CHICAGO | Highrise Projects & Construction, v7

[SolarWind]

August 7, 2019

[west-town-brad]

Originally Posted by RedCorsair87

I find Renelle incredibly unremarkable. It literally is the worst building in every photo posted above.

Renelle at street level (Wabash) is a joke. Flat black marble surface all the way to lot line, few windows, no room for any greenspace or planters.

[Skyguy_7]

Originally Posted by SolarWind

August 7, 2019

This unique beauty came out of nowhere, in my opinion. (Pictured in link below, on the right)

https://chicago.curbed.com/2016/5/10...apack-partners

[marothisu]

The 2 3-story buildings at 300 N Michigan and 310 N Michigan (Michigan and Wacker) were issued demolition permits the other day

https://www.google.com/maps/place/30...!4d-87.6250007

For a reminder, a new 523 foot, 47 story building with retail, 280 hotel rooms, and 290 residential units will be built there via Sterling Bay

https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/3/25...e-sterling-bay

[the urban politician]

Wow, that’s about as sure a sign as any that this project is moving forward quickly

[r18tdi]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Wow, that’s about as sure a sign as any that this project is moving forward quickly

Yes but not always. Demoing an existing building a sure-fire way to lower your taxes. I'm surprised SB didn't do it sooner tbh.

[marothisu]

Originally Posted by r18tdi

Yes but not always. Demoing an existing building a sure-fire way to lower your taxes. I'm surprised SB didn't do it sooner tbh.

Can't demolish a building without proper permitting, right? Just saying - maybe they wanted to earlier but were being held up by a permit process.


Also, the permit for new construction for caissons, foundation, and through level 4 is currently pending and doing all the review stuff. It could very well be issued soon. Has Sterling Bay been known to just demolish sites and sit on them for multiple months or years lately? I have a hard time thinking of any project like that from them. Especially now with basically the backing of the Crown Family, these things might be more easy to move along to actually construction.

[SamInTheLoop]

Demo permits being issued now would seem to be consistent with the recent media reporting of a November construction start for the tower. Myself, I would have thought that this might launch 12-18 months ago, and I think the developers would be smart to have done so (that stated, this is a super-core, A++, enduring, fad-free location in my book, and will definitely have some decent relative resiliency in a down-cycle). However, there could be any number of reasons why their timeline is what it is, but I do not find some sort of unusual delay with obtaining demo permits to be a likely candidate.

Remember that this is Sterling Bay and Magellan developing this one. SB has no experience as an entity with residential. Obviously that's Magellan's specialty, so assuming that's why they were brought into the deal.

Interesting also that Magellan's model seems to have completely shifted in recent years to partnering with other developers on their projects (not just partnering with the usual equity and debt investors, but actual developers - whether it be Hines at WPW, LendLease with their new towers just launching at LSE, or SB here......I wonder if they are also bringing another developer in for Parcel O, or if the plan is to go that one alone?).

I like this project and am really looking forward to it sprucing-up and densifying this block. More solid design from bKL.


Actually.....come to think of it, the hotel flag(s) has not been identified yet, right? That's interesting, because surely they have officially landed a deal already. At least I would be super surprised if not.....

[harryc]

Aug 6

Chicago | The Mill by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

and a mystery crane ~ Milwaukee & Odgen

[harryc]

Aug 4

Chicago | 845 W Madison by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

Aug 6

Chicago | 845 W Madison by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

Chicago | 845 W Madison by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

Chicago | 845 W Madison by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

Chicago | 845 W Madison by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

[SamInTheLoop]

Originally Posted by harryc

Aug 6

Chicago | The Mill by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

and a mystery crane ~ Milwaukee & Odgen

So apparently this has now been re-named Avenir:

https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/8/9/...king-amenities

Talk about slow-walking opening of this tower. Pre-leasing not until this fall and first move-ins not until early next year, per article. Now that's a strange delay. Based on at least construction progress that is visible from exterior, pre-leasing would typically now be well underway already, with first move-ins this fall. Somewhat strange.

[harryc]

Aug 4

Chicago | Halsted and Lake by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

Aug 6

Chicago | Halsted and Lake by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

Chicago | Halsted and Lake by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

Chicago | Halsted and Lake by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

Chicago | Halsted and Lake by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

Chicago | Halsted and Lake by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

Aug 7

Chicago | Halsted and Lake by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

[SamInTheLoop]

^ Surprised this is a two tower crane job. Wonder what the factors are behind that decision....

[PittsburghPA]

Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop

^ Surprised this is a two tower crane job. Wonder what the factors are behind that decision....

I'm guessing an extremely aggressive construction schedule.

[jc5680]

Several courses of brick are up on the h20 site (845 Madison). The combination of thin brick, distinct color variation, dark-ish grout and structural detials (like the window insets) are shaping up to look quite good

[Handro]

Originally Posted by marothisu

The 2 3-story buildings at 300 N Michigan and 310 N Michigan (Michigan and Wacker) were issued demolition permits the other day
]

Love this. I know there were some grumblings about the height or views of neighboring buildings being blocked but IMO this is huge for downtown. Pretty much the last piece of the puzzle to connect the Mag Mile to Millennium Park, plus completing the transformation of this few block stretch between Wacker and Randolph. I remember working there 10 years ago and this was a dead zone. So cool to see it liven up over the years.

[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by marothisu

Does anybody have any idea if those upside-down V brace thingy's are structural or just decorative?

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Does anybody have any idea if those upside-down V brace thingy's are structural or just decorative?

I'm sure they are structural... they are holding up part of the tower, after all, and I don't see any vertical columns that could actually be the load-bearing ones.

Usually a podium tower such as this will have a transfer plate between the tower and podium, since the ideal column spacings for residential/hotel and for parking garage are very different and you have to shift the load laterally at that break point. Sometimes the architect will express this transfer of load, sometimes they conceal it... and if the parking is underground or off to the side, then the transfer is either occurring below-grade or not at all.

[dan ryan]

Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop

Demo permits being issued now would seem to be consistent with the recent media reporting of a November construction start for the tower. Myself, I would have thought that this might launch 12-18 months ago, and I think the developers would be smart to have done so (that stated, this is a super-core, A++, enduring, fad-free location in my book, and will definitely have some decent relative resiliency in a down-cycle). However, there could be any number of reasons why their timeline is what it is, but I do not find some sort of unusual delay with obtaining demo permits to be a likely candidate.

Remember that this is Sterling Bay and Magellan developing this one. SB has no experience as an entity with residential. Obviously that's Magellan's specialty, so assuming that's why they were brought into the deal.

Interesting also that Magellan's model seems to have completely shifted in recent years to partnering with other developers on their projects (not just partnering with the usual equity and debt investors, but actual developers - whether it be Hines at WPW, LendLease with their new towers just launching at LSE, or SB here......I wonder if they are also bringing another developer in for Parcel O, or if the plan is to go that one alone?).

I like this project and am really looking forward to it sprucing-up and densifying this block. More solid design from bKL.


Actually.....come to think of it, the hotel flag(s) has not been identified yet, right? That's interesting, because surely they have officially landed a deal already. At least I would be super surprised if not.....

I'm still really bummed that it's going to block Carbide & Carbon

[BrinChi]

Originally Posted by dan ryan

I'm still really bummed that it's going to block Carbide & Carbon

Me too. This is the only time I can remember that I've wished for a building to be shorter, haha. I wish that this building and the one on Randolph/Wabash would trade places. And I still wish they would do a facadectomy here. The new podium is pretty much the exact shape of the existing building.