You can check one of those pending tower cranes off the waiting list. Clark Construction & team began erecting the tower crane at the Thompson Center this weekend. They got decent weather for late-January to do it, so hopefully there will be no setbacks through Sunday to getting setup complete.
This is the only tower crane operating in The Loop right now, and one of only six throughout the city. It joins Streeterville’s 400 Lake Shore in the downtown area, and four South Side cranes, including Project H.O.O.D. in Woodlawn, the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, and two at the AbbVie Foundation Cancer Pavilion in Hyde Park. It was permitted on July 03, 2024, with word on the site to expect assembly around Labor Day. That, of course, was four months ago, so we’ve been waiting on this one.
The Thompson Center, as I’m sure you know by now, is being renovated for Google. It has been completely stripped of its exterior skin, to be replaced by a much more energy-efficient glazing. If the building looks like a shell of its former self, that’s because it is. Google hopes to have employees move into the 17-story building mid-2026.
Lifting another section into place. One block of Randolph Street is closed for the festivities.
Enjoying the photos? Metra and CTA rides (and Amtrak trains to Milwaukee), Zipcars, Divvy Bikes, camera lenses, domain fees, snacks & energy drinks, and comfortable walking shoes add up. You can help offset expenses by making a greatly-appreciated donation to Building Up Chicago.
The Thompson Center is open to the sky, but not to the public, during reconstruction.
Fear not. The Thompson Center *still* isn’t being demolished; it just looks that way. Its transformation into Google offices has taken a toll on the tri-colored exterior, and while the replacement skin might not be as colorful, it will make the building much easier to heat and cool. But for now, it looks rather bare. I almost feel guilty for looking at it, much less taking pictures. But it looks pretty dang cool this way. Now, to get them to let me stand in the atrium before they get the new cladding on…
Enjoying the photos? Metra and CTA rides (and Amtrak trains to Milwaukee), Zipcars, Divvy Bikes, camera lenses, domain fees, snacks & energy drinks, and comfortable walking shoes add up. You can help offset expenses by making a greatly-appreciated donation to Building Up Chicago.
As Clark Construction continues demolition work on the Thompson Center for Google, a tower crane permit has been issued by the City of Chicago. My guess is, the crane will be installed on the Clark Street (east) side of the building, where a gaping hole in the exterior would allow tying off to the concrete core.
Google’s transformation of the Thompson Center will add the 10th crane to Chicago. We started July with nine in the air. Projects at Hyde Park Labs and The Obama Presidential Center Museum Tower have topped out, but I don’t have info on when those two cranes will be taken down.
Put the tower crane here?Tower crane permit via Chicago Data Portal
After site prep work at 410 South Wabash to dig out under Van Buren Street, crews were pumping concrete into a new wall under the sidewalk Monday. There wasn’t a whole lot to see from the street, but I still spent far too much time watching.
The concrete was pumped thru the square ports in the sidewalk.
You can see the forms for the new wall behind the pillars.
Skip floor markings are visible to 36. My math says the additional 4 floors puts 300 North Michigan at the 40th floor.
Come at me if you want to, but there’s a new brand of NIMBYism out there these days: Instead of just complaining about a building blocking the view from your living room, you now get to complain about a new building blocking your view of something else, but not when you’re at home. No, this pertains to being out and about throughout the city. Or from that one particular spot you like to stand. This is next-level stuff.
Such seems to be the case with 300 North Michigan. Folks are upset that it will block the view of the Carbon and Carbide Building across the street. How about that. The rules are now such that you can’t build anything anywhere that will obstruct the view of anything anywhere. Looks like our next skyscraper will have to be built in DeKalb. (But I can’t see my corn field from the water tower now!)
Anyway, this is what 300 North Michigan looked like Monday, July 26. Using the markings on the skip, it looks like Linn-Mathes has reached the 40th floor, with the elevator core a couple stories higher, on their way to their ultimate 47-story height:
300 North Michigan, July 26, 2021
Like the photos? Appreciate the attitude/snark? No? Still, you can help offset expenses with a much-appreciated donation to Building Up Chicago.
Sorry to rub it in if yer one o’ them NIMBYs who’s upset that the parking lot you use once a month when you drive to The Loop is gone. But the rest of us are pretty happy about it.
More than a year and a half after a foundation permit was issued, the surface parking lot at 410 South Wabash has been torn to bits, to be replaced by a 25-story residential tower. And it’s pretty cool to see, too. You can get a good view under the sidewalk and even a little bit of the seamy underbelly of Van Buren Street.
Back in January 2020, this very blog wrote, and I quote:
College students don’t need parking lots. College students do need beds. That might be a little oversimplified, but that’s how I prefer to look at 410 South Wabash in the South Loop.
A foundation permit issued by the City of Chicago beck in December launched the beginning of 410 South Wabash. Developed by Lennar Multifamily, or LMC, this new residential building in the South Loop promises to deliver 344 dwelling units in a 25-story, 260-foot-tall tower.
The site sits at the foot of the T intersection of the CTA’s elevated train lines at Wabash Avenue and Van Buren Street, offering future residents unlimited opportunities to take cool Instagram shots of the L coming and going into and out of The Loop. Orange, Pink, Green, Brown, and Purple Line trains all pass through here, and when the Christmas Train passes by at night, lucky tower dwellers will be directly above the action.
4th Ward Alderman Sophia King held a community meeting in May, from which there comes a veritable cavalcade of information on 410 South Wabash. Floor plans show a mix of 1-bed, 2-bed, and 3-bed units, plus studios, convertibles, and micro-apartments. Though no indication is given that this tower is targeting the South Loop student population, those smaller units sure seem to be good options for the college kids.
410 South Wabash will also include 103 parking spaces, which goes against my thoughts on students needing to park, but definitely fits in with 3-bedroom homes. There will also be about 8,000 square feet of commercial space.
Antunovich Associates is the architect of record; Pepper Construction is the general contractor.
Some things have changed since then, which I started writing about in March 2020, but held off on publishing in the hopes of hearing news that construction was about to start. Something known as an Easy Process Permit was issued by the city March 5 of 2020, changing the general contractor to Power Construction, and naming Adjustable Concrete Construction as the concrete contractor. Then (you still with me? Or did I lose you at “sorry to rub it in”?) two reinstatement permits were issued by the city: the first in January of this year, and another the last week of June. And it looks like that second one is what broke through the ice jam and got this project flowing again.
Which brings us to July 2021, wherein I make it down to 410 South Wabash in The Loop and verify that work has indeed begun. End of story.
Orange line video of site work. Lost my balance and almost fell over on the bend.
Enjoying the photos? Metra and CTA rides (and Amtrak trains to Milwaukee), Zipcars, Divvy Bikes, camera lenses, and comfortable walking shoes are adding up. You can help offset expenses by making a greatly-appreciated donation to Building Up Chicago.
Because when you start glazing a skyscraping, you don’t just stop.
300 North Michigan got the first of its curtain wall about a month ago, and it’s getting shinier by the day. It’s also growing more visible above some of its neighbors, with a great view of it from Fulton Street in the West Loop.
CTA and Metra rides, Zipcars, Divvy bikes, camera lenses, and solid walking shoes add up. You can help offset expenses with a greatly-appreciated donation to Building Up Chicago.
A quick spin around 300 North Michigan as construction continues on the joint development effort from Sterling Bay and Magellan Development Group. Hotel rooms and apartments smack dab in the middle of the Cultural Mile and Magnificent Mile? Yes, please.
Below you’ll find photographic proof of progress. (The dude on the corner with the tape measure though? No, thanks. You’re job is safe from me.)
300 North Michigan between the Magnificent and Cultural Miles of Chicago’s Michigan Avenue.
There aren’t many projects happening in Chicago that this blog considers “mixed-use.” Since everything includes retail these days, an office tower or residential building with ground-floor commercial space doesn’t split the vote.
300 North Michigan qualifies as mixed-use. The bKL Archtecture-designed tower will deliver 289 residential units and 280 hotel rooms across its 47 stories. A joint venture between Sterling Bay and Magellan Group, 300 North Michigan got its tower crane permit back in August 2020, and its foundation permit (with an assigned address of 88 E Wacker Pl) about three weeks prior. The full-build permit arrived in late September.
Building Up Chicago 