Construction Crews Filling Out (Concrete) Forms in Lake Shore East
If you used to cut through the badlands between Lakeshore East and Lake Michigan to catch some rays in the summertime, you’re in for a surprise when the lakefront opens to the public again. The badlands are gone. Construction of Cirrus and Cascade in May, 2020 (Courtesy of Joe Zekas/YoChicago!) Joe Zekas at YoChicago! sent over the photograph above showing the construction progress of Cirrus and Cascade. Those are two of...
Chicago Architecture Firm Happy to Not Be Needed Today
While you were sequestered in your micro apartment exchanging accusing stares with your cat (she totally ate the last Yoplait), the boffins down at bKL Architecture have been fighting the good fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. And now their part is done. The Loop designers of glassy things that scrape the sky have completed their mission of banging out protective face shields with a stable of 3D printers. Face shield production at...
Groundbreaking Leaves Lakeshore East With Just Two Skyscrapers to Go
With skyscraper nerds across the Midwest still giddy from yesterday’s groundbreaking ceremony for the Cirrus and Cascade towers in Lakeshore East, it’s worth tallying what’s left to build there. The answer is: not much. There are just two more large buildings left to build at the complex that started its journey from wharf-side rail yard to model urban community over half a century ago. August 2018 rendering...
Here They Grow Again: Lakeshore East Breaks Ground on Two New Skyscrapers
Hands will be shaken, smiles will be flashed, and ground will be broken today on Cirrus and Cascade, the latest skyscrapers to rise at Lakeshore East. They’re the newest towers to go up at the lake-adjacent former rail yard that Magellan Development has been turning into a rather nice residential community over the last couple of decades. This time, Aussie Lendlease is lending a hand. So to speak. Rendering of Cirrus...
Another Skyscraper Ready to Rise on Lake Michigan
With all its shiny skyscraper goodness, it’s sometimes hard to remember that Lakeshore East is half a century old this year. Illinois Central Railroad’s 1969 plan for Lakeshore East It was in 1969 that the Illinois Central Railroad decided that its riverfront rail yard might be more profitable as a bunch of residential, office, and hotel towers. Fifty years later, that plan is inching toward completion with the coming of...
Alta Grand Central Makes a Grand Entrance in the South Loop
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. Rendering of Alta Grand Central 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...
The Cooper: Southbank’s First Tower Now Officially Open
The South Loop’s residential expansion continues with an official grand opening of The Cooper, Lendlease’s new apartment tower at 720 South Wells Street. The Cooper is the first new residential building going in at Southbank. Four more are coming, as Australia’s Lendlease transforms the former wasteland between Roosevelt Road and River City into a new enclave along the Chicago River. It’s like Lakeshore East,...
South Loop’s Southbank Development Gets Its First Residents
Southbank, the northern portion of what used to be the Riverline development south of Roosevelt Road, has its first people living in its first residential tower. People have started moving into The Cooper (720 South Wells Street), a 29-story building that is the first of five planned for this project. The Perkins+Will-designed building brings 452 new homes to the South Loop, in one of three new projects hugging the Chicago River....
Lakeshore East Tower Trio Tipped in Text
It looks like the plan to build three new skyscrapers in the northeast corner of Lakeshore East is getting ready to move forward. Ordinance number 2018-7759 has been filed with the city’s zoning committee. The contents of the ordinance have not been made public as of this writing, but it is a request to re-zone the land where Magellan Development and LendLease plan to erect three new bKL-designed skyscrapers, almost completing...
![Revised Lakeshore East Plan is More Green and More of the Same [updated]](https://www.chicagoarchitecture.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/lakeshore-east-parcels-i-j-k-and-l_43440748345_o-240x240.jpg)
Revised Lakeshore East Plan is More Green and More of the Same [updated]
The proposal to erect three new skyscrapers in the northeast corner of Lakeshore East took another step forward tonight. At the second public meeting about the project from Magellan Development and Lendlease, a revised plan received acknowledging nods, and not much else. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. When the first iteration was voilàed last July, few credible people had anything bad to say about bKL...
