Halting Traffic In Playhouse Square, Lumen Dismantles ‘Ichabod The Crane’

The crane towering over the Euclid Avenue construction site of the Lumen building in Playhouse Square comes down this week.

Dismantling the crane means the exterior of the 400-foot tall high-rise apartment is almost complete, said Art Falco, Playhouse Square’s senior advisor for special projects.

“The project is now completely enclosed with glass,” Falco said. “Most of the work from this point on will be completing the apartment units.”

Weather permitting, the crane should be completely down by the end of the weekend. [Gabriel Kramer / ideastream]

It will take a few days for construction crews to disassemble the crane completely, so Euclid Avenue between East 18 ^th and East 14 ^th streets is scheduled to be closed through Saturday, but inclement weather could delay that process.

Sidewalks on Euclid Avenue and the crosswalk at East 14 ^th will remain open. For theater-goers, drop-off and valet will also be available in front of the Connor Palace, but drivers will have to come in from Chester Avenue to East 17 ^th to Euclid Avenue. 

The Euclid Avenue stretch from East 14th to East 17th streets will be closed through Saturday. [Gabriel Kramer / ideastream]

Falco called the temporary road closures the “price of progress.”

“The Lumen is going to be a building that everyone is going to see, whether you’re coming in from the south or you’re coming in from the east, from the west, so everyone will know where Playhouse Square is just by seeing the Lumen,” Falco said.

The 34-story building, which is owned by the Playhouse Square Foundation, broke ground in April 2018. Since then, Playhouse Square has sought ways to get the community excited about and interacting with the construction project, including a live webcam with a bird's-eye view of the construction maintained by Gilbane Building Company, the contractor for the Lumen project. Playhouse Square also nicknamed the crane Ichabod the Crane and started  a Twitter account for Ichabod.

The $135 million construction project had a hiccup in October 2018 when several steel beams dropped from the crane and damaged an adjoining parking garage. There were no injuries.

Even with that setback, according to Falco the Lumen project is on schedule and on budget. The Lumen's 318 apartments will be available for pre-lease in early March. The entire project is expected to be completed by the end of August, Falco said.