A Navy Pier Centennial Wheel Rises in Chicago

By USGBC Communications

Completed in 2016, the Navy Pier Ferris Wheel in Chicago, IL is a new version of the former Ferris wheel, that had been an iconic symbol of Chicago’s Navy Pier for many years. In 2015, the mayor and pier officials announced plans to replace the Ferris wheel with a larger one in celebration of the Pier’s 100th anniversary. SGH assisted James McHugh Construction Co. by providing construction engineering services to facilitate removing the existing wheel, rehabilitating Pier Park, and erecting the new wheel.

“There was nothing typical or standard about the construction of Centennial Wheel,” the authors conclude. “While visitors may be most impressed by the new temperature-controlled gondolas, in-cabin video screens, and better views, the Chicago-based teams behind the wheel know the real accomplishment is in the engineering details: a 525-ton, 196-foot-high structure constructed over a fully-functional parking garage on a pier by more than 500 men and women in roughly 25,000 hours,” explained Simpson Gumpertz & Heger (SGH) senior staff member Jared Brewe and coauthors John Sheridan of James McHugh Construction and Ken Maschke of Thornton Tomasetti. 

The Navy Pier Ferris Wheel has won the 2017 Merit Award, Infrastructure Construction, Chicago Building Congress and the 2016 Outstanding Civil Engineering Achievement, $10M – $25M Award, American Society of Civil Engineers, Illinois Section.

Congratulations, USGBC MA Chapter Sponsor, SGH on this iconic project!