05/04/17

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Bvic or anyone else, iv'e heard of this cassion process before but have never seen it. It seems much more time consuming than the drilling. Whats the reason for using one process over the other? My guess would first be financial reasons but I have no clue. I know you guys talked about soil quality early but can someone post some information on why you would use one method over the other depending on soil? I would appreciate it.

Caissons are a bit more tedious and expensive, but either are acceptable and support the building in a similar manor. The main pilings around the core will still be capped and connected with a mat.

In terms of time consuming, I think it's probably less in man hours because of the crews required.

The rental building going up on Wabash just north of Roosevelt used pilings.

And as you can see, they're still going down 85' or so.

Also something about the soil in the South Loop makes piles more practical. The soil is more firm closer to the surface or something like that, further North the soil is swampier (I'd imagine since it's near the mouth of the river) and they can't use piles at all (or it's cost prohibitive to do so).

I think this method also means you have way less spoils to haul off the jobsite. Nowadays, almost everything is considered special waste, which is a premium for excavators to dispose of.

Really surprised that the indents in the tower didn't get ve'd out of the final design. Looks really nice (minus the standard Chicago monotonous podium). As a resident of the area I'm always glad to see something built that isn't a townhouse down here!

Yeah I'm a little disappointed about the podium. In earlier renderings it seemed the central portion of the podium was covered by active uses.

South Loop needs the most help at street level...

I don't remember that being the case at all. I thought it was always obvious that the middle section was going to be slightly obscured parking garage.

May 10, 2017

May 6

May 22, 2017

06/01/17

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quick question. I live very nearby this site and there is a constant, loud banging noise that is basically all day every day.

Anybody know what this might be? or when it might end...

(Pregnant fiance wants to know)

Pounding those long steel beams into the ground. It should be done soon, but until then plug your ears.

great, thanks for the quick response.

soon = 1 week, or 1 month?

also, is this typical of other high-rise construction prep?

first time we've heard it in the south loop that i can recall

Not an engineer, so someone correct me if wrong....Believe that instead of drilled/poured concrete caissons they are using driven H-piles for the foundation work due to certain soil conditions. The repetitive banging is the pile driver, though I am unsure of a completion eta. Once the building starts going vertical it should stop.

I know there are other examples but the first to come to mind is Alta Roosevelt (Polk and Financial) also in the South Loop. That one should be topping out any day now

Will this have underground parking-basement levels?

No, all going to be on the podium of the tower

June 3


A pile of piles remains

Could be wrong, but I think they may have wrapped the h pile driving.....haven't heard it at least for the last couple days.....

06/19/17

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Yeah i was going to say walking to the metallica concert it looked like they still had pile equipment on base.

June 19

Finished with the Friction piles, almost done with the sheet piles

can you see me now ? High Visibility gear mandatory.


Hangers


No. 60


How you attach friction piles to the mat. (rebar is welded on)

The wire is to keep the rebar at least on aggregate size away from the "surface" [the size of the rocks used in the concrete]

Preparing for the mat

Tower crane going up.

06/26/17

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This is going to be such a sexy filler for the south loop. I guess at nearly 50 floors you can hardly call this a filler though.

At nearly 500 feet this will be anything but filler. It will be the tallest building this far South in the entire city. Buildings like this will really help build up the 4th peak in the skyline that is developing at Roosevelt and Michigan. If we can get a supertall on the corner there, it will be a full fledged 4th peak for the skyline, really a game change aesthetically for the city. Buildings like SoMi (here we go again with the trite naming conventions) will do a lot to beef up and build up towards the taller buildings coming down the pipeline.

What's the third peak?

If I am properly imagining LVDW's perspective, I believe the third peak is the area around the Sears Tower, with John Hancock being the first and Trump Tower/AON Center being the second.

I'm guessing Sears/311 Wacker, Trump/LSE/river, Hancock/Water Tower?

I know people were making fun of Jewel as a bit out of touch with their Jojo mascot, but I think their strategy of partnering with developers for prime urban sites has been really smart (The Sinclair, the new Uptown proposal near the Penascola). As a teenage employee of the branch, I hope they tackle the Roosevelt Jewel next, and add to this fourth peak – they should build something on the scale of the previous two redevelopments on the parking lot west of the Roosevelt tracks first, and once open, close the existing store and sell the lot the store is currently on outright for a signature tower.

I would guess N.Mich (JHC), Illinois Center (Aon), Wacker/SW Loop (Sears).

Trump gets lost in that shuffle but from most vantage points it looks near Illinois Center.

The peaks...

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^^^

Looks like 2 main peaks - the Aon Center and the John Hancock Center from this vantage point.

And from a more southern vantage I suspect the Sears Tower and Aon Center would dominate.

So that leaves Trump Tower the odd man out.

This entire post sums up exactly my thoughts on Chicago's current development.

that 4th peak would take this skyline to the next level. Burn down the Jewel at roosevelt and wabash, and build a 1300+ footer.

south loop is definitely starting to prep for a supertall at that intersection. Also, the pyramid effect looking southwest from grant park would be amazing. With essex and 1000 S Michigan building it from the north, the grant/OGP from the east.

South loop boom is absolutely unreal right now. feels wishful to think a supertall on top of it all could happen :/

I'm not friends with any developers but how much does one take in consideration, if successful, to another developer building a tower like this in the same area vs. Another area. Does it motivate them at all or are they usually looking for their "own" thing.

The Jewel at Roosevelt is my local store, and I'm frankly fine with it. It could definitely use an upgrade, but it wasn't in such woeful condition as the Clark/Division store or the Southport/Addison store back in 2010. But if they were to go with a Sinclair-type development there, at least there's a Trader Joe's, Mariano's, and Whole Foods within a mile.

It's a matter of real estate economics. When a large building goes up in a new part of town a few things happen. First of all, if the project is successful, it provides proof of concept for other developers. This means the next developer who comes along can say to the bank "look the Hancock building is fully leased, surely my 780' tall Water Tower Place project will be a smash hit".

The second thing that happens is land values near the new tower go up. This happens because of the basic formative force that causes cities to exist: economies of agglomeration. This is the concept that human settlements create exponentially value by packing in human beings closer together. This creates opportunities for trade and the sharing of resources and ideas. So when the JHC goes up and brings 1500 new residents and 2000 new workers to the far north end of the Mag Mile, it generates huge new opportunities for trade. It becomes efficient to build large building next to it because, well there are now customers for stores and apartments. Therefore the developer of water tower place says "hey bank, I'm gonna toss several hundred thousand SF of retail in the base of my building".

So finally what happens is lending opens up. The banks see the market and see the plan in real life literally next door and go "sick plan bro, here's money".

This process happens over and over again and compounds on itself. Once Water Tower Place is built, it becomes very easy for developers to sign up investors and banks for similar projects nearby. Once Water Tower Place is up, it's really easy to say "hey I want to build the program of JHC on top of another Water Tower Place mall, I'll call it 900 N Michigan". Before you know it JHC is surrounded by a dozen 650'+ buildings.

Think on a larger scale... that pic is obviously limited to one vantage point out on the lake. The "3rd peak" is arguably the entire E/W river canyon - Vista, Aqua, Aon, Trump, and Wolf Point South. That's three supertalls and two 800-900 footers. They all block each other out from various angles. Also relevant in that you can view the skyline from the other side as well which marginalizes those closer to the lake.

edit: also 2 Prudential and One Bennett

Do you see this type of process happening around Wolf Point? I imagine it could possibly happen along the north branch of the river

Gonna go ahead and disagree with you here. In fact I'd be inclined to disagree with everyone. I see 4 peaks here, and am excited for the arrival/completion of the fifth peak.

Actually I think your take on the skyline might make the most sense. Peak 1: Willis Tower area; Peak 2: Aon/LSE area ; Peak 3: John Hancock Center area; and Trump Tower as a lone peak 4

Ok this is silly. It all changes depending on your perspective.

The number and appearance of "peaks" look totally different from the Kennedy, Adler planetarium, sailboat rounding the cribs, Chicago Skyway, etc.

If people don't think OMP constitutes a peak already, then I guess I have a different definition. If not in relative terms, you might as well just be labeling "peaks" by listing off the tallest buildings in order... Trump and Aon are so close that I hesitate to give them their own domains.

Anyway, the addition of SoMi, OGP, 1000 S Michigan etc, won't really introduce a new peak as much as make it more prominent and entice photographers to include the South Loop in skyline pics, as it is often cropped out.

Chicago has three peaks period. Trump being 3 blocks away from 2 Pru does not make it a peak. Hancock is 3 blocks away from Olympia Center and Park Tower and I wouldn't call those their own peaks. Trump is kitty corner from Illinois Center, it's part of the same economic cluster and this will become ever more apparent as more super talls like Wanda go up along the main branch.

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I mean yes and no. Wolf Point is a single developer and essentially being build in phases to maximize the capture of value created by each tower. Every tower they build at Wolf Point makes the next tower successively more valuable. Phased mega projects are another developer trick to "bend the rules" to favor them as much as possible. Just look at LSE, they started by building a bunch of little buildings around a new park which made it possible to command increasingly higher prices at larger buildings like Aqua and now Vista.

But if you are asking about the other office towers along the river, then yes. Every office tower build on Wacker makes the remaining lots successively more attractive to develop. That's why the General Growth building is going to be a bit taller than it's siblings across the river which in turn were a bit taller than their cousins on the East side of Wacker. Office buildings tend to see less height variation though because each additional floor is progressively less valuable above 50 or so floors so it takes a serious shortage of developable sites to trigger very tall or super tall economics.

July 6, 2017

July 7
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A balance beam ? (used to extend the reach of a crane)


Similar looking device used at 300 N LaSalle (2008)

August 2, 2017

Aug 8




This will cap a set of piles