W.E. O’Neil erecting Chicago’s 31st tower crane at The Lincoln Common

Posted on August 25, 2017 by danieldschell

The Lincoln Common south tower crane makes its appearance in the Lincoln Park skyline.

It’s almost here.

Chicago’s 31st (and, eventually, 32nd) tower crane is just about ready to lift the heavy stuff at The Lincoln Common in Lincoln Park. W. E. O’Neil and Central Contractors Service have been on the site since Wednesday setting up the South Tower Crane. That means crew members are climbing around at scary heights, fastening what needs to be fastened, tightening what needs to be tightened. By the looks of progress, there’s no reason to believe Southy won’t be operational for work on Monday.

Still no sign of North Tower Crane, but I don’t want to sound greedy. We can just enjoy one for now.

: Sorry folks, street’s closed. The moose out front shoulda told ya.

First of two tower cranes begins at The Lincoln Common

Posted on August 24, 2017 by danieldschell

The south tower crane starts to rise at The Lincoln Common, seen from the Fullerton “L” platform.

On the red, purple, or brown line today? Take a look to the east from the Fullerton station, and you’ll see the first of two tower cranes being erected at The Lincoln Common. That’s where I spotted it from, because for some reason, I wasn’t staring at my phone as we pulled up. I jumped out and walked over to take a look.

And Twitter noticed. Users @kgburke3 andi @ChiBuildings (too early for a #FollowFriday? You should be following Chicago Cityscape for all things Chicago development) pointed out the street closure of North Lincoln Avenue between Belden and Fullerton Avenues through Friday for the big event.

https://twitter.com/ChiBuildings/status/900581897985810432

https://twitter.com/kgburke3/status/900526288670216192

There’s still a lot of foundation work going on for this dual-tower, 540-unit mixed use project. W.E. O’Neil is the general contractor, and they’ve got a busy site in the works. You’ll see that in the photos below. No word yet though on when to expect the north tower crane to arrive.

: The closed-off Lincoln Avenue.

: Tower crane in the distance, sheeting work up front.

Pictures from Solstice On The Park as the tower crane comes down

Posted on August 15, 2017 by danieldschell

Solstice On The Park tower crane removal

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!

It’s a tower-crane wash, as Chicago puts one up (Nobu Hotel) and takes one down (Solstice On The Park)

Posted on August 14, 2017 by danieldschell

Say hello to the tower crane at the Nobu Hotel Chicago…

For a brief moment, while it was still dark Monday morning, Chicago had 31 tower cranes in operation across the city.

Centaur Construction completed assembly of their tower crane at the Nobu Hotel Chicago site over the weekend. But word came from a Little Birdie Friend last week that today would be the beginning of the end for the tower crane at Solstice On The Park, as Linn-Mathes and Adjustable Forms begin taking theirs down from the Hyde Park skyline.

So if you’re doing the math at home, this equation’s pretty simple: 30 + 1 – 1 = 30.

…And say goodbye to the tower crane at Solstice On The Park, as it comes down this week.

: A photo from Centaur Construction of tower-crane assembly on Friday.

: Centaur Construction is teaming up with Pepper Construction to build the Nobu Hotel Chicago.

Centaur Construction joins Chicago’s Tower Crane Party

Posted on August 12, 2017 by danieldschell

Centaur Construction is entering the tower crane count this weekend with their assembly of the crane at the Nobu Hotel Chicago site, and they’re relishing the moment.

Christina Pascente at Centaur took a bunch of great high-res images of the tower crane going up on Friday and sent them to us. So of course, we’re sharing them. Enjoy!

It’s tower crane time at Nobu Hotel

Posted on August 11, 2017 by danieldschell

https://twitter.com/JPGraziano/status/896001886859526144

Everybody’s talking about the new crane in town. Even purveyors of fine sandwiches.

As you read these words, Central Contractors Service and Centaur Construction are on the Nobu Hotel Chicago site in the West Loop, assembling the tower crane that will send the 11-story boutique hotel vertical. It’s also the reason you can’t drive on Peoria Street between Randolph and Lake. We’ve waited a long time for this one, so let’s enjoy it while it lasts. If it lasts. Now that Nobu will start going vertical, it won’t take long to stack its 11 floors on top of each other.

*** Centaur CEO Spiro Tsaparas called the B.U.C. to let me know a correction is in order on the Nobu project. I’ve reported that Walsh Construction was assigned the task of concrete work. That information, listed in Nobu’s building permits, is incorrect. Pepper Construction is, in fact, the masonry contractor for the Nobu Hotel.***

Sometimes the tower cranes we miss are the tower cranes we miss the most

Posted on August 10, 2017 by danieldschell

Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center

Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes sent over this photo of the WESC from June, just as the second tower crane was coming down.

We love tower cranes at Building Up Chicago. That’s no secret. We’re especially fond of scenes like Vista Tower, The Simpson-Querrey Center, McDonald’s Headquarters, and One Bennett Park, each of which have two tower cranes on site. And don’t even get us started about the two projects we saw in London that had 10 apiece.

But we can’t get to them all.

We found out today, courtesy of Curtis Waltz at Aerialscapes, that the tower crane we wandered to at the Wisconsin Entertainment and Sports Center had a sibling. Up until a couple weeks before we stopped by, the parking garage being constructed next to the Milwaukee Bucks’ new arena had a second tower crane.

Hey! Why not keep a tower crane on a parking garage? Do you have any idea how helpful (and fun) it would be to use it to get cars up to and off the top level?

Curtis said neither tower crane remains on site now, so it looks like we got there just in time. Maybe one trip a year to Milwaukee isn’t often enough?

Only one tower crane remained when we visited the WESC in July.

Don’t get me wrong; there were still multiple cranes. Just not multiple tower cranes.

Uplifting news: Two towers, two tower cranes at The Lincoln Common

Posted on August 5, 2017 by danieldschell

Caisson work at The Lincoln Common will include foundations for TWO tower cranes.

Friday was a busy day for important permits in Chicago.

You read in our August tower crane update that The Lincoln Common would soon be on the board with a tower crane for one of the two 20-story, 269-unit apartment towers going up on the site. Well, the City of Chicago just doubled down on that wager, permitting a second tower crane for the site.

We’ll need to work out some names for these. For now, the city’s permits dub them “East” and “West.” But since they’re in position to build the north and south (2335 and 2345 North Lincoln Ave) towers, we may need to use “North” and South” for them. Or, perhaps the cranes will share duties on each tower, as opposed to being dedicated to one single building. Minor details. East Crane and West Crane will suffice for now.

This means W.E. O’Neil will not only get on the board; they’ll storm it. And their two tower cranes will make up for the recent losses at Elevate Lincoln Park and the DePaul School of Music. And don’t forget, we could get a crane across the street when the Belmont Village senior-living facility gets rolling. Tower cranes galore for Lincoln Park.

East Crane

West Crane

🏗 Chicago begins August with *31 tower cranes in the air 🏗 (Correction: make that 30)

Posted on August 1, 2017 by danieldschell

We last updated our “official” Chicago Tower Crane Survey back in June. So with August here, it’s time to get a current count of what’s in the sky right now.

New to the list since June’s count:

Moxy Hotel. Not new because it was just erected; new because I erroneously left it off the count. It needed a permit, so it qualifies. It’s been up since May.
1326 South Michigan (soon to get a new name, according to Murphy Development Group)
Essex On The Park

Gone since June’s count:

Alta Roosevelt
625 West Adams
The Apple Store
Hubbard221/412 North Wells

Coming Soon:

Nobu Hotel Chicago (Stub planted July 25; this will get Centaur Construction on the board)
The Lincoln Common (Tower crane permit issued July 17; this will get W.E. O’Neil on the board)

Endangered Cranes?

Solstice On The Park (Topped out Monday, July 24)
No. 9 Walton (Seems like it’s been topped out for weeks)
*Elevate Lincoln Park (Topped out, I think)

*Not only topped out, but it’s coming down as of Tuesday morning, August 1.

Who has tower cranes?

Lendlease – 9
McHugh Construction – 7 (6, now that Elevate Lincoln Park is gone)
Power Construction – 6
Linn-Mathes – 2
All tied with one apiece: Walsh Construction (1326 South Michigan), Clayco (CCCCHC), Pepper Construction (Moxy), Onni Group (Old Town Park), Macon Construction (No. 508), Tishman (Aloft Chicago Mag Mile), Norcon (Illume Chicago)