124 story Fordham Spire.
Posted on 07/03/2006 10:21:45 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
CHICAGO - In this city where the skyscraper was born, it is thriving like never before.
Luxury condominium towers and office buildings that climb 600 feet and more are sprouting up all over downtown. Along the Chicago River, the Trump International Hotel and Tower is inching its way up to a planned 92 stories.
Plans are in the works for a nearby 124-story skyscraper, the Fordham Spire, that would knock the Sears Tower from its perch as the tallest building in the United States.
Since 2000, no fewer than 40 buildings at least 50 stories high have been built, are under construction or are being planned. It's a surge in high-rise construction that hasn't been seen here since the 1960s and 1970s when the Sears Tower, John Hancock Center and other buildings helped give the city one of the most distinctive skylines in the world.
And while there is a flurry of high-rise construction elsewhere in the United States, particularly in New York, Miami and Las Vegas, the tallest of the tall are going up in Chicago. Of the three tallest buildings under construction, two are here, according to Emporis, an independent research group that catalogues high rise construction around the world.
“Out my window there are two, three, four, five new high-rises under construction or just completed in the last year and a half, and they've just announced another 80-story building,” said Jim Fenters, who has lived on the 51st floor of a 54-story building overlooking Grant Park since 1979.
“It's just remarkable what's happened here.”
Projects that would be headline news in other cities go all but unnoticed.
“The Waterview Tower, that project is 1,047 feet, taller than the Chrysler Building,” Blair Kamin, the Chicago Tribune's Pulitzer Prize-winning architecture critic, said of one building under construction. “In any other city there would be endless conversations, (but) here a 1,000-foot tower is `Ho-hum, how are the Cubs doing?”'
One factor that has fed the construction frenzy is the attitude at City Hall. Chris Carley, developer of the Fordham Spire, remembers the time several years ago when proposals for high-rises would prompt city officials to ask about knocking off 10 or more floors.
Today, the official attitude is reversed.
“I remember at least two (planning and development) staff members saying `Can't you make it taller? We really would like it taller,”' Chicago architect David Haymes says about discussions with the city for a planned condominium tower.
The change makes sense, says planning commissioner Lori Healey. In exchange for allowing developers to go higher - where they get eyepopping views that allow them to charge huge price tags - the city gets buildings that are a lot smaller at their base, allowing more open space and light than in cities crammed with shorter, wider buildings.
That's not to say there aren't concerns, particularly since these projects will cast long shadows.
“The jury's out on whether (the building) will overwhelm landmarks like the Wrigley Building and overwhelm the river,” Kamin said. “People are concerned.”
Still, more than a century after the world's first skyscraper - the nine-story Home Insurance Building - went up in 1885, Chicagoans remain enamored with tall buildings.
“Chicagoans live and breathe high-rises both within the profession and within the city,” said David Scott, chairman of the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, an international nonprofit organization based in Chicago.
Another reason for the surge in construction is that cities are becoming increasingly popular places to live among people with a lot of money - the same population that fled to the suburbs decades ago.
Geography also plays a role. Unlike some other cities, Chicago has huge chunks of land, much of it near Lake Michigan, the Chicago River or parks.
“We offer unobstructed views, basically forever, of the park and the lake,” said Bob O'Neill, president of the Grant Park Conservancy.
And some residents like Fenders say the view is getting even better. From his window, he can see Millennium Park's band shell designed by architect Frank Gehry, the spot where Renzo Piano's new wing at the Art Institute of Chicago is being built and the planned site of the Santiago Calatrava-designed Fordham Spire.
“These are three of the most famous architects in the world, and their (projects) are right here,” he said.
124 story Fordham Spire.
92 story Trump International Hotel & Tower.
90 story Waterview Tower.
"124 story Fordham Spire"
That's a beauty.
Plus it will have an outstanding view of the fireworks (looking down) from Navy Pier.
New York City needs to learn from Chicago and start to be more creative with their skyscraper projects in the future.
Freedom Tower is crap.
Skyline of Chicago
May 22, 2006 Trump International Hotel & Tower, Chicago Construction (view from sales center)
The building will also break the record for the world’s highest residence, which has been held since 1969 by the nearby John Hancock Center. Note that since this building has both hotel condominiums and residential condominiums it will not contest the record recently set by the Q1 Tower on the Gold Coast of Australia which is 80 stories high as the tallest all-residential building.
I don't know how to post pictures, but if you could find the one that shows an artist's view up from the base of the Tower, it'd be pretty cool to post.
It looks reallllly cooool. Amazing design too. The building actually "spires"
Yes it is, thanks for posting the pics!
I'll look for it.
Everyone assist me if you can.
Some 20+ years ago this architect, living in denver(the mile high city)at the time, noticed that it has no landmark structure like seattle's space needle, St Louis's arch, Paris's Eiffel Tower; so why not a mile high structure for the mile high city? Quickly you realize that a skyscraper is a cantilevered beam in the wind(or earthquake). First idea : trumpet bell base w/cylinder of clear, endless belts "walking" the wind around in a double vortex(100' o.c. support ring spacing)far outside the central column. Next, instead of a compression tower : twin spinning balloons pulling UP in tension. But what, people are inside SPINNING balloons? Next : twin blimps at about 1000' spacing on frames, with center tether line/elevator cable. 52 of them = 52,000' = 10 miles up = the tropopause.....Yes, lightning has to be dealt with but the twin blimps(could be pumpkin balloon rings)orient to any wind flow. Severe weather coming? De-couple and fly to grade as individual units....Idea is more or less related to the proposed space elevator but a LOT cheaper and practical experience in handling LIGHTNING is gained....So think outside the box : TENSION TOWERS instead of olde compression towers. With a 10 mile high T-Tower these "high rises" would be mere pebbles between the toes...
I'd hate to be in the building that the Trump Tower is building in front of. Talk about a ruined view. Now to be blocked by Trump's Tower. Bet they're steamed about it. That view looks down the Chicago River and out onto the lake. Those who will live in the Trump Tower will have exquisite vistas. The poor suckers in the building that used to have the view will now get to stare at the Trump Tower instead.
I could have spent a month there.
Fordham Spire reminds me of my drill bit set.
The black building behind the Trump Tower is the IBM Building.
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