gebs, is your avatar the moose that I see when I'm coming in from the Orange line on a mural between State and Wabash? Well done, sir

It sure is. I love that mural.

I have a chance to spend some time here in Chicago this week and seeing Essex in person today for the first time since last December I can't believe how far along it is. I think this building is the real game changer from this cycle. It looms over Michigan Avenue from a ways north and has a huge presence from the park. It really urbanizes that stretch of South Michigan Ave.

From today:
http://i65.tinypic.com/vqs3g3.jpg

July 17







Aug 14

This turned out really slick. It makes me wish the glass on Vista was still this green.

I spy three workers!

Really love this tower. All those photographs from extreme angles are legit skyscraper porn :yes:

Definitely one of my favorites from this market cycle!

What glass on Vista lol? We still have no idea what it will actually end up like since what little there is will probably all be scrapped.

I am also totally for a sea foam green Vista. Hopefully whatever new glazier they potentially choose will go back to the original rendering color of the glass.

8/17/2018
 

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1838/4...8049e73c_h.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1799/4...7a0470ea_h.jpg

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1833/4...b7e3e449_h.jpg

Well that was quick! Tower crane starts jumping down on Monday for about 1 week. Assist crane pulls the crane apart the following week. The crane will be removed by Labor Day. The glass on this thing has to be a record. I don’t recall any other building in the city that was fully enclosed when the crane was removed. And it looks great IMHO!

I had my suspicions confirmed that most of the *glass* has already been purchased and manufactured... so the color you see up now is the color we are getting... what is unknown at this point is the manufacturer and the details of the window framing

My good friend is working on WPE and said that is on an even tighter schedule. When the glass starts on that one it should be right behind the floor plate pours. :D

^Now that you mention it, 1326 S Michigan's glass is also very tight to the concrete operations. But that structure has taken more time to put up than Essex... They came out of the ground roughly the same time. I would think that one would be enclosed by the time the crane comes down as well.

A question for the forumers who are (vastly) more knowledgeable about construction - aside from the uniformity in floor plates and lack of multiple transfer floors what other things contributed to the fast pace of this project build wise? What were they able to do that isn't typical so to speak?

Just my two cents but i believe the biggest factor has been the weather!

:shrug:

^How much different is the weather at 800 S. Michigan than the rest of downtown? It may have something to do with the super thin floorplates, but I think it has more to do with labor/man-power. The Empire State Building for instance took only 11 months to build. It took just about that long for that Homewood Hilton around the corner to get out of the ground, but there were two dudes working on that one

Crane coming down... :(

It was a fun ride, but now on to completion.

Don't be sad it's over, be happy it happened :cheers:

Although the views from Grant Park and the lake really do make this tower stand out, I keep coming back to this particular view:

23 August 2018

https://i.imgur.com/7RerRwNh.jpg

It's not the best picture, but I like how it sticks our of the traditional brick towers that surround it.