This week, EQ Office announced the completion of Willis Tower’s $500 million makeover spanning from its base to pinnacle. Bookending Chicago’s skyline in the southwest corner of The Loop, the 108-story Chicago icon has received extensive renovations to both its public and private spaces. A three-story podium known as Catalog has also been constructed, wrapping around all four sides of the skyscraper’s base.
An official opening ceremony has been held for the new mixed-use development at 2602 N Emmett Street in Logan Square. Located on the intersection with W Kedzie Avenue, the completed project replaced a vacant parking lot adjacent to the CTA Blue Line Logan Square station. Becoming the first Equitable Transit Oriented Development (ETOD) in the city, it was developed by local non-profit Bickerdike Redevelopment Corporation who operates now over 2,000 affordable units across the city. Their team partnered with Chicago-based Landon Bone Baker Architects who are well known for their work on multiple affordable buildings as well.
A permit was issued recently for the new construction of a two-story residential building at 55 N Menard Avenue in the Austin neighborhood. The owner is listed as A-Z Builders Inc, and the current plans show this project will have three flats. The facade will feature a front metal staircase and the rear of the building will be outfitted with metal porches. The site will include three parking stalls. The property is currently vacant.
The Chicago City Council has approved Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s selection of Bally’s Tribune Center casino bid at 777 W Chicago Avenue in River West. Replacing the vacant printing plant, the decision comes just weeks after the mayor selected the proposal as the finalist from the original batch of five bids which was then narrowed down to three earlier this year. Rhode Island-based Bally’s is working with local architecture firm SCB on the riverfront project that gathered plenty of feedback and comments from both the community and the aldermen during the heated meeting.
Exterior work has now reached the sixth floor for a 10-story mixed-use building in Bronzeville known as 43Green. Bordering the intersection of Calumet & 43rd Street under the address 4308 S Calumet Avenue, this 96,000 square-foot project is easily one of the neighborhood’s largest new construction projects. Developers P3 Markets and The Habitat Company have scoped out 99 for-rent apartment units atop 5,000 square feet of ground-level retail.
