Urbanize tours construction progress at Platform 4611

Construction is moving forward at Platform 4611 and Urbanize got an inside look at construction. Planned to deliver 200 apartments at the intersection of W. Wilson Ave. and N. Broadway, the project is being co-developed by The John Buck Company and Free Market Ventures with McHugh Construction leading construction. Rising 103 feet, the nine-story project’s design comes from Pappageorge Haymes.

The tour began from the back of the property, accessed via N. Winthrop Ave. Once complete, residents will access the loading dock and 22 surface parking spaces from N. Winthrop Ave. The bike room and ComEd vault round out the interior spaces at the back of the building. The John Buck Company worked with the Uptown Chamber of Commerce to choose Mauricio Ramirez as the artist for a mural that will cover a blank wall of the ComEd vault that will face out over the adjacent community garden. Another mural is being considered for the interior of the bike room.

At the front of the ground floor, leasing and management offices will be located at the northern end of the N. Broadway frontage, with the retail space at the southern corner. The residential entry will be accessed midway along the N. Broadway frontage.  As announced by Uptown Update, Stan’s Donuts will lease retail space at the southern corner of the building, while JBC is in discussion with other retailers to fill the remaining space.

After walking the ground floor, we took a quick walk through the basement. As part of the development, a set of retail buildings were demolished. Contractor McHugh Construction unearthed basement spaces and foundations that were not anticipated and offered an economic solution to gain basement space without pouring entirely new foundations. Instead, McHugh was able to cap the existing foundations and use the existing basement spaces, saving both time and money for the project.

Next we took the skip up to roof level. Despite the heavy fog blocking the city views, we were able to watch the disassembly of the tower crane happening in real time. Once the crane is gone, the roof will be home to primarily mechanicals with no resident access.

One floor down is the highest occupiable floor for residents. The ninth floor will be host to four three-bedroom apartments located at the back of the floor plate, with residential amenities overlooking N. Broadway. Coming off of the elevator, residents will have access to a business center that offers private and collaborative work spaces looking over the street. A fully-outfitted fitness center will be across the hall, looking east. A media and game room will also be included, with a resident lounge at the southern end facing out to an outdoor terrace at the corner of the building. The terrace will be outfitted with multiple seating areas and fire pits with a folding Nana wall to open up the indoor space to the outdoors.

From the ninth floor we headed down floor by floor to see progress on the exterior enclosure in its various stages. On the upper floors, the infill panels and sheathing have been installed for the brick veneer and to frame the windows. Mechanical rough-ins have been installed for the future units. As we went down, windows were being staged on the residential floors and weather sealant was being applied to window openings. Window installation has reached the third floor and interior wall framing is in the very early stages.

Residential units will feature exposed ceilings when completed, and JBC ensured that McHugh Concrete gave special attention to the finish of their pours to create a high-quality, clean finish. Ceilings will reach nine feet high inside the apartments. To stay on schedule, JBC ordered items with long lead times, such as appliances, ahead of time and stored them off site to ensure they would be on hand when ready to install.

With the crane down, work will move towards focusing on enclosing the building and finishing the interiors. Brick veneer is expected to be installed in late May, with the entire project set for substantial completion in December 2022. Leasing will begin in January 2023.