As 1345 South Wabash Fills Up, 1333 Builds Up
If you build it, they will come. So as long as you’re at it, you might as well build two of them. Which is precisely what’s happening in the South Loop. At 1333 South Wabash Avenue, One Triple Three is the second, larger tower from Chicago’s CMK Companies on the same block of South Wabash. Destined to rise 28 stories high, the Brininstool + Lynch design will bring 307 rental units, to include one-, two-, and...
Status Update: Argo Tea Pavilion and Connors Park
The rebuilding of Connors Park in the city’s Gold Coast neighborhood continues apace. The old, mostly concrete park has been jackhammered away, and in its place a glass barn… umm, greenhouse… umm, pavilion has been erected. Into this pavilion will go an Argo Tea house. The Chicago company is paying for the entire project, which includes rehabbing the park. The tea house will operate year-round, and be a welcome...
Status Update: No Rest at Virgin Hotel
It’s been a very busy week at the old Dearborn Bank Building, soon to emerge as the world’s first Virgin Hotel (203 North Wabash Avenue). One of our Loop spies has been sending us a steady stream of photographs as crews get ready to begin a $55 million renovation of the building into a shiny new place for visitors to stay. The Dearborn Wabash Street sidewalk has been covered by a construction canopy and moved out into...
A Virgin Aroused: Construction Begins at Much-Anticipated Loop Hotel
Something is finally happening at the site of what will some day become the Virgin Hotel Chicago (203 North Wabash Avenue). It’s been a year and a half since it first became public that the British boutique brand Virgin decided to open its first hotel in the former Dearborn Bank Building, across the street from Harold Washington College and the MDA Apartments. The renovation is expected to cost at least $55 million. Since then,...
The South Loop’s Motor Row is “Moving Along,” Being Scouted by Investors
The long-term project turning portions of South Michigan, Indiana, and Wabash Avenues into an entertainment destination to complement McCormick Place is “moving along,” according to Second Ward Alderman Bob Fioretti. Speaking at an event recently, he told the audience that there has been a lot of interest from developers ever since the city declared Motor Row an official entertainment district. We already know that rock...
73 East Lake Street Skyscraper Breaks Ground
Construction of the Loop’s newest residential tower is officially underway. Work on 73 East Lake Street (formerly The Summit on the Lake) has actually been happening for several weeks. But now that the underground portion of the building is done, the tower crane is in place, and the building is ready to become part of the Chicago skyline, an official groundbreaking ceremony was held this morning. M&R...
Status Update: 73 East Lake Street
The smelly urine-soaked old buildings are gone, and work has begun on the foundations of 73 East Lake Street, the SCB-designed tower that will wrap around the MDA City Apartments with a 42-story tower and parking garage. Here you can see a load of metal pipes being delivered to the site, possibly for caissons. You can read all about the new building in our previous coverage: Green Light for New Loop Skyscraper and Office...
Slice of Life: Train Target
One of the new Pink Line trains rumbles down South Wabash Avenue past the second-floor display windows of the new CityTarget (1 South State Street) at the Sullivan...
Video: Trump Tower Time Lapse
Here’s a little fun for your weekend. It’s a time-lapse video we made earlier this week of clouds around and reflected in the Trump International Hotel and Tower (401 North Wabash Avenue). You can see how the skin of the building changes color in reaction to its environment. Architects always talk about that sort of thing, but here you can really see it in...
SAIC Opens Neiman Center in Sharp Building on Wabash
If you’ve been down Wabash Avenue in The Loop in the last year or so, you’ve noticed the work being done at number 37. The building is the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Sharp Building, and has been undergoing a renovation both inside and out. Amid much anticipation, today, the building re-opens with the exterior all cleaned up, and the interior of the first two floors transformed into the LeRoy Neiman...
