Pat Kerrigan
Project Superintendent
W.E. O`Neil Construction Co., Chicago

Mike Gabel
Project Superintendent
W.E. O`Neil Construction Co., Chicago

Building downtown Chicago is no easy feat. Building at one of Chicago’s busiest intersections (one which 55,000 pedestrians pass through daily) is even more difficult. The challenges faced while renovating the historic London Guarantee and Accident Building at Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive, adding a 22-story tower adjacent to it, and combining the two buildings to create a luxury boutique hotel, the LondonHouse, are reviewed and highlighted.

As part of the adaptive reuse of the original London Guarantee and Accident Building, the project team performed significant restoration of the historic building’s clay tile arch system to return it to its former glory. This included investigation of the existing conditions, analysis of the system’s restrictions and load-bearing capabilities, and careful planning to ensure a structurally stable system after renovation.

The project team also pulled off a logistical miracle to construct the glassy new infill tower that connects to the original historic building. With very little room on-site to stage a conventional tower crane for the duration of the project, the construction team devised a plan to utilize three different types of cranes for various stages of construction. Thirteen parties were involved in the upfront planning and coordination process to ensure the logistics plans would prove successful, both for the project’s sake and to minimize disruptions to pedestrians and neighboring businesses. By devising creative solutions to a complicated project, the team was able to restore the historic look and feel of the original building and construct its addition while minimizing impact to the bustling downtown Chicago intersection at which the project was located.