There’s more than daffodils and tulips pushing out of the ground in the South Loop these days. There’s Alta Grand Central. Coincidentally, we received photographs of its construction progress from multiple people recently.
Alta Grand Central is a pair of 14-story residential towers at 207 West Harrison Street bring built for D2 and Wood Partners by Walsh Construction. It was designed by Pappageorge Haymes. When complete next year the 368,000 square-foot project will bring 346 new homes to the neighborhood.
The building is located in the notch on the southwest corner of Harrison and Wells that’s not part of LendLease’s huge Southbank development. In the photograph above sent in by South Loop Spy Jody you can see that the two are such close neighbors that there’s a Southbank banner right up on the property line.
Alta Grand Central gets its name from the fact that this used to be the location of Chicago’s Grand Central Station. The station was designed by Solon Spencer Beman for the Wisconsin Central railroad, and served passengers headed as close as Jackson Park, and as far away as Buffalo; Columbia, Maryland; Duluth; Kansas City; Minneapolis; Omaha; Washington, DC; and Wheeling, West Virginia.
Sadly, the train station was torn down in 1971 and this remained a vacant lot until construction began on Alta Grand Central last year.
Also keeping an eye on the project is Joe Zekas of YoChicago! You can see his photographs below.
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Alta Grand Central under construction (Courtesy of Joe Zekas/YoChicago!) -
Alta Grand Central under construction (Courtesy of Joe Zekas/YoChicago!) -
Alta Grand Central under construction (Courtesy of Joe Zekas/YoChicago!) -
Alta Grand Central under construction (Courtesy of Joe Zekas/YoChicago!) -
Alta Grand Central under construction (Courtesy of Joe Zekas/YoChicago!) -
Alta Grand Central under construction (Courtesy of Joe Zekas/YoChicago!) -
Alta Grand Central under construction (Courtesy of Joe Zekas/YoChicago!) -
Alta Grand Central under construction (Courtesy of Joe Zekas/YoChicago!) -
Alta Grand Central under construction (Courtesy of South Loop Spy Jody)
Location: 207 West Harrison Street, South Loop
Editor founded the Chicago Architecture Blog in 2003, after a long career in journalism. He can be reached at chicagoarchitectureinfo@gmail.com.
