Outdoor theater: A spectacle in progress

Mike Conklin

May 11, 2005

The Bovis Lend Lease construction company has played key roles building Disneyland Paris, Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur and the Time Warner Center in New York, but never has it occupied a stage quite like the one in Chicago.

Its workers, visible from Wacker Drive, Chicago River sightseeing boats, adjacent skyscrapers, and a temporary wooden walkway that rings one side like a balcony, have turned the Trump International Hotel & Tower project into the equal of a Broadway production.

"I'm not sure the workers are always aware they're being watched," said Bovis site manager Paul James, "but it's an unusual set of circumstances at work here to create this situation."

The River North construction site is a musical of construction sights and sounds, a skillfully choreographed dance of life-size trucks, cranes, jackhammers, concrete mixers and operators at work in what looks like an enormous sandbox.

The site, in the 300-400 block of North Wabash Avenue, figures to grow in popularity with the arrival of warmer weather. The coming months will be devoted to foundation work before the 92-story tower begins its climb and eventual 2009 completion.