I don’t usually attend groundbreaking ceremonies, but I stopped by K2’s this morning to hear Steven Fifield, its developer, talk about his latest K Station high-rise. As he spoke, construction crews were drilling 120 80-foot deep caissons to support the building.
“Those of us who are in the real estate development business are dreamers,” said Fifield. “You can’t just be a dreamer in this business. You have to be a tenacious dreamer.”
Fifield’s legendary tenacity enabled him to say his dreams “built a small city here” despite the “old-time practitioners” who cautioned him about the risks. At age 63 he’s still the brash young man, after a long career that makes him an industry veteran.
When the 33-story, 494-unit K2 is complete in April of 2013, there’ll be another 1,000 people living in Fifield’s more than 2,000-unit small city in the Fulton River District. And they’ll be living in a building with higher ceilings and higher-end finishes than the earlier K Station towers, according to Fifield.
You can see a fuller description of the event, and more photos from this morning’s event, at The Chicago Architecture Blog.