McHugh Construction has completed the construction of Flyover, an upwards of $40 million flight ride attraction that recently opened at the west entrance of Chicago’s Navy Pier.
As construction manager, McHugh guided the project from demolition of the former IMAX theater to the buildout and division of the approximately 48,000-square-foot space into three separate rooms as well as ancillary space.
First, visitors enter an immersive video gallery featuring Chicago personalities and places. From there, visitors move to a 360-degree pre-show theatre, where stories of the people that make up the fabric of the city are introduced. Lastly, guests enter the ride space and interact with a 65-foot spherical screen from one of 61 suspended seats that swoop, dip and tilt to give riders the feeling of soaring over Chicago’s neighborhoods all while experiencing wind, mist and scents.
(Photo courtesy of McHugh Construction.)
“Throughout the project and especially during the busy summer months, we leaned on our extensive experience with working on Navy Pier to minimize any impact on visitors,” said Andrew Totten, vice president of McHugh Construction, in a statement. “We erected temporary walls with graphics of the future attraction to create separation between the work site and common interior areas of Navy Pier and worked in the evenings during high-traffic days to limit noise, dust and material deliveries.”
McHugh has constructed many popular attractions and venues on Navy Pier, including the Centennial Wheel; Offshore, the world’s largest rooftop bar, according to the Guinness Book of World Records; and Sable at Navy Pier, a $100 million, 223-room hotel that is part of Hilton’s Curio Collection.
“Flyover is the latest project to demonstrate our ability to transform underutilized spaces into immersive environments with enduring value,” Totten said. “We tapped our network of trusted subcontractors and suppliers to navigate the unique challenges associated with the site and realize our client’s vision for this attraction.”
McHugh also put these skills to work recently at another entertainment destination that opened in December 2023: Ramova Theatre, a $30 million adaptive reuse of a single-screen cinema into an 1,800-person concert hall, brewery and taproom, and 18-seat diner in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood.
Flyover was developed by Pursuit, an attractions and hospitality company. Chicago-based Epstein served as architect on the project, whose build-out cost approximately $16 million and created nearly 250 jobs.
