Interior of Loop’s Landmark Carson Building Demolished

Eight floors and 600,000 sq ft of space in the landmark Carson Pirie Scott building on State Street was demolished. The project will take the building back to its original core and shell.

Partitioned walls will be removed, and mechanical, electrical and sprinkler systems will be replaced. Demolition was scheduled to be done by the end of September, leaving approximately 538,000 sq ft of rentable space.

The project is part of a repositioning to transform the building into a modern, multi-tenant, mixed-use property for retail, commercial and educational tenants.

Located at One South State Street, Carson Pirie Scott occupied the building for more than a century when it closed its doors in early 2007.

Palatine-based Joseph Freed & Associates is the developer and owner with Hoffman Estates-based Leopardo Construction serving as general contractor.

Navy recruits descend into the bowels of a guided missile destroyer to discover raging fires, floods, and mass casualties eerily reminiscent of the USS Cole disaster all in a 157,000-sq-ft “ship in a bottle” at Naval Station Great Lakes 30 mi north of Chicago.

Groundbreaking was recently held on the $82.5 million training simulator. The Navy formally commissioned the simulator, known as the USS Trayer, just as it would any ship.

A 200-ft-long, reduced-scale replica of a portion of an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer was created in more than 90,000 gallons of water. It was put in a 157,000-sq-ft building. Layers of the latest technology reproduce, to a frightening degree, the variety of trials at sea that help U.S. Navy recruits prepare for the worst.

Hundreds of items salvaged from retired destroyers help create the look, feel and smell that duplicates a real ship, and special effects even include the sounds and smells of a pier and a warship.

Recruits conduct an all-night, 12-hour mission on Battle Stations, capping their training and earning the title of Sailor if they successfully complete it. On the Trayer, they take part in 17 different scenarios ranging from the mundane handling mooring lines to the horrific. The mass casualty scenario, which has left seasoned Navy veterans shaken, duplicates the conditions following the 2000 terrorist attack on the USS Cole to help recruits respond to the chaos of a strike and the casualties that result.

Battle Stations 21 represented a merging of three industries military, entertainment and construction. The contractor, Chicago-based James McHugh Construction Co., worked with six Navy commands, a design team from seven states and more than 90 subcontractors.

Based on the success of Battle Stations 21, McHugh formed a separate division, McHugh Training & Simulation, to cater directly to this market. McHugh T & S is based in Chicago but serves an international client base.

Grainger to Expand In Chicago Area

Lake Forest, Ill.-based Grainger, a distributor of facilities maintenance supplies, has announced plans to enhance service by investing in its local operations.

As part of this multi-year expansion program the company will add, relocate and expand its Chicago area facilities while increasing local inventory and adding additional staff.

The firm operates 18 branch locations in the Chicago area and will expand to 20. Overall, the firm will have a nearly 20% increase in square footage in the market.

In total, the company plans to add four new locations, relocate three facilities and expand or enhance 12 locations.

The company’s local expansion efforts are under way and will continue to unfold through 2008.

Grainger’s Chicago area branches are supported by the company’s 750,000-sq-ft distribution center in Niles.

$16 Million Renovation Done of Historic Washington Apartments

The $16 million renovation of the historic Washington Apartments was completed in St. Louis’ Central West End.

The seven-story, 83,000-sq-ft facility was originally built in 1903 for the 1904 World’s Fair, then as the George Washington Hotel. Among the guests was President Theodore Roosevelt, who stayed in the limestone building featuring Classical Revival style while visiting the fair.

The Washington Apartments is part of the Holy Corners Historic District, an area of churches and other institutional buildings from the early 20th Century clustered around Kingshighway and Washington streets.

The seven-story building at 600 N. Kingshighway provides affordable housing for small families and the elderly.

Updates included the introduction of a central water source heat pump, restoration of the lobby, re-opening the building’s original entrance on Kingshighway and the conversion of all multi-bedroom apartments to one-bedroom units.  A new fitness center, community room with Wi-Fi access and expanded laundry facilities were added on the ground floor.

More than 400 windows were replaced each with custom-applied aluminum frames to match the arched brick opening at the top of the original windows; added a new parking lot with 75 spaces; cleaned and tuck-pointed the brick and limestone façade; and installed new landscaping.

CG Schmidt Named Top Workplace

Milwaukee-based CG Schmidt was one of 13 medium-sized Milwaukee firms honored with the Business Journal’s 2007 Top Milwaukee Workplaces award. Medium-sized is defined as 101-1,000 employees. The awards recognize Milwaukee-area companies that are doing their best to foster a great workplace.

Winning companies were selected based on responses to an employee opinion survey which measured things like benefits, compensation and how employees are shown they are valued. To be considered for the award, 85% of the company’s employees were required to respond.

The winners were honored at an awards luncheon at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center on Aug. 10.