Chicago has six tower cranes operating around the city, now that general contractor Clark Construction has finished installing theirs at the Thompson Center in The Loop. As you probably know by now, the Thompson Center is undergoing a complete renovation before Google moves into the building. The crane was erected this past weekend on the south side of the building, along Randolph Street. It will remain on site for 10-12 months as it lifts the new exterior panels into place.
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
The Thompson Center’s crane joins five others doing the heavy lifting around town: The Obama Center Museum Tower in Jackson Park, Project H.O.O.D. in Woodlawn, two at the AbbVie Foundation Cancer Pavilion in Hyde Park, and 400 Lake Shore in Streeterville. We have an active tower crane permit issued at 410 North Elizabeth, but no other permits have been issued yet to get that build started. 1100 West Grand has begun construction, and that crane has been permitted, but hasn’t been planted yet. And one crane has a pending permit, at 370 North Morgan.
Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
Setting up the tower crane on Saturday, January 25. Photo by Daniel Schell
Photo by Daniel Schell
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Crazy to think during Rahm’s tenure that there was once 50-60 cranes up in Chicago.
Yes!!!!!!
Yes! Thank God Rahm made the Fed Funds Rate 1.5%. Brandon Johnson, should also make interest rates 1.5%!
Free money does wonders for speculative office construction… too bad Lincoln yards missed their window.
@Will, while I understand interest rates are a big piece to the pie to this slowdown we’re seeing in Chicago. It is by far not the only reason to point at. Johnson and his admin (along with a majority of the aldermen) are also to blame. Look at many other smaller and comparable size cities around the country. You’d never have guessed we’re living through such high interest rates with the insane amount of cranes up in their cities.
In summary, interest rates are not the only thing to blame here.
Cranes are not needed for the most of the very needed construction currently happening throughout the city! The city is focused on infill developments filling in all the empty lots which is just as important as building super tall buildings.
Indeed, I prefer the infill development a lot more than speculative office towers and high end apartment towers. Not that we can’t have both, but the number of cranes in the sky is a really shallow measure of the success of building more and better housing in Chicago.
I am praying the tribune east tower gets a tower crane this year
Dude, at this point I don’t even know if that’s ever going to be built.