Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge & Plaza Restoration

chicago skyway toll bridge

Chicago skyway toll bridge

For behind the scenes + shoot details, visit the APALMANAC M+M feature:  Highway To The Danger Zone: Husband / Wife Team Ryan + Sarah Miller Pull Off Incredible Photos of the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge

transportation steel bridges photography

transportation steel bridges photography

chicago-skyway-toll

Chicago Skyway Toll

transportation construction restoration

transportation construction restoration

restored-chicago-skyway-traffic-night

Restored Chicago skyway traffic night

Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge Plaza restoration

Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge Plaza restoration

chicago-roadway-infrastructure-photography

Chicago roadway infrastructure photography

toll-booth-chicago-skyway

Toll booth Chicago Skyway

chicago-civil-engineer-transportation-photos

Chicago civil engineer transportation photos

chicago-skyway-artistic-road-bridge-infrastructure-pictures

Chicago skyway artistic road bridge infrastructure pictures

chicago infrastructure photographer

chicago infrastructure photographer

led-red-neon-sign-stainless-steel

LED red neon sign stainless steel

roadway-sign-transportation

roadway sign transportation

 

skyway-art-deco-transportation-toll-canopy-restoration

skyway art-deco transportation toll canopy restoration

chicago-bridge-photographer

Chicago bridge photographer

aerial-pictures-expressway-toll-lanes-traffic

aerial pictures expressway toll lanes traffic

chicago-skyway-bridge

Chicago Skyway Bridge

industrial-chicago-bridge-photographer

Industrial Chicago bridge photographer

chicago-skyway-bridge-night

Chicago skyway bridge night

steel-bridge-night-transportation

steel bridge night transportation

Nationwide architectural photographers, we shoot a variety of structures and construction.  For this project, Miller+Miller had the opportunity to capture photography of the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge, canopy, and plaza restoration photographing the toll road’s infrastructure construction completion in photographs.  Not long after the Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge & Plaza restoration’s construction completion, we scheduled photography of the famous iconic, neon sign gateway and high-bridge entrance into the city of Chicago. 

The marketing department from the Skyway inquired to Miller + Miller, looking to hire an architectural photographer to capture structural photography with photos showcasing the site’s update which preserved the original vintage art-deco design of the toll plaza structure and infrastructure photography highlighting the modern day new technological improvements. The architectural photography project incorporated a variety of shots including aerial drone photos, day, dusk images, and night photographs of the historic restoration of the Chicago Skyway plaza, LED toll lane signage, modern signs along the roadway, stainless steel tollbooth, steel canopy, neon letter signage, portraits of employees working in toll lanes, and scenic pictures of the high-bridge from the roadway for the organization’s press releases, marketing, website, and advertising photo needs. 

The project included photographing one of the Chicago area’s major transportation route and travel hubs.  The Skyway serves a link between roadways, tollways and expressways within Illinois, Indiana and Michigan midwestern states while traveling to downtown Chicago from the Southside.   The Chicago Skyway is a 7.8 mile long toll road built by the city of Chicago in 1958 to connect the Dan Ryan Expressway to the Indiana Toll Road.  In 2005, Chicago’s Skyway became the first U.S. privatization of a toll road in the country.  The Chicago Skyway Tollway is currently operated & maintained by the Skyway Concession Company, LLC and was purchased in 2016 by three Canadian Pension Funds – OMERS Infrastructure, CPP Investment Board, and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.  

Since 2005, the Skyway Concession Company, LLC has invested over 120 million dollars on transportation industry improvements to the Skyway, including an expansive technology build-out to allow for electronic payment of tolls and ability of E-ZPass / I-PASS payment.  The ability to combine the sixty-year-old architecture of the canopy with the latest tolling technology is “a testament to the progressive and versatile nature of the original toll plaza design,” said Skyway Concession Company CEO in a statement to Curbed Chicago.  The Chicago Skyway canopy restoration project, led by SOM, carefully returns the structure to its original form while modernizing its tolling technology. Old cameras, antennae, and other attachments are replaced by new, streamlined technology for more convenient and efficient toll services, plus LED lighting, and easy-to-read digital signage.  According to SOM, the canopy design incorporates photovoltaic panels to provide 100 percent of the renewable clean energy required to run the toll plaza. As communications and transportation technology evolved, the toll plaza had been continuously retrofitted with new devices and fittings.  This recent modernization no longer was impeding service speed and traffic flow.  

The original 1958 construction design of the Skyway’s toll plaza canopy was described as “ultra-modern”. Architectural photographs of the renovation not only included highlighting infrastructure, but also architectural structural renovation design which kept the familiar toll plaza eye-catching mid-century design elements from the historic, original construction design. Car drivers along the roadway today are still invited with the 1958-styled, historic, classic red sign mounted neon letters which spell out “Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge” atop the historically modernized piece of elegant midcentury infrastructure.

In addition, the architectural photography shoot project included capturing day images and night photos of the 1⁄2-mile-long steel truss bridge, known as the “High Bridge” crosses the Calumet River and Calumet Harbor.  A major harbor for large-sized industrial ships, the Skyway bridge’s construction is an impressive 650 feet long and provides for 125 feet of vertical clearance. The photography shoot focused on angles of not only the Skyway’s soaring very HIGH overhead steel bridge & roadway, but also artistic road, expressway and infrastructure pictures with shots of the bridge incorporating the area views of the Lake Michigan shoreline, the Chicago skyline in the distance, and creative aerial drone photographs of the roadway transportation system.

Learn more about The Chicago Skyway at www.chicagoskyway.org.  The Skyway project’s architectural renovation design was led by Architect SKIDMORE, OWINGS & MERRILL LLP. Project engineer and civil engineering of the famed Chicago Skyway Bridge’s design and construction by contractors Beier Engineering. Miller + Miller Architectural Photography was thankful to photograph the renovation project providing marketing construction images of the updated Chicago Skyway Toll Bridge & Plaza Restoration project.  

Searching for a photographer to capture images for your organization’s marketing needs? Contact Miller + Miller with your project description.  Miller + Miller are Chicago-based, Nationwide traveling interior, architectural photographers, & UAS drone pilot licensed with commercial construction photography services abilities. Visit our Portfolio to view additional images or the quick links below:

Chicago Drone Photographer

View Our Drone Photography Images Portfolio Section

commercial-builder-architect-marketing-portfolio-images

See More Commercial Construction & Architect Marketing Photos


Oakbrook Le Meridien Luxury Hotel Renovation Construction Photos

le-meridien-chicago-oakbrook-center-hotel

Last Fall, we scheduled our client’s Oakbrook Le Meridien Luxury Hotel Renovation Construction photos shoot. Building renovation and construction to the existing hotel and new facade finished construction in 2014. The hotel underwent a 15-month transformation lead by Wischermann Partners. Our Construction Company client was a part of the construction site’s team, focusing on the modern glass and metal building’s final look, creating the new exterior facade for The Le Meridian Oakbrook property. This hotel is 1 of 15 buildings we photographed for our client showcasing their recent work for the company’s high-rise and mid-rise commercial building construction portfolio.  We are a photographers who photograph Marriott International hotels buildings featuring several more properties and photos throughout our blog.

Our western Chicago suburban based, architectural photography company photographs projects throughout Chicago, the suburbs, traveling the Midwest and beyond, with any array of clients in construction, hospitality, and real estate specialties with clients in-charge of construction, design, concept, planning, or architecture, or in-house marketing departments for hotels, looking for a finished portfolio of images. Contact Miller + Miller we are your experienced, preferred photographer for hotel development or hospitality marketing department’s images capturing hotel photography after rehab, or after interior design, or new décor renovations have completed. These example images, exterior architectural photography of the luxury renovated hotel are a small sample of pictures from our hotel building construction architectural focused photography shoot, previewing to you images of our photography company’s imagery capabilities. Visit our portfolio hotels section for additional image examples.

Chicago Hotel Photography for the Le Méridien Chicago Oakbrook Center hotel took place at 2100 Spring Road Oak Brook IL 60523. The renovated hotel is on the mall circle drive shopping campus, steps from restaurants and Chicago’s west suburban, open air upscale Oakbrook Center Mall.  (Oakbrook Center at 2 million square feet is the 20th largest shopping mall in the United States, managed by GGP Inc. General Growth Properties).  The mid-rise building, 10-story tall Oak Brook hotel is under the Le Meridien brand to include the brand’s signature interior upscale look and design-focused interiors. The Starwood hotels Le Méridien hotel brand is a Paris-born hotel brand, representing 100+ properties in more than 40 countries, each uniquely inspired by creativity design & décor for the luxury, modern hotel market.

le-meridien-hotel-photographer-photography

Our husband + wife photography company is based out of the western suburbs, so we are close-by the Oakbrook area.  We have several photo clients within the Naperville, Downers Grove, Oak Brook, Lisle, Warrenville, near Interstates I-294, I-88, and I-355, and the west suburban region of Chicago.  Oak Brook is home to fortune 500+ businesses and corporate headquarters.  The Chicago hotel’s Oakbrook location and destination that serves as a hub for both leisure and business travelers. Oakbrook’s Le Meridien renovation includes an interior redesign in a Bauhaus-inspired, European French flair décor & Parisian design, and Exterior building new wrapped façade in glass and metal. Other renovations occurred within the 3,500 square feet of event space, a spacious fitness center, a proprietary new bar, and El Tapeo rooftop restaurant with sweeping city views, lounge, and a variety of meeting spaces. The hotel property was acquired by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., now under the Le Méridien brand owned by parent company Marriott International hotels.

Le Méridien Chicago Oakbrook Center hotel has finished construction renovations and is ready to book your stay in Chicago’s western suburbs. The construction companies who were a part of the $25 Million Interior and Exterior building renovation transformation and management of the contemporary upscale luxury property Le Meridien Chicago Oakbrook Center Hotel were Wischermann Partners, General Contractor Plantès Hotel Renovation, Hospitality Funds by Rockbridge Capital, Harmon Inc., Titan ElectricGensler and Photography by Chicago Architectural Photographers Miller + Miller.


Hotel Arista CityGate Centre Architectural Photography Naperville, IL

Hotel Arista Naperville Illinois

Hotel Arista Naperville Illinois

Hotel Arista

Hotel Arista

CityGate Centre Naperville IL

CityGate Centre Naperville IL

CityGate Centre and Hotel Arista were developed by Calamos Real Estate LLC is a Chicago-based, vertically integrated national development firm which offers development, property management and facility management services.  Calamos Real Estate LLC is owned by ex fighter pilot, Vietnam veteran and self made billionaire John P. Calamos, Sr.  John Calamos founded Calamos Asset Management in 1977 and now is ranked by Forbes as the 258th-richest person in the world.

Dirk Lohan, Principal, Basil Souder, Associate Principal, of Lohan Anderson, the award-winning architectural firm were responsible for CityGate Centre’s stunning modern design.

The mixed-use development encompasses 31 acres and over 1.2 million square feet of space including office, restaurants, shops, a 144-room boutique hotel with a performing arts center and a significant retail component called The Shops at CityGate Centre.  CityGate Centre I is a 213,000 square foot Class A office building with cutting edge architecture, sustainable design and green building strategies, and includes high ceilings, indirect lighting with light harvesting, floor to ceiling glass, underfloor air distribution and energy efficient HVAC systems. The building is currently being LEED® registered by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), and is anticipated to achieve a LEED® rating at a minimum. The building features large (31,000-34,000 rentable square feet) and flexible floor plans. Phase I of The Shops at CityGate Centre includes a 57,000 square foot, two story commercial retail building with architecture complementing the office building. CityGate Centre is located 30 miles west of downtown Chicago and within a 30-minute drive from O’Hare International, Midway, DuPage and Aurora airports.  One must see this complex in person to fully appreciate it.


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