Calatrava's Chicago Spire (Chicago)

[p5connex]

Chicago Spire- Santiago Calatrava

Mods: In the case that this is not the correct area to post this, but please feel free to move it.

For those of you who may or may not be familiar with this project, Santiago Calatrava has designed a 2000 ft. condo/hotel tower for the Shelbourne Development Group, and it is presently under construction. As of yesterday or so, the building has reached the 30% sales point in order to reach construction financing.

To make a long story short, I found a great video on the Chicago Tribune site, which documents the construction process for this incredible project. Please find it here:

Chicago Spire Construction Video

On another note, it would be great to see Toronto begin to take its present condo boom to another level. This may happen, or will probably most likely happen in the next cycle..

p5

 

[MetroMan]

^ thanks for that. Fascinating video!

Toronto is too timid for something of that nature unfortunately. I have no doubt that Spire will rise and satisfy the expectations that are being set for it. Look at other great projects in Chicago and you'll understand.

If it weren't for the crime rate, Chicago would be my city of choice to live in when I take my next nomadic step in a decade or so.

Being such an ambitious person, one feels restricted living in a city that isn't. As much as I love Toronto, I'm afraid Toronto shows the "settle for less" personality trait.

 

[adma]

Being such an ambitious person, one feels restricted living in a city that isn't. As much as I love Toronto, I'm afraid Toronto shows the "settle for less" personality trait.

Though given what happened to "ambitious" cities like Chicago in the past(again, the crime rate thing you mention, among other things), maybe there's virtue in so-called lack of ambition and settling for less. There's more to urbanity than the will to build a Chicago Spire-type thing--and if you feel fatally "restricted" by that, it only serves as a reminder that there's a fine line between ambitiousness and pretentiousness...

 

[Hipster Duck]

Though given what happened to "ambitious" cities like Chicago in the past(again, the crime rate thing you mention, among other things), maybe there's virtue in so-called lack of ambition and settling for less. There's more to urbanity than the will to build a Chicago Spire-type thing--and if you feel fatally "restricted" by that, it only serves as a reminder that there's a fine line between ambitiousness and pretentiousness...

Frankly defending Toronto's timidity is getting a little tiresome and symptomatic of the larger problem of this city as a whole. As unimaginative would remind us, in what other world city would so-called transit advocates routinely criticize subway construction as extravagant and wasteful?

 

[p5connex]

^^Good point! Toronto the timid!

Just the other day I had an argument with a friend who claims to be a transit advocate and who often complains about the sad shape of the TTC transit situation, but thinks upgrading to new streetcars and building subways as superfluous. Go figure eh?

 

[adma]

Frankly defending Toronto's timidity is getting a little tiresome and symptomatic of the larger problem of this city as a whole. As unimaginative would remind us, in what other world city would so-called transit advocates routinely criticize subway construction as extravagant and wasteful?

Except that this particular thread of attacking-Toronto-for-its-timidity discussion isn't centred about transit policy. It's centred about stuff like the Chicago Spire.

Heck, by my stating "there's more to urbanity than the will to build a Chicago Spire-type thing", it's just as well declaration that I'd likely make a better *Chicagoan*, from an total-urban-conoisseurship standpoint, than MetroMan...

 

[Hipster Duck]

^Okay, so it's not about transit policy. It's about the most striking skyscraper this continent has seen in a generation and how it is not being built in Toronto, never could be built in a city like Toronto, and how defending our city's inferiority complex is counterproductive to city building in general.

Sure, there is more to Toronto than some pretty buildings but, then again, there's a lot to say about Chicago beyond the Loop, too.

 

[Urban Shocker]

There's nothing inferior about building within the existing context ( our Spire, say, in a city of increasing numbers of similar neo-Modernist towers ) rather than building to stand out against context ( their Spire ), just differences in how the two cities express themselves.

 

[Edward]

Does every second thread have to talk about how we suck compared to other cities? Toronto is hardly timid.

 

[adma]

^Okay, so it's not about transit policy. It's about the most striking skyscraper this continent has seen in a generation and how it is not being built in Toronto, never could be built in a city like Toronto, and how defending our city's inferiority complex is counterproductive to city building in general.

Well, whoop de doo doo. Maybe I should move to Philadelphia because this was a far more "progressive" building in its day than Commerce Court North

...and indeed, for me, is sexier than *any* Toronto high-rise, old or new. Heck, I'd choose it over the Chicago Spire, too...

Just subjective opinion. But I don't want to let it guide life's fatal-attraction decisions; architectural Stendhal syndrome ain't that hot, y'know...

 

[Hydrogen]

Does every second thread have to talk about how we suck compared to other cities? Toronto is hardly timid.

Yeah, it does get on the nerves after a while. If the measure for timidity is not having a spire-like development, then we can count ourselves among the many timid cities of the world.

 

[khris]

Union boss steps in to save the floundering Calatrava project
Niki May Young
News Editor

North America's tallest tower was stopped dead in its foundations last year as the recession bells clanged and key players argued over alleged non-payment of millions of dollars in fees. But now the fate of Calatrava's Chicago Spire looks much brighter as union boss Tom Villanova, president of the Chicago and Cook County Building and Construction Trades Council (CBTC), has entered talks to loan $170million to the project's Irish developer, Shelbourne Development Group in a bid to create work for 1000 workers.

The Chicago Spire was set to become North America's tallest tower after commencing construction in 2007. Designed by world-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava the Spire was to reach 2,000 ft and open in 2011. Following the marketing launch it had sold 30% of all of the building's 1,200 apartments in the first three months. But the recession halted work on the project without ever leaving its foundations. The Fordham Company was the original developer and namesake for the project when it was in its previous, shorter incarnation as the Fordham Building. Following a relaxation of height restrictions in Chicago new designs were released increasing the building's height. The recession, however, took its toll on The Fordham Company which failed to produce sufficient funds and the project was subsequently taken over by Shelbourne who acquired the land. Just several months later, however, and Calatrava's office placed a security lien on the property having not received over $11million in fees and the project ground to a halt.

Advanced talks are now said to be underway and if Villanova's offer is accepted, the Chicago Spire will recommence construction as a full union project.

 

[cdr108]

^ ^ ^

a union 'somewhat' putting money where it's mouth is - good for it !

i wonder how much interest they are charging for the loan?