All eyes are on the skies, where one Chicago apartment tower after another takes shape as the region's high foreclosure rate and the inability of homebuyers to secure financing have boosted the appeal of renting. Image Courtesy of Lend Lease No fewer than 20 major apartment projects , including 1225 Old Town, are under development, design or construction in Chicago. Net rents for Class A apartment units in downtown Chicago spiked 10% this past year, sufficient to spark development activity downtown and in neighborhoods due north, according to Appraisal Research Counselors, a Chicago-based consulting firm.Strong market fundamentals prompted Chicago-based Magellan

The $17.4-million, interdenominational Horizon Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, showcases the interplay of structural steel for its frame, wood timber for its ceilings, stone for its walls and light-gauge metal for non-wooden trusses and interior walls.

As the only stand-alone hospital in West Michigan devoted exclusively to pediatric care, the $286-million, 11-story Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids deftly weaves a child-friendly environment with environmentally friendly systems.

Upstaging Adler & Sullivan's rock-solid Auditorium Building in downtown Chicago is a glassy new landmark for Roosevelt University. The school's “vertical campus,” set to open next March, has faced difficult obstacles—tight laydown and delivery zones, delicate underground work, tough hoisting logistics, to name a few—but the building team is handily making the grade on the $118-million project. The first challenge to overcome had to do with fire safety. In 2004 the city adopted a new code requiring pre-1975 high-rises to be equipped with automatic sprinklers. That meant Roosevelt University would have to retrofit its 19-story Herman Crown Center, a residence

Hollywood producers love a good sequel. But what about road engineers? While a successful movie's return squeezes extra profit out of a film franchise, a valuable highway follow-up cashes in on the lessons learned from previous work, yielding infrastructure that holds up over time. On the other hand, the engineering equivalent of a bad movie is a bloated boondoggle of a road that cracks under pressure. Related Links: From ENR's Archives: Tight Focus, New Mix Puts Wacker Drive Back in the Loop Official 'Revive Wacker Drive' Site Video: Rebuilding Chicago's Wacker Drive In the case of Chicago's Wacker Drive, an

“If we’ve done our job, nobody knows about us,” he says. “If the building stands up, if it’s attractive and comfortable and everything is performing as it should, you’re not going to be thinking about the engineering.”

Building Bridges Large transportation projects such as the Miami and Glasgow bridge replacements in Missouri are helping to sustain Omaha-based architect/engineer HDR Inc.

Article toolbar The rough-and-tumble backdrop of factories and warehouses is more suggestive of urban grit than LEED Gold, making Chicago’s first sustainable streetscape, a two-mile-plus stretch along Cermak Road and Blue Island Avenue, an unlikely poster child for environmentally minded design. Photo courtesy of Chicago Department of Transportation Green Alleys The project team borrowed many elements, including pervious pavement, from Chicago’s successful Green Alleys program. “It may not seem glamorous, but engineering sustainability into basic elements such as streets and sewers can have a profound impact on our cities,” says Kevin Lentz, president of Chicago-based Knight E/A, the project’s engineer

Article toolbar The Prairie View Landfill and Recycling Facility in Wilmington, Ill., burns refuse-generated methane simply to rid the site of the substance. But rather than watch potential revenue go up in smoke, Houston-based Waste Management Inc. is constructing a $9.5-million generating plant at Prairie View to burn the gas and convert it to electricity. Photo Courtesy Of Waste Management Lots of wattage The three generators will each produce 1.6 MW of electricity. The plant contains sufficient room to include a fourth generator. Will County, which will receive up to $1 million per year in fees from the project, is