I mean, they don't have any permits pertaining to site I, so he made a gaffe

Sept 6



EVERYONE needs a full set of drill bits.


Making sure it goes into the liner ?


No basement - this always strikes me as wrong - but this close to the lake makes sense.


Pulling a caisson






Sept 10

Nothin like waking up in the morning to pics of drilling through mud

What sort of giant, man-eating, alien insect did they unearth here?!?

one that is not scared of cameras

Thanks for the nightmares Harry! :haha:

Open question: Who is the GC for these towers?

I think up until now - someone please correct me if I’m wrong here - McHugh has been the GC for every single LSE building. But now, Magellan is partnering with Lendlease, which of course has its own GC arm. Just curious how this played out....did Lendlease (and Magellan) give Lendlease the GC contract here?

Lendlease is the GC and developer along with Magellan.

McHugh did most of LSE. Power did GEMS I and the currently stalled GEMS II.

I didn't know that was stalled again!

After it had a 2-3 week stall last year, I caught one of the project managers at subway (ha) and asked him about it. He told me straight up GEMS wasn't paying up.

Assuming same situation this time, GEMS is stretching themselves thin.

September 14

https://i.imgur.com/kTBu1Kmh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/eZTTR3Nh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/UKVUMo2h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vK3kHnNh.jpg

Working weekends? Everything about this project seems to be on a fast track. :)

I wouldn't be surprised about GEMS. My gf takes her kids there and says it is absolute mess.

Makes sense, and completely forgot GEMS went to Power.

I have been somewhat curious about GEMS' finances.

Appropriately, this is a mud wasp. They are generally harmless and collect mud to make tube shaped nests. Not surprising to see one by a site where they are drilling and making big piles of mud all over the place.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mud_dauber

So she's no nightmare, she's a fellow builder to be celebrated. Just picking up some materials to build its nest:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Wasp_nest.jpg
wiki

They eat primarily spiders, so this is prime mud wasp season. Being downtown where the balcony spiders are in full bloom with a fresh supply of mud, this wasp is in heaven.

Also, this I never knew, but apparently mud wasps have been involved in a number of airplane crashes since they like to nest in the round holes of aircraft instrumentation. They will crawl into valves and airspeed sensors, build a nest, and the plane crashes. So you are probably less likely to get stung by one than to be killed by one in a plane crash...

Global dollar shortage. The Fed is the highest interested rate in the developed world, can you hear the sucking sound?

When they started out their tuition was very high...higher than Latin, Parker, or Lab which are probably the top three private schools and their direct competitors. In five years the tuition has dropped substantially (from $37000 or so for a grade schooler to $31000) which tells me they're having trouble filling classes (which isn't an issue at virtually every other private school). In fact they are still advertising discounts for people that commit to the (non-existent) high school which seems ludicrous given how work has stopped.

Thank you ! I always enjoy the animals we share this land with.

For what it's worth, I spoke with someone directly at Lend Lease over the weekend who indicated that they're moving forward with construction of both towers at the same time. . . they expect foundation work to wrap up by the end of the month and they're expecting completion sometime in 2021. . .

. . .

Both towers got permits for cranes. So maybe you'll see 2 more cranes in Chicago soon..

:boogy: :soon: :pepper:

Sept 18







Big Footing


Pile driving

August 30, 2019













September 26, 2019

This site is SO FREAKIN COOL

https://i.imgur.com/T1rrkzP.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/j3Jg1Zh.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/TptDUSY.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/NGHtC6k.jpg?1

Seems to be a bit of a drainage issue...

https://i.imgur.com/Cfktq7w.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/oBkefy8.jpg?1

https://i.imgur.com/XLqjoUe.jpg?1

October 2, 2019

things are moving FAST

thanks for the update guys!!!

so many technical questions... im not even gonna bother

cheers for another tower crane !

A tower crane base is in place.

Oct 7



Crane Base #1


Rod Busting






Found the one muddy spot on the whole site - and stood in it.


The white stuff is Geo-Cloth - clay embedded to stop leakage.


N cable runs - the final project will need N+1

Crane 1 going up, crane 2 base in place
https://i.ibb.co/8XDB0rv/B137-ED11-7...A402-E9-E4.jpg

From my 3D model:

https://images2.imgbox.com/98/59/jyFfenzT_o.jpg

https://images2.imgbox.com/13/90/NtDswY4t_o.jpg

https://images2.imgbox.com/f7/e4/yOUx8A5a_o.jpg

https://images2.imgbox.com/1b/27/nee7maCD_o.jpg

rgarri, wow. That last rendering is stunning. If all those buildings came to fruition, I would be in heaven.

Very cool. Great model.

October 9

https://i.imgur.com/6Xdk7MOh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/go2La7Rh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/FDFRoYOh.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/bTebIBJh.jpg

Nice close ups, Cozy.

I have yet to understand the so called "crane jump" once construction moves up. How in the f ?

So are the heights of both these tower going up reflected on whats shown on the title of this page or have they been shortened?...I didnt think either one was gonna break 500ft?

the building heights we have listed in the title of this thread are from this post below on aug. 14th made by a known insider who has obviously seen dimensioned bid/construction drawings.

There are a few different ways that different cranes do it.. basically a badass crazy powerful hydraulic system pushes the entire thing up

Another cool action video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx5Qt7_ECEE

Thanks pilsenarch. That's bad-ass. The level of comfort these guys have at those heights is quite admirable. At one point two guys were out there on the "cat walk" just yucking it up like they were at standing room only at the UC
:tup:

Human innovation is thru the roof. Just amazing what man can do.

Are all heights measured this way? From the lowest basement to the top? I had always thought they were from some sort of street level.

They actually use cranes to literally raise the roof...

Nice. :cheers:

I have an infrastructure question, if anyone is able to answer. Since LSE is completely new infrastructure for the city, when they are building all the new sewer systems, are the sewers in the area shared for rain runoff and general waste water from the buildings? Since this entire site is next to the river and the lake do they divert rain runoff into those bodies of water, or is it all mixed in with the sewage? This would seem like an ideal place to start separating these systems, whereas the rest of the city is mixed sewage. I don't think the boards here discuss this type of infrastructure enough, and it seem fairly important on all these LSE projects, or any of these recently proposed mega developments Chicago is seeing.

I doubt the runoff for the entire complex is handled together. The city makes each building separate the run off and retain it. So every time another one is added to LSE the civil engineer will design retention to meet code for that project as they would with any other project.

I could be remembering wrong but I though LSE had a separate storm system they hook new buildings into and an outfall into the river for the whole development.

I imagine the streets just dump into the river. Interesting. I would assume they still require some form of retention though, they probably don't want everything just dumping into the river during a storm event either.

Vista Webcam
 

Cirrus & Cascade (LSE)
The Vista Webcam allows you to zoom in on all building activity on the Cirrus & Cascade sites.

Oh hello. . .

. . .

3 Amigos
 

bIMG_9001 by Harry Carmichael, on Flickr

more later

When's the last time Chicago had a triple crane site?