, heck, to all of Hyde Park on the topping out! It looks like Chicago’s south-most tower crane is in danger of disappearing soon, but that’s the price of progress.
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.
