Don't worry Bombardier, I know you called the Cube. Cheers!

Downtown it'll be second. Citywide I believe it'll be third. 655 W Irving Park has 901 units. One Superior Place has 809 units.

It's surprising to me that the highest units have southern views instead of skyline/park views. They decided to favor sunlight over views?

Immediately thought of Superior as I almost lived there. Grand Plaza has 764 (including the 283 condos that are mostly rented anyways), Wolf Point East is 700, both Optima's combined are 815, similarly both Old Town Parks are 833 together.

South Loop has added NEMA, Essex, The Paragon, The Cooper, Eleven40, an Alta, and a several smaller complexes in such a short time. Are there enough young pros willing to pay $2.5K/mo for a 1BR in SL, guess we will see?

Still excited to see how NEMA looks in the end. Thus far it really compliments the Sears Tower and adds some much needed weight / balance to that corner of Sloop.

i thought Outer Drive East (400 E Randolph) was the largest single residential building in the city with 955 units.

or are we restricting the conversation to strictly rental properties?

Interesting that so many of the highest unit-count buildings in the city are such minor presences in the skyline and don't "feel" that big (400 E Randolph, 1 Superior). I lived in 655 W Irving Park for a summer, and while it's a big building and significantly bigger than anything else around, it never crossed my mind that it might be one of the biggest apartment buildings in the city. I'm glad NEMA will add some more skyline presence and architectural flair to the top end of that list.

Side note, when 400 E Randolph was built in 1963, it was the world's largest apartment building. Now it gets lost in the shuffle of Lakeshore East. How times change.

Ah yes, looks like 400 E is the largest. Never realized it was that dense.

:)

The crane gave it away... no one would spend the money to extend the crane that high without a good reason!

I have never been happier to be wrong than I was about the faux height fiasco/drama :haha::haha:

PT has 2,346 units in total.

is the cube going to be re-enforced concrete??? what are those pillars they are working on in latest pics? that would be so cool

Soooo, what would probably be the most sought after views of the park/city at the top, they have made the core? I’m sure it all makes sense for the elevators, but seems like valuable real estate to put up fake windows on concrete.

If you go by the rendering, the pillars are for the 5 remaining 'floors' left, not a cube

Why wouldnt they continue the floor formwork if they were adding floors and not just columns? Not trying to be argumentative just generally curious.

The rebar sticking up for the columns follows pretty typical cadence, its just you can see it with screening from the north side removed. Floor formwork usually comes after the columns are poured. Also, since the core is done, that formwork is no longer needed.

That also assumes there is even floor slabs at this point though. Since the elevator doesn't go to these last 'floors' they could effectively just be an elaborate screen for mechanicals or a damper or both.

correct me if im wrong, but there are certain mechanical elements of a residential skyscraper that have to be installed above everything else, and all skyscrapers have them. as much as the developers would love to sell all that space it isn't possible

^true enough, but 5+ floors of mechanical? I can’t say for sure since it’s not my industry, but it seems like a lot of space. Also, I believe real windows are on the East, South, and West walls.

A tuned mass damper could justify that space. The one in Taipei 101 occupies that much space.

Not sure if we ever heard about the finalized design, but bvic posted way back about a sloshing damper that needed at least 2 floors.

Jan 16

last I heard, it doesn't have a tmd, but it does have a 2-story slosh tank at the top.