You’ve seen the overhead shots. Now, the view from street level.
One South Halsted and its shiny yellow tower crane (stub).
Guess what we’re getting, West Loop! A shiny yellow Liebherr 316-EC-H 12 tower crane (stub), courtesy of One South Halsted.
808 West Van Buren will be built here, at the northwest corner of Halsted and Van Buren Streets in Greektown.
Greektown garbage will have to find another hiding place.
The hole in the ground at the corner of Halsted and Van Buren Streets has a permit to be something more than a landfill. Loukas Development of Uptown, who’ve had a sign on the fence around the vacant lot for almost forever, received a foundation permit Thursday for a 12-story residential tower at 808 West Van Buren. Designed by bKL Architecture, the tower will have 148 units, 65 parking spaces, and ground-floor retail. If, of course, that permit is to be believed.
Lendlease will be the general contractor. That gives Lendlease three big jobs in this corner of the West Loop, joining One South Halsted and the Landmark West Loop.
Look, I don’t mean to pick on this little corner lot. But it’s been collecting trash for years now, and it’s fantastic to see construction will finally get moving.
Architectural rendering of 808 West Van Buren courtesy of bKL Architecture.
An American Flag, Water Tank, and a mess of tower cranes in Chicago’s West Loop.
The water tank is atop 1035 West Lake Street.
The American Flag waves from atop the old Richter’s Food Products factory, now Venue One.
The tower crane in the distance is at the Landmark West Loop. The two closer cranes are at the McDonald’s Headquarters site.
An earlier attempt got a fourth crane, at 171 Aberdeen, but the flag wouldn’t wave.
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.
A car parked along Adams Street is reflected in the shiny new curtain wall at 625 West Adams.
625 West Adams reached another construction milestone last week, installing the first few panes of the curtain wall facing Adams Street. As if all that steel above the podium wasn’t distracting enough, now I have all this glass to look forward to. Thanks, Power. Now I’ll get even less done around here.
Unless there’s new technology allowing caisson to be dug without rigs, caissons look finished at One South Halsted.
A look after dark down on the One South Halsted site Monday night shows only one caisson rig remaining on site, and a horizontal one at that. The only logical conclusion one could make from this is that caissons are done.
As you may have guessed, I’m willing to skip straight to the tower crane portion of our program, but we’ll have to let Lendlease make that decision. For now, Case Foundation still has some equipment to remove from the lot, like augers and that big yellow rig lying on the ground. Then crews can get busy on the next phase of foundation work.
A brooding Landmark West Loop from the B.U.C. HQ, through some Monday morning weather.
I must have had my back turned Thursday the 23rd, as the Landmark West Loop, the 30-story, 300-unit apartment tower at 1035 West Van Buren Street from Related Midwest, topped out last week. A press release from Lendlease that popped up on LinkedIn shared the news. A milestone moment for the Landmark to be sure, but also a forewarning that another tower crane will be disappearing from the West Loop landscape soon. Shooting stars, they are.
You can read Lendlease’s press release by clicking here, or see the text that follows a few photos from a sunny February day:
Lendlease & Related Midwest Celebrate the Topping Out of Landmark West Loop (Chicago, IL, March 23, 2017) Today, Lendlease, one of the largest construction management firms in Chicago, and Related Midwest, the pre-eminent developer of luxury condominiums and rental homes in Chicago, celebrated the topping out of Landmark West Loop, a new 30-story residential tower located at 1035 W. Van Buren in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. The event, which included lunch and giveaways for the tradesmen and women, celebrated the structure reaching its maximum height, bringing the project one step closer to completion. “We’re very excited to celebrate the topping out of this highly anticipated project that will truly transform the West Loop,” said Bert Brandt, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Lendlease. “I want to acknowledge the combined efforts of Related Midwest, the design team, the union trades and our Lendlease project team for their tireless efforts in helping reach this significant project milestone.” “A quality development begins with a quality team, and our longstanding relationship with Lendlease allowed us to assemble just that — thanks to the dedication of the men and women working on this project, Landmark West Loop is on track for August move-ins,” said Don Biernacki, Senior Vice President of Construction at Related Midwest. “As work on the tower continues, we’ve already started pre-leasing and are thrilled by the response from prospective residents, many of whom have been waiting for this level of luxury rental housing to come to the West Loop and Illinois Medical District.” Located along the Eisenhower Expressway, Landmark West Loop is a 442,845-square-foot building featuring 300 luxury apartments and associated parking. Designed by Morris Adjmi Architects, the building is targeting LEED Silver certification.
CA Washington in the West Loop. Don’t look directly at it on a sunny day.
Normally, I advise you to take your construction photos on bright, sunny days. You may want to rethink that around CA Washington. It’s kinda bright.
The condominium development from Belgravia Realty Group has reached its ultimate height of six stories, some of which have been adorned in neon yellow. Personally, I’d like to see that color remain, but that doesn’t jibe with the renderings. A more impressive addition of late are the sweet balconies being hung from the sides of the 69 condos. Look nice? Well, if the “SOLD OUT” sign on the facade is accurate, you may have already missed your chance.
A design by Sullivan Goulette & Wilson, CA Washington is two buildings, with addresses at 27 North Aberdeen Street and 28 North Carpenter Street. It sits directly across Washington Boulevard from the new McDonald’s headquarters in the West Loop.
Working in the dark – and the rain – to take down a caisson rig at One South Halsted.
Yesterday’s post about caisson work at One South Halsted served to inform you that Case Foundation was still drilling big holes into the ground and filling them with concrete. Well, I can confidently update you that whatever work remains can be done by a solo rig.
Friday-night lights on-site illuminated crews disassembling one of the caisson rigs, so unless another project is in desperate need, caisson work must be nearing completion.
I didn’t dream it; Saturday morning shed some light on the rig removal.
Building Up Chicago 