CHICAGO | OneEleven - 111 West Wacker | 630 FT | 59 FLOORS | COM

[Taller]

does anyone have any clue where there at in the construction point?

[untitledreality]

Originally Posted by Taller

does anyone have any clue where there at in the construction point?

They resumed less than a week ago... it will probably be another few weeks until we see any real changes taking place.

[takascar]

Originally Posted by untitledreality

They resumed less than a week ago... it will probably be another few weeks until we see any real changes taking place.

Workers on site today - about 4 of them that I can see with yellow vests that say "Lend Lease".

[SamInTheLoop]

I look at this as actually a nice milestone marker reached in this real estate market expansion cycle, ie we're now cleaning up the messes left in the wake of the crash, with the old Waterview and Staybridge sites finally after several years of practical abandonment resuming construction....

[takascar]

They've completely replaced the wooden safety barrier all around the top level.

I imagine that the next thing will be to re-install the derrick so they can pull up the
parts for the crane.

Not much work going on this week yet.

[Joe Zekas]

111 W Wacker and AMLI River North by YoChicago1, on Flickr

With AMLI River North in the foreground.

[JACKinBeantown]

I like the original Waterview design much better, but it's good to see this thing rising again.

[J_M_Tungsten]

Is it?

[takascar]

Originally Posted by J_M_Tungsten

Is it?

Well not quite - they need to knock down the elevator core that is sticking up above the current top level and then also 2 floors. So, a slight decline in height before it resumes its climb.

[chicubs111]

Relief for Chicago Eyesore

Construction is resuming on a half-built skyscraper that has marred Chicago's skyline since 2008, thanks to a recovering economy and a creative path taken by its original developer, contractors and a new investor.

Now, a new ownership group that took control last year has received a big loan to restart a freshly designed 60-story rental apartment tower planned for the site. The venture, led by Related Cos. of New York, a developer, expects to close this month on a $115 million construction loan from Bank of America Corp.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444083304578016701153527868.html

[takascar]

According to Crain's:

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/ar...on-construction-loan-for-waterview-tower

The construction loan has closed. This means the money is there - 100%.

There are about a dozen people working onsite today on the roof. Can't see what they are doing, exactly - they mostly wander in and out of the elevator core.

Expect activity to ramp up considerably in the next few weeks.

[jcchii]

really important to get something finished there

[Vlajos]

Originally Posted by takascar

According to Crain's:

http://www.chicagorealestatedaily.com/ar...on-construction-loan-for-waterview-tower

The construction loan has closed. This means the money is there - 100%.

There are about a dozen people working onsite today on the roof. Can't see what they are doing, exactly - they mostly wander in and out of the elevator core.

Expect activity to ramp up considerably in the next few weeks.

Good news. No surprise though. Related was always going to get a loan.

[Tom In Chicago]

Nothing much to report. . . spoke with someone onsite today who said they were very close to starting construction. . . he said within a few weeks they would begin prep to demo the core. . .



. . .

[Mr Downtown]

Friends of Downtown Brown Bag Luncheon
12:15 pm——Thursday, October 4
Chicago Cultural Center
111 West Wacker

[Mr Downtown]

Things I learned at today's Brown Bag Luncheon:

• That nasty triangular setback at the southeast corner is gone. The new tower is rectangular, sitting atop the existing podium.
  
• They will be demolishing a little bit of the tower core that had begun to rise above the floors that had been completely poured. They did briefly consider simply demolishing everything but the caissons. A forensic engineering firm tested the concrete that's been out in the weather all these years and found no problems. Because portions of the podium were never intended to have anything up above, some columns will be strengthened in the first phase of work.
  
• Related held a design competition, and five exterior treatments were developed by Handel (the winner), DeStefano, Ennead, Lucien Lagrange, and Robert A.M. Stern. Stern's was an interesting traditional deco approach, but the expense and weight of limestone was a problem, and Related wanted to differentiate its residential tower from the surrounding masonry office towers.
  
• David Handel was a young architect at Kohn Pedersen Fox who worked on 333 Wacker, and later on 225 West Wacker. Now he'll have a third generation of work along the river. "The river" is what he calls the meandering setback band that integrates the tower with the existing base.
  
• No elevator cores or shafts have to be relocated. The original program called for so many uses that there was much more core than Related needed, including lots of hotel "back of house" spaces. Some of that will become generous storage lockers.
  
• The original design had an FAR of 34 (!); it will now be FAR 24. There will be 500 units, including a surprising number of studios due to design constraints. The podium has 500 parking spaces: some accessed from Lower Wacker and others from Clark.
  
• Delivery in Spring 2014.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

Delivery in Spring 2014.

wow, they're really going to start moving on this thing.

excellent.

[ardecila]

Cool. How was Ennead's design? They do great work IMO despite their ridiculous name (liked them better as Polshek). They have no buildings in Chicago IIRC, although they did some beautiful stuff at Ann Arbor.

[denizen467]

After all the debate we had on the new design, I'm surprised to hear it was the result of a design competition. But it looks the unusual constraints played a big role in limiting what the competition could produce.

18 months to occupancy seems fast considering the substructure retrofit and other miscellaneous worksite complications from dealing with an existing 30-story monster (that was on a narrow site to begin with) built for a different purpose. It just emphasizes how much of a project's usual schedule is eaten up by subterranean work I suppose.

[SamInTheLoop]

I'd also be very interested to see what Ennead came up with. Lucien LaGrange and AM Stern, not so much - and thank goodness Related didn't go with either of the latter two!!