Persistent Perimeter Pounding Perturbs Petite Pizza Parlor
Let’s hope the machines building One Chicago don’t have bad breath, because they’re all up in Bella Luna’s grill. Foundation work at One Chicago, with Bella Luna in the foreground. (August 2019, courtesy of Gold Coast Spy Mike.) The photograph above was sent in by Gold Coast Spy Mike. It shows the towering machines construction crews are using to sink caissons into the earth immediately behind the...
Digging In For One Chicago’s Two New Towers
One Chicago (the buildings, not the futures exchange) is one of the projects we’re watching more closely these days. Which is why we’re happy to report that progress is… progressing. The city block across the street from Holy Name Cathedral has been denuded of the three brick buildings which once nestled together along the Dearborn Street side, and three surface parking lots have also been scraped away, leaving...
Holy Foods: World’s Best Supermarket Breaks Ground in Downtown Chicago
Why are we so excited about a groundbreaking for a new supermarket in downtown Chicago? It’s not like it’s a pre-Kroger Mariano’s. It’s just Whole Foods: the hallmark of pre-recession soccer mom conspicuous consumption that jumped the shark long before it was munched up by Amazon.com in a cloud of Escalade yoga pants and free range kale chip sippy cups. April 2019 rendering of One Chicago (Courtesy of Goettsch...
It’s Full Steam Ahead for a 1,011-Foot-Tall Gold Coast Tower
Just days after the City of Chicago gave its blessing to an enormous two-tower project across the street from Holy Name Cathedral, stuff is already happening. Site prep for One Chicago Square (Courtesy of Gold Coast Spy Jody) Gold Coast Spy Jody snapped the picture above, showing where One Chicago Square will start to rise, and that the old parish parking lot has already been half-scoured from the property. Word on the street is that...
1,011-Foot-Tall Skyscraper Ready To Start Across From Holy Name Cathedral
You know we live in interesting times when news of a 76-story skyscraper moving forward is the second biggest news of the week. That’s where we are now with One Chicago Square (740 North State Street). Rendering of One Chicago Square Crain’s Chicago Business reports that the developers of the project in the parking lot across the street from Holy Name Cathedral have gotten the money in order to begin construction. It comes...
One Small Hole Indicates The Coming of One Chicago Square
All great Chicago skyscrapers start with humble beginnings. And One Chicago Square has humbly begun in the parking lot of Holy Name Cathedral. Gold Coast Spy Tom sent in the photograph above showing soil sampling in the parking lot that will have a 1,045-foot-tall skyscraper in it by 2022. Even though soil sampling crews extract dirt from beneath the surface, we like to think of them as planting the seeds of a skyscraper. They...
Chicago’s Christmas Present? A 1,011+ Foot Tall Skyscraper
If you want to get the skyscraper nerd in your life a present, erecting the sixth-tallest building in Chicago isn’t a bad place to start. That’s the red ribbon box developers are giving the city, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. The publication reports that construction on One Chicago Square is expected to start in January 2019. This date is mentioned in a larger article about how Sterling Bay has joined JDL...
Alderman Stalls One Chicago Square Towers
Second Ward Alderman Brian Hopkins has asked that the $700 million One Chicago Square project be scotched from the agenda for the Chicago Plan Commission’s December 21st meeting. At that meeting, the commissioners could have approved the project, which would have sent it sailing through the rest of city council and on to the construction phase. Citing intense interest, and the sheer size of the project, which would build...
Holy Name Tower Gets a Name, Little Opposition
Two weeks ago we told you about a proposal to fill the surface parking lot across the street from Holy Name Cathedral with a shiny new dual-skyscraper project. Now we know a little more about it. About a dozen dozen people turned out for a public meeting about the $700 million complex, which is being called One Chicago Square (1 West Chicago Avenue). The people in attendance at the event hosted by 2nd Ward Alderman Brian Hopkins...
Plans Filed For Soaring Cathedral District Skyscraper, and Holy Name is it Big
For the third time in recent years, an underutilized Chicago Roman Catholic church parking lot will be replaced by a skyscraper. This time, it’s across the street from Holy Name Cathedral; and as would seem appropriate for the parking lot of the archbishop, this thing is huge. “Seventy-six stories!” is what the headlines have been crying all day since the plans were filed with the city for what we’re going to...