CHICAGO | Boom rundown - everything over 12 floors. v5

[cbotnyse]

Originally Posted by Sir Isaac Newton

I apologize if this post is lacking substance as it has no pictures or new information....but I was all over the place in Chicago, over the past few days, and it was really awesome to see how a lot of the bigger construction projects are making great progress. Trump Tower is beyond it's last setback and becoming higher and more dominant in the skyline each and every day. OMP is more of less topped out, but is looking to be a complete success! 300 North Lasalle is already becoming a big presence on the river, and will continue to become a bigger presence, and it's curtain wall is looking great. Aqua, which a few people had doubts about how good it would look like in real life, is looking extremely cool, and is starting to get up their a little bit, in height - probably close to 200 feet-ish. Waterview, Legacy, and Elysian, which seemed to take a long time to get out of the ground, are also close to 200 feet-ish. Blue Cross and Blue Shield is about to increase in height, as well. 353 North Clark, 155 North Wacker, and 235 West Van Buren, are also pretty tall projects whose cores are finally starting to rise above street level.

I can't wait for this spring/summer, when the weather will be nice, and all these great highrise projects in Chicago, many of which are just starting to assert a presence in our skyline, will become even greater and greater presences. Trump will rise to stratospheric heights, 300 North Lasalle will become a huge presence on the river, and Waterview, Aqua, Legacy, and Elysian will become more and more of a presence, each successive week. Not to mention, the Spire will start going vertical at some point this summer, as well!

We are living in good times....

your last sentence is a funny truth. We have all these great buildings that will be changing the skyline, and other shorter ones that will be making big impacts.....and then, oh yeah, by that time the Spire will be just getting above ground!

great times indeed.

I'd like to add that I take Wacker Dr, from Wabash to Van Buren, everyday to work and I have to say 300 is making the largest impact. Waterview is filling in the massive streetwall and Trump is starting to rise above IBM. The river canyon is filling in nicely....and we still have 444 W. Lake and Wolf Point to go!

[Mr Downtown]

Burnham Pointe this morning. There's still a lot of work left to do:

[a chicago bearcat]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Burnham Pointe this morning. There's still a lot of work left to do:

I'd like it if they kept the wooden balconies
they kind of match the flimsyness of those tiny strips of brick veneer

this building is a joke

[honte]

Originally Posted by a chicago bearcat

I'd like it if they kept the wooden balconies
they kind of match the flimsyness of those tiny strips of brick veneer

this building is a joke

^ I haven't looked too closely at it, but I think it's actually a strange copper-colored metallic panel. I've never seen it before; glad to see something a bit different, even if it's not entirely convincing.

[Tom Servo]

that dwight building addition is AWESOME!!! it's ever cooler from the back.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by AdrianXSands

that dwight building addition is AWESOME!!! it's ever cooler from the back.

It looks like the Dwight Building is fairly well preserved inside the new addition. Plus, it's not a facadectomy but a true addition. I wonder how the floors line up? The mullions on the addition are offset from the Dwight's by 2-3 feet.

[the urban politician]

Does anybody anticipate another construction start any time soon? I was getting spoiled in 2006 & 2007. Nowadays you don't really hear of starts all that often

[Alliance]

Dude, its winter.

Wait until spring/summer.

Then find out.

[Nowhereman1280]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Does anybody anticipate another construction start any time soon? I was getting spoiled in 2006 & 2007. Nowadays you don't really hear of starts all that often

The Admiral on the Lake should be starting soon. They're completely done with demolition and I believe there are settlement marks in place, I'm currently watching for the cassion drills or a pile driver to show up.

[Sir Isaac Newton]

Originally Posted by Alliance

Dude, its winter.

Wait until spring/summer.

Then find out.

Dude, you could be an obnoxious pr*ck.

Or you could actually show a little respect to others on this board, and answer his question with a helpful, substantive answer.

While there aren't as many construction starts during the winter, there still are some (in this winter alone - Glashaus, 565 Quincy, the 2 new highrises at K-Station, and the Yo reported that one of the Walton on the Park towers broke ground although I don't know if that's true). Not to mention, we are almost in March - the month that Spring begins in.

TUP - I talked to a bunch of a bunch of sales agents in the middle of January....from what I gathered, here are some projects that could potentially (potentially is the key word) begin in the next few months:

Walton on the Park, south tower (assuming it hasn't broken ground yet)
The St. Clair at Cityfront Plaza
Ritz Carlton
Lincoln Park 2520
1349 South Wabash
Eco18
Peshtigo
215 West Washington
Mandarin Oriental (although who knows about this one!)

[i_am_hydrogen]

^Glad to see you included Mandarin in your list. I have a (totally unsubstantiated) feeling that it will break ground once the weather improves.

[honte]

^ I am curious to see Peshtigo on there. Where are their sales figures now? Is this just a hunch, or "wishful marketing" by the sales team, or was there some evidence you saw of a groundbreaking coming soon?

[Nowhereman1280]

Walton hasn't broken yet, I live a block from there and have friends on that side of my tower and we can see right into the site. There is currently no drill rig or pile driver on site.

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Burnham Pointe this morning. There's still a lot of work left to do:

Disagreed, although admittedly it's much too early to make a judgement with any degree of finality. But, so far I think this is looking like it will turn out to be at the least a competent design. As far as those panels (whatever they are), I agree with Honte that this could be a case where different is good (or at least could be). My early concern with this one was just the overall effect of the very high coverage of balconies on the exterior, but so far I'm getting the feeling it won't take away from the design as much as I was initially fearing...

^ sorry - I meant to respond to a chcago bearcat's post! (no, i don't disagree that you shot it yesterday or there's a lot of work left!!)

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by honte

^ I am curious to see Peshtigo on there. Where are their sales figures now? Is this just a hunch, or "wishful marketing" by the sales team, or was there some evidence you saw of a groundbreaking coming soon?

^ According to the Ho's at the Yo ( ), the sales center said that they aim to begin construction when sales reach 25%, which to me suggests that perhaps they're going to go at it on their own for a little while and wait out this housing crisis.

[aaron38]

Originally Posted by honte

^ I haven't looked too closely at it, but I think it's actually a strange copper-colored metallic panel. I've never seen it before; glad to see something a bit different, even if it's not entirely convincing.

Isn't that what ParkView West is using for the "brick" section of the facade? I thought those were metallic panels.

[Mr Downtown]

The Burnham Pointe panels look like russet-colored Dryvit, but since they go up in panels they might not technically be Dryvit. I think the intent was probably to be a reminder of the predominant brick color of Printers Row. On cloudy days or when shaded, it's pretty close.

[honte]

Originally Posted by aaron38

Isn't that what ParkView West is using for the "brick" section of the facade? I thought those were metallic panels.

Reminiscent of them, but not the same. These are much larger panels, and do not function as rain screen like the ones at Parkview West. They lack the variation in color and overall do not seem as nice to me. It's certainly not as sophisticated of a cladding system. Again, I haven't looked at them very closely yet, though, to know exactly what's going on at the detail level. They are definitely very shiny in the right light!

Mr. Downtown is correct that when the sun is not shining brightly they tend to "contextualize" with the brick surroundings... the earliest versions of this tower were shown in all glass, so I wonder if this was a bit of a cave to the NIMBYs lurking all around there.

[Mojava]

Originally Posted by honte

^ I am curious to see Peshtigo on there. Where are their sales figures now? Is this just a hunch, or "wishful marketing" by the sales team, or was there some evidence you saw of a groundbreaking coming soon?

I was reviewing the latest Apprasial Research report and the Peshtigo is listed as selling 54 of the 358 units or 15%

[Mr Downtown]

I went by Burnham Pointe this morning and I take back my comments about the panels looking like brown Dryvit. Up close they have a slightly beaded, metallic sheen. I think the architects perhaps were trying to set up a counterpoint of the two metallic finishes, the brushed stainless or aluminum on the spandrel panels and this copper or bronze color on the bands.





As for NIMBYs, I never heard of the Polk Street Canyon folks asking about anything other than tower placement/height, and no one took them seriously anyway. This was an as-of-right project, so there was no negotiation with neighborhood groups or DPD. I do remember that when the rendering went up on the sign, the former president of South Loop Neighbors was concerned that it showed different, cheaper materials than the group had been shown in an earlier meeting. I'll have to look and see whether I have any full pre-construction renderings.