Facebook icon Twitter icon Instagram icon YouTube icon

Time-Lapse Video: CTA Moves 1,000-Ton Historic Building 30 Feet


If you thought your last move was a hassle, CTA has got you beat: The agency just relocated an entire building.

For 127 years, the Vautravers Building stood at 947 W. Newport Ave. in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. It now sits roughly 30 feet to the west and 10 feet to the south after a two-day herculean effort this week to slide the 1,000-ton structure out of the way of the CTA Red and Purple Line tracks. 

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors


CTA trains have curved around the building for the better part of a century, because its owners refused to sell when the rail was built. With the building now repositioned, this kink in the system will be straightened as part of the ongoing Red and Purple Modernization project, allowing trains to move through the area faster and more efficiently, officials said.

More than a dozen neighboring structures have been demolished by the CTA to make way for track upgrades, but the Vautravers Building was spared the wrecking ball thanks to the efforts of preservationists. The building is part of the Newport Avenue Chicago Landmark District, which was created in 2005.

Ward Miller, executive director of Preservation Chicago, noted that moving and lifting buildings is a Chicago specialty, something done all the time in another age, with the city at one point literally raising itself out of the mud. 

“It’s Chicago ingenuity at its best,” Miller said.


Contact Patty Wetli: @pattywetli | (773) 509-5623 |  [email protected]

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

Thanks to our sponsors:

View all sponsors

Neighborhood: