Less than a year after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced that the Windy City had reached a post-recession record of construction permits and active tower cranes, the mayor returns with another big announcement. According to Mayor Emanuel, 54 tower cranes have worked on high-rise construction projects around the city this year, marking a new post-recession record.
The number seems to match up with the high-rise construction we’ve been tracking at Curbed. In our last update from September, we counted 54 high-rise projects being constructed throughout the city (note that not every high-rise project will require a tower crane). Meanwhile, Daniel Schell at Building Up Chicago has kept tabs on active tower cranes and the projects that they are constructing. At one point this summer, Schnell counted 33 active tower cranes, which may have been the most Chicago has seen operating at the same time since the recession.