Site of One of Chicago’s First Walmarts to Become an Office Building
Remember when there was that cool art supply store right off the CTA Brown Line at Chicago Avenue and then Walmart moved in and the black beret crowd in the neighborhood snapped their Blick Masterstrokes in half when they heard the news? The building that brings back those gentrification flashbacks will soon be a memory. October 2019 rendering of 777 North Franklin A plan has been submitted to the city for a nine-story office...
Wayback Wednesday: Hubbard Place Under Construction
For today’s look into the photo archive, we go back seven years to December 14, 2012 — Seven years ago. Hubbard Place under construction in December 2012 (file) That’s where we find Hubbard Place under construction at 360 West Hubbard Street in River North. The 43-story sister of Kingsbury Plaza brought another 450 new homes to the neighborhood in 2014. But in this photo from two years earlier, you can see McHugh...
Planned Riverside Hotel/Office Tower Design Tweaked, Still Looks Fabulous
Remember that plan from three years ago where someone wanted to wedge yet another hotel in along the Chicago River? Well, that someone is still pounding away at it. August 2016 rendering of 322 North Clark The plan for 322 North Clark Street was to jam a 369-foot-tall HKS-designed hotel into the surface parking lot behind the Reid Murdoch Building. The proposal was floated by Friedman Properties and included 500 hotel rooms, 85,000...
Get the Crowbar: New Hotel Skyscraper to be Wedged into River North
The River North skyscraper frenzy of a few years ago has cooled off a bit, but there’s still some spicy meatballs in the development pipeline. Diagram of 808 North Cleveland (September 2019) A developer wants to put up a new 25-story tower at 808 North Cleveland Avenue. If you’re not sure exactly where that is, it’s on Chicago Avenue across the street from The Montgomery. Intriguingly, this isn’t another condo...
Wolf Point East Tops Off. We Mean It This Time.
You no longer have to wonder if the latest skyscraper climbing into the Chicago skyline at Wolf Point will continue to grow. It won’t. This beanstalk is fully sprouted. Rendering of Wolf Point East (Courtesy of Hines) Wolf Point East is the second of three skyscrapers going up in what used to be a surface parking lot at the confluence of the Main and North branches of the Chicago River. There has been a lot of interest in the...
Wolf Point East: Almost, But Not Quite There Yet
Last week we told you about speculation that the skyscraper known as Wolf Point East had topped out. It turns out that while that’s a good guess, the building is not quite there yet. Construction of Wolf Point East (August 2019. Courtesy of River North Spy Chris.) As promised, we talked to people who talked to people who know things, and no, the notion of topping out is currently all talk. For now. Clearly, from the photo above...
Wolf Point East Shows Off, and Maybe Tops Off
Word on the street is that the second of three Wolf Point towers maybe, possibly, perhaps might have topped off. Construction of Wolf Point East (August 2019. Courtesy of River North Spy Chris.) River North Spy Chris sent in the photograph above, and the one below that back up the assertion that Wolf Point East has climbed as far as it can, though we have not yet gotten official word. Construction of Wolf Point East (August 2019....
Apparently Wolf Point East Will Have Views Worth Selling a Kidney For
If you’ve been keeping an eye on the construction of Wolf Point East, you may have noticed that the tower crane helping put it together jumped a little higher recently. It’s always nice to see progress. An even more impressive sight is the renderings package that came out of Wolf Point East’s PR people recently. It shows what the views should be like from the common areas. Rendering of Wolf Point East...
Three-Building River North Project Hits City Hall
A proposal to redevelop a River North office building while simultaneously deep-sixing two adjacent surface parking lots has made its way to City Hall on paper. The location of 308 West Erie (Base map via Apple Maps) In the diagram above, you can see the parking lots along North Franklin Street that are going away are outlined in red. The building that will be preserved, 308 West Erie, is outlined in green. The parking lot to the...
110 West Huron Now Home2 a New Hotel
If you left your car in the parking lot at 110 West Huron 14 months ago, don’t bother looking for it. There’s a hotel there now. The mouthful Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago River North was completed early this year at 110, moving another downtown Chicago surface parking lot into the trash bin of our minds. Home2 Suites by Hilton Chicago River North (Courtesy of Mortenson) The owner and lead developer of this project was...
