I'm assuming that they will have room comparable with the other high end hotels, including the Langham, the Four Seasons, Ritz-Carlton, etc. Those are all in the $300-350 range based on a quick Google search. As someone that travels to DC quite often, those are damn good prices for a high end hotel. The GSA rate for DC is like $242 right now. Chicago is so affordable compared to its peers (DC, San Francisco, New York, etc.).

On another note, I was wondering what all of you were talking about with angled columns. DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMNNN. This is getting exciting-er. It was already exciting, but now, more so.

Angled Columns- Sorry for the poor quality photo
 

I know its already been said, several times already... but those angled columns...

:drooling: :slob: :yes:

The view when taking the Wacker exit from LSD is going to be jaw-dropping!

June 23


June 28
Angle Columns





Concrete Angle Columns (!)






The climbing form awaits the next floors re-bar

From bKL's twitter:

Maybe when this tower is close to topping out, one of those rooftopping folks will climb it, and do their thing. You know, gopro, and getting close to the edge with no fall protection system. The rooftoppers and train surfers are common in NY.

Neverthess, this project demonstrates what good time management and timetable progression is about. They did not hesitate or cause delays. They got right to work, and its moving quite rapidly for its magnitude.

June 30, 2017

July 3


Forms preceding function

All bow down, the frustums have landed!


^ Btw, nice wordplay Harry.

Stopped by the site today for a few photos of the angles column formwork. Before I left this caught my eye:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DD_cUznUQAQ89U_.jpg:large

It looks like at least one of the core walls has a gentle slope in it. Can't remember which floor this was, but it was level with the elevated terrace of Lakeshore East.

Makes me wonder if the core walls will mimic the frustum shape, at least on the first few public/amenity floors. I guess we'll find out as the tower rises...

Words to go with the pictures....

https://chicago.curbed.com/2017/7/5/...uction-chicago

All around :slob::slob::slob:

The two exterior shear walls on the West core will slope with the building. One exterior shear wall on the East core will slope with the building.

Awesome! Thanks for the info! I take it the floor above this one will tilt outwards slightly?

Also, here are a few more shots...

http://nickulivieriphotography.zenfo...04579321-5.jpg

http://nickulivieriphotography.zenfo...04579320-5.jpg

http://nickulivieriphotography.zenfo...04579895-6.jpg

http://nickulivieriphotography.zenfo...04579934-5.jpg

http://nickulivieriphotography.zenfo...04580353-5.jpg

Just for fun: Angled formwork straightened
http://nickulivieriphotography.zenfo...04580617-5.jpg

And...Vista's southern 'face'
http://nickulivieriphotography.zenfo...04580838-5.jpg

Shades of 150 N. Riverside. I hadn't seen anything in the renderings to suggest structure like this.

I quite like these punchouts, particularly since you won't ever see them from the outside once the platform/deck is installed. Those kind of things usually get VE'd to oblivion.

This one is fun to watch with some rather complicated formwork. Must be a pain to fix when they make a minor mistake.

sickness^

You haven't? This lobby rendering has been posted several times recently:

https://www.vistatowerchicago.com/wp.../wanda-171.jpg
vistatowerchicago.com

Apparently there will be not one, but two sets of angled columns here supporting the little bump out in the middle at the base. Upon further examination it appears that the columns being framed out now might actually be the less severe set as well which means we could be seeing some really wild engineering once they get around to the next set.

They're not necessarily a major structural component of the entire structure. From what I gather, these angled beams will make up the lobby/amenity portion of the hotel - or that small box that seems to hang from the bottom of the middle tower

http://studiogang.com/img/RTRwUWFNR2...ment-group.jpg

http://loopchicago.com/_files/images...a_render_3.jpg

http://loopchicago.com/_files/images...a_render_2.jpg

http://bklarchitecture.com/wp-conten...ue3_bKL_bT.jpg

It's going to be an epic lobby and a great place to grab a drink, possibly rivaling that of the Hyatt Regency

I did come across this image, too, but not sure how accurate or up to date it is. In the article, it credits "Wanda Institute of Hotel Design & Research Co." http://stmedia.com/files/editorial/b..._Chicago_2.jpg

I think that is the same as the other renderings, but showing more detail. From the pictures it looks like the south side of the building will also get these??

Wait a minute...

Is that Water Tower Place and the John Hancock Center in the background on the far right. That doesn't make any sense. From what imaginary angle are they getting this rendering from? Seems like another example of stupid rendering design. This should be up there with the North/South Sunrise and 3 Car Train in Wolf Point. :???::???:

yes they photoshopped in a different view than what will exist in reality

Probably to avoid showing the tower that shall not be named.

very very very cool lobby. Thick, angled, concrete support beams.

It's been a while since I'd looked at the lobby. Guess I forgot about those 45 degree columns.

OMG, I just realized that the stripes in the original drawing were actually literally just this crazy undulating sheer wall but exposed through or highlighted by the glass:

http://img.news.sina.com/business/p/...0709095107.jpg
news.sina.com


The little punch outs we see in this photo are just the balconies on the rendering. This is literally two giant cores that run the width of the building from North to South. I wonder how visible these cores will be if they are clad? Look at how noticible the concrete sheer wall is in this photo:

http://nickulivieriphotography.zenfo...04580353-5.jpg
Nick's photo

This has the potential to be some crazy structural expressionism if it's at all exposed.

Interesting observation. However, the more recent, final, design does not have as many balconies - and none on the Northern face, particularly at these lower levels.

https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/...udio-Gang1.jpg

What's weird to me is how beefy and dense this exterior wall is. In the new renders it doesn't look like these punch outs would be necessary. Time will tell.

Basically, had they never released an updated design, I'd say you're 100% correct. Maybe it'll make more sense after a few more floors because I'm stumped.

yeah, except it's not exposed... have you guys seen some of the floor plans? it's astonishing how little vision glass/windows are located in many of the interiors due to the apparently necessary volume of the structural concrete... if the MASSIVE amount of concrete was exposed, maybe it could have joined our other structurally expressive towers, Sears and Hancock (even if in this case it's not necessarily form following function)...

this is NOT a glass tower surrounding a traditional concrete column/slab structure, it's a massive concrete sculpture in hiding... what I am most excited about seeing during construction is the exposed concrete forms... I suspect it will be much more aesthetically satisfying for me than the final product...

If having a view of the Trump Tower hurt chances of buying then no one would buy in any tall building in the city. More likely they found a quick picture and just threw it in to get a render out because it ultimately doesn't matter.

I wonder if the fact that Trump has trademarked his name might be an issue.

Since the image is related to sales material, perhaps the Trump Organization would ask for compensation to grant permission to have "Trump" in the image

Well said. The concrete super-structure is going to be far more interesting than I originally imagined. Here's hoping the facade doesn't get started too soon so we can appreciate the bones for a bit.

They would have just used a picture taken before the Trump logo was put on the building to avoid that.

07/07/17

https://im1.shutterfly.com/ng/servic...623439/enhance

So it seems wanda is running into money troubles.

https://www.google.com/amp/mobile.re.../idUSKBN19V06E

I have a different take on this: Wanda is exhibiting a rare case restraint among Chinese mega firms. There is a storm brewing in China, there has been for years. The government is just good at finding Illinois style ways of drop kicking the can down the road. The real question is what the hell is Sunac thinking? They have been struggling with severe issues themselves and now are gobbling up Wanda's most whimsical bullshit projects. I mean really? Who fixates of competition with Disney theme parks? It's not like theme parks are even valuable as stand alone entities without a larger franchise supporting them. This is another case of Chinese firms missing the essence of American capitalism in a race to compete everywhere in everything. Competition is essential to our system, but competition does not merely entail copying other business models, it's just as essential to innovate as it is to understand existing businesses. Trying to out Disney Disney will never be successful unless they can grow a new audience or franchise or cultural business model from scratch that Disney doesn't already have 100 years or experience honing or fine tuning.

Anyhow I've read the details on the assets dumped by Wanda and they are most non performing or low performance properties. This isn't a sale of desperation, it's a sale of Wanda's trash to some suckers who have been on an endless acquisition spree and think it's treasure.

Nine from the ninth
 

July 9




Columns supporting the parking/driveway


Patterns on patterns




quite a large gap for these forms - to accommodate the angled core ?


The slope on the core is not an illusion.


Screens waiting

what happens if a company goes bankrupt halfway through building a skyscraper? with the spire they only were at the basement level so it's less of an eyesore, but imagine something 500 feet tall and abandoned

Look up the history of Waterview tower...happened just down the river.

Isn't this one already fully financed by vista company?

This building already has a construction loan.

This project already has a construction loan.

Really wished that one got completed as designed. I know pomo gets a bad rap on these boards, but I think Teng did a great job designing it (especially the crown). They just sucked at financing and managing the construction. The recession definitely didn't help either.

^ Yea it was unfortunate...it was a really good design and crown was really well done and differs from the so many flat top roofs in most modern high rises in this city built.

Vista Tower
 

Long time lurker, first time poster. I hope I did this right.

I know it is ZeroHedge, which a kind of a fringe site, but they are reporting that Wanda Group is liquidating assets to pay down debt.

They sold 76 hotels and a major chunk of 13 tourism projects for $9.3B and will use the proceeds to pay down debt. I wonder how this will affect the Vista Tower?

From the Article....

"The man who declared war on Disneyland just opened the world’s largest indoor ski resort. And now he’s being forced to sell it.

As the South China Morning Post reports, Wanda City, the $6 billion resort development built by China’s wealthiest tycoon Wang Jianlin, opened for business two weeks ago. The resort, which, at 1.6 square kilometres, is the world’s largest indoor ski park."

The article is titled, "China's Richest Man Forced To Sell World's Largest Indoor Ski Resort 2 Weeks After It Opened." It is from the Tyler's at ZeroHedge and was published 7.10.17.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-0...s-after-it-ope

It won't. They already have a construction loan for $700M (which is nearly 80% of the estimated cost of the overall project) and are partnering with Magellan on this thing. That's a lot of properties to sell but they will still have more properties after this than they sell. Also had over $200M of condos under contract as of numerous months ago. Not sure what the number is now.

7/10
 

http://i.imgur.com/5IvwMWgh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/GJgYbKph.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/d5pMNbMh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/WyTFrCmh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/rsZyS1Uh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/zv2mRoch.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/vb6k7TKh.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/sPFcFH2h.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/pcvXfUhh.jpg

Nice update Office Worker - ty

More :slob::slob::slob: