Urbanize tours progress at Big Deahl

Urbanize recently toured construction progress at Big Deahl, a three-building development in the Near North Side. Planned by Structured Development, the three-building, 487-unit community is centered around a new public park on the larger site that is bound by W. Blackhawk, N. Dayton, and N. Kingsbury Streets. The multi-phase plan has already produced the new structure at 1460 N. Dayton Street which holds a climbing gym.

Led by J. Michael Drew, we began by touring The Seng, a five-story, 34-unit affordable condominium building. The first floor of the building has been built as a cast-in-place concrete podium, while upper residential floors are built out of prefabricated cold-form steel construction. With walls up for the third floor, crew were placing ceiling joists to begin forming the fourth floor. With a delivery planned for the end of the year, homeowners will have access to amenities typical of a market rate building.

From The Seng, work can be seen beginning on Tower A, a 27-story, 327-unit market-rate rental tower that will stand 299 feet tall. Anticipated for a Fall 2023 delivery, the tower is currently just above ground level with the second-floor deck under construction during the tour. 

At the eastern edge of the site, Common Lincoln Park is far along. Planned as a 10-story, 400-bed co-living community operated by New York-based Common, the unique residential building is set to top out at 117 feet later this summer by the end of July. At the time of our visit the structure was at the 7th floor where general contractor Power Construction has split the pours into half floors, pouring the north and south halves of each floor plate separately. The north end of the 7th floor had just been poured and crews were wrapping up the southern part of the 7th floor while simultaneously rigging up decking for the northern part of the 8th floor.

Standing on the partially constructed eighth floor, views of the surrounding city were nothing but expansive. With two more floors to go, one can already see all of River North and the Gold Coast as well as the booming West Loop. To the west, the Morton Salt redevelopment and surrounding cityscape is in view. 

Back on site, the open space on the ground floor is currently full of storage and staging space for the three buildings under construction. Two tower cranes are working full-time while a mobile crane is positioned to lift structure pieces for The Seng. Once construction gets closer to completion, materials will be cleared out and the open space will become Seng Park, a fully landscaped park space that will provide community gardens, a dog park, and playground. Seng Park also will provide a link to the Wild Mile, a recently revitalized stretch of the North Branch Canal, furthering the live-work-play lifestyle sought by today’s urban dwellers.