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.
I’ve shown you every photo I have to share of the 5-tower-crane festival that is Jewel Residences construction in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. So I’ve been trying to find photos from everyone else. And I came across this video from Lindores Construction Logistics of the tower cranes being assembled back in 2016.
Enjoy.
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.
Construction on Jewel Residences Gold Coast, from the beach.
You’ve seen the names of the five tower cranes, and you’ve seen them lit up at night. Now, it’s time to get a good look at Jewel Residences construction in the light of day.
Yes, I went by this construction site three times; it’s that good. So to accompany the nighttime photos and tower-crane close-ups you’ve already seen, here are a metric ton of pictures taken both in morning, and late afternoon, sunlight.
As a reminder, Jewel Residences is a three-tower development along Surfers Paradise Beach in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It will include more than 500 apartments and a 171-room Wanda Vista Hotel. It’s being developed jointly by two firms from China:  Wanda Group and RDG. The design is by DBI Design, and Multiplex is the builder.
Follow the tower cranes down Surfers Paradise Beach to Jewel Residences.
There should be a prize if you make it through this entire galley.
Tower cranes light up the night atop Jewel Gold Coast on Surfers Paradise Beach.
As you may have heard, my wife and I spent a couple weeks in Australia. Now that we’re back home in Chicago’s weather instead, it’s time to get myself organized and figure out what to do with the hundreds and hundreds of photos I took. By my last count, I have about 75 files (more than 30 just in Melbourne!) of pictures for different construction sites and buildings. (Yes, two of those files are “Sydney Opera House” and “Sydney Harbour Bridge.” You can’t help it when you’re there.)
I don’t know how many of those files will be shared here on the blog — I’ve only posted about two of them so far, both in Melbourne — but right now the odds are about 50/50 that I post either all of them, or none of them. The big questions are, which sites are most entertaining to see? and in what order do I post?
I was going to try to build up some sort of crescendo, start you out slow, then hit you with the coolest, most sensational posts. But no, I’ve decided to get right to the good stuff.
Along Surfers Paradise Beach in the coastal city of Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, Multiplex is erecting the three-tower Jewel Gold Coast. Chicago has had its own Tower of Jewel project recently, the just-completed Sinclair apartment building at Clark and Division, which also happens to be in Gold Coast, this one being north of the equator. Jewel Gold Coast is a little different. And brighter at night.
Jewel Gold Coast is a joint project from developers Wanda Group and RDG. Both firms are from China. And yes, Wanda Group is part of the development team for Vista Tower in Chicago, which, like Jewel Gold Coast, will include a Wanda Vista Hotel. The design is by DBI Design, which has an office in Gold Coast, hence I would like to work there. (Gold Coast is a spectacular beach city. Go visit.) There will be 171 hotel rooms, 512 apartments, and 816 parking spots, with lots of commercial space thrown in for good measure. And good tourists. According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, the three towers will be 36, 41, and 47 stories high, respectively.
As I’ve mentioned, Multiplex, busy throughout Australia, is the builder. And the lighter of tower cranes. Four of Multiplex’s five cranes (they all have names; I’ll get to that another day) are lit up at night, like light sabers guarding the coastline. And those are what I’ve chosen to show you first, from our walk along the beach on the final night of our Australia trip. Enjoy. Sorry I didn’t have a tripod for these.
This gallery contains 29 photos.
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.
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.
Vista Tower continues to rise.
It’s been a month since we took a look at progress on Vista Tower, the magnificent supertall by Studio Gang and bKL Architecture. You may think workers would be discouraged that I haven’t been dropping by daily, but McHugh Construction crews seem to be getting a lot done despite my absence. Certainly not because of it.
Anyway, I’ll need to borrow some balconies soon, for as Vista climbs higher, our scenic views from Wacker Drive and Lakeshore East are going to be well below where the action is.
