This will probably be the last construction checkup we post on Yo for One Museum Park, because it doesn't look like there's much more work to be done on the 62-story tower. In fact, I was surprised to find construction crews working on the building when I arrived at Roosevelt Road and Indiana Avenue in the South Loop yesterday, because I had thought most of the work had been completed, but it looks like that big concrete column still needs to be sheathed in glass.

A passage from Phil Berger's architecture feature in the September issue of New Homes explains what they're up to:

The south and west sides of the building house circulation spaces or structural and mechanical components, and their reflective “windows” are really glass skins mounted to a concrete frame. So while the gleaming, streamlined form is arresting from all perspectives, the clear orientation of the building is toward the north and the east.

That's good news for buyers, because immediately to the west, at 1201 S Prairie Ave, the 53-story One Museum Park West is beginning to emerge. Construction workers are still pouring cement for the parking structure, and judging from the speed at which some of the other Central Station developments have been built, I'd expect to see One Museum Park West inching skyward pretty soon.

In August, Ralph Oliva from Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage told Joe that about 70 percent of the condos in One Museum Park West had been sold, and that first deliveries are expected for late 2009.

- Rate and review One Museum Park at NewHomeNotebook.com.
- Rate and review One Museum Park West at NewHomeNotebook.com.

While passing by Soldier Field and the Museum Campus on Lake Shore Drive this morning, I noticed that 1600 Museum Park appeared to be topped off, so I took this photo from the road. The top couple of floors and the empty cube on top still lack windows, but it looks like all 32 floors are in place.

Construction has moved pretty quickly at 1600 Museum Park. Joel first reported about foundation work at 1621 S Prairie Ave in the South Loop about a year ago, and Patrick wrote that the parking structure was completed in February, so it looks like this high-rise will have taken take less than two years to build.

Last we checked, the remaining one- to three-bedroom condos at 1600 Museum Park were priced from the $290s to the $700s.

– Rate and review 1600 Museum Park at NewHomeNotebook.

This has got to be one of the fastest-growing towers in Chicago. Located at 8 E 9th St in the Loop, Provence Development Group's Astoria Tower Residences & Spa broke ground in early 2008, and it will have 30 stories when completed.

Approximately 75 one- and two-bedroom condos were available when I posted an update in August. One-bedrooms at Astoria Tower start in the $230s, while two-bedrooms are priced from the $390s to the $690s. Construction on the building should be completed in the autumn, 2009. Below are a couple of construction photos from May and August.

- Rate and review Astoria Tower at NewHomeNotebook.com.

Magellan Development's Aqua, 225 N Columbus Dr, from the 37th floor of the Trump International Hotel & Tower Chicago. Jeanne Gang's building doesn't ripple much from straight on, does it? I'm eager to see if balcony railings accentuate Aqua's contours from this angle, or if a worm's-eye view will always be the best way to see this tower.

- Rate and review Aqua at NewHomeNotebook.com.

While several planned condo developments around town are delaying the start of construction, and others seem to be postponed indefinitely, @properties sales agent D. Waveland Kendt seems upbeat and optimistic about the prospects for Solstice on the Park, the 26-story Studio Gang-designed tower planned for 5526 - 5540 S Cornell Ave in Hyde Park.

"We like our traffic and we like our sales," Kendt says. He says the numbers look just fine, considering that sales began around Memorial Day.

When pressed for some details, Kendt offers a story instead.

"There are two developers for the project, and they each bought a unit," he says. "One bought a south-facing unit because he wanted views of the Museum Campus and the park, and the other bought a north-facing unit, because he wanted the city views."

That means at least two of the units in Solstice have been sold.

Kendt says ground will break in the spring. Back in the winter, we had written that construction would begin in the fall of 2008 and delivery was scheduled for 2010. This should move deliveries to a later date.

Watch my video tour of the Solstice on the Park's sales center with Kendt from May. The second part of the Solstice tour is here.

- Rate and review Solstice on the Park at NewHomeNotebook.com.

Since we can see Superior 110's western face from our office windows, that's usually the angle we get for our construction photos. As you can probably tell from our recent posts, we've all been wandering around River North this week, and on Monday I walked over to Chicago Avenue to get some shots of JFJ Development's tower from the north.

Its easy to forget that Superior 110 is actually quite slender: It looks like there's just enough room for two or three units on every level, and sure enough, that's the plan. One- to three-bedroom floor plans are still available from the $530s to $1.46 million. No word yet on when a model will open inside the tower, but judging from the look of things, I bet we'll see one in the near future.

Superior 110, located at 110 W Superior St in River North, was designed by Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture.

- Rate and review Superior 110 at NewHomeNotebook.com.

For months we've been posting the same old rendering of Six North Michigan, a 120-unit condo conversion in the Loop. To remedy the situation, I rolled down the window of the Yo mobile while stopped at at a red light at the corner of Michigan Avenue and Madison Street yesterday and took this photo.

Because of the perspective, it's difficult to see the top part of the penthouse suite - I'd expect the best views are from Millennium Park - but it does give a better sense for how this building fits in with the rest of the Michigan Avenue streetwall than does the rendering.

As I wrote last week, one-bedrooms at Six North Michigan start in the $320s, the only remaining two-bedroom is priced in the $720s, and penthouses are priced from $1.65 million to $5.5 million.

- Rate and review Six North Michigan at NewHomeNotebook.com

I took these pictures of SoNo earlier today, and I have to admit I was quite taken with the look of the building. I also couldn't help wondering how its purity will be affected by its residents' taste in window-coverings.

SoNo is at the southeast corner of Fremont and BlackHawk, in a part of Chicago's Near North neighborhood that used to be called the Halsted River Triangle. See more of my SoNo photos at Flickr.

Rate and review SoNo at NewHomeNotebook.

I always think of Chicago's River West neighborhood as Bergerville.

Architect / developer Jack Berger moved there in 1979 and has since transformed the neighborhood with his pioneering River West Lofts and a raft of new modernist buildings.

The largest of those new buildings is Mondial, a 17-story high-rise nearing completion in the 900 block of West Huron Street.

Join us for the first part of our tour of Mondial with Jack Berger, who is both the architect and developer of the project.

We haven't posted an update on Pure, 24 S Morgan St, in several months, not because we don't like it, but because we just haven't had much to report on the West Loop high-rise. Nobody has moved into the building yet, but as the above photo indicates and as sales director Suzy Grossman confirms, construction is 95 percent completed, and first move-ins should begin sometime this month.

Grossman says that about 65 percent of the 67 units in the building have sold so far, but units are still available in one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. Prices start in the $280s for one-bedrooms, and the most expensive three-bedroom / two-baths are priced in the $810s.

One lifestyle feature that developer Sunrise Equities is promoting is their "Pure Portal," a residents-only Web site that promises to keep building residents "digitally connected at all times." I can't review the Pure Portal because I haven't used it, but according to the Pure Web site, it will offer "area information including restaurant delivery menus, weather, up-to-date traffic, access to doorman security, as well as information on building utilities."

All of the units are being finished out now, Grossman says, so I guess that doesn't leave buyers much room to select finishes or customize. According to the Web site, units will come with bamboo floors and carpeting in bedrooms, recessed lighting, 1.25-inch granite countertops, Poggenpohl cabinets, Bosch appliances, and Grohe faucets.

Grossman says that parking, which is normally priced at $35,000, is currently being offered at half-price. Below is a rendering of Pure that, when compared with the photo above, looks a bit more realistic than most of the renderings that pass by my desk.

- Rate and review Pure at NewHomeNotebook.com