Half of the Lake Street Bridge is gone, and I can’t get over it. And if you’ve driven anywhere near The Loop lately, you can’t either. Same for a bunch of other bridges around the city. But until Monday, CTA elevated train service over the Lake Street Bridge is unavailable too, as the Chicago Department of Transportation prepares to move a new west span into place.
Demolition of three buildings on the northwest corner of North Sheridan and West Irving Park Roads in Uptown is nearing completion, as demo contractor Precision Excavation works their way from the rear alley toward the east end of the site. The masonry building addressed as 1010-1016 West Irving is gone, while part of the first-floor south façade in front of it from the former El Palmar restaurant remains in place, highlighted by the multi-colored light bulbs still jutting out of the marquee.
The tower crane is being erected this week at 410 North Elizabeth, the new Fulton Market residential tower from developer The Tree Street Group. Twenty-two months after it was permitted the first time (December 12, 2024) and eight months after its second, for-real issuance (February 19, 2026) we saw the full crane in the air on Tuesday. Workers on top of the rig were adding finishing touches, and it looked like it would be ready to do the heavy lifting by Wednesday.
General Contractor Power Construction is progressing from south to north on the third level of Loyola University’s Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing and the College of Arts and Sciences building. When we last visited the Rogers Park campus about six weeks ago, concrete columns and cores had begun extending out of the foundation to form the first floor. Now progress is up to the underside of the fourth floor at the Loyola Avenue (south) end of the site as Power works their way north on that third level.
Last week’s updates from Halsted Pointe and the Chicago Avenue Bridge left many of us clamoring for drone views from high above River West. Our attempts at setting the delay timer for three seconds, throwing the camera in the air, and seeing what shots it captured before landing didn’t produce any shareable results. Thankfully, Friend-Of-YIMBY Patrick Williams heard our cries and stepped up again — way up — with a flyover of Chicago Avenue and Halsted Street as the sun was setting Sunday evening.
