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Chicago Spire: The Latest Architecture and News

STLArchitects Reveal Competition Design Entry on Former Chicago Spire Site

STLArchitects Reveal Competition Design Entry on Former Chicago Spire Site - Facade, Cityscape
Courtesy of STLarchitects

Chicago-based STLarchitects revealed their design for the former Chicago Spire site. The competition brief called for two towers: one supporting a mixture of apartments and condominiums and the other strictly for condominium use. Their design focused on "Chicago’s architectural character and essential virtues... thus iconic, innovative, and flexible.

STLArchitects Reveal Competition Design Entry on Former Chicago Spire Site - Facade, CityscapeSTLArchitects Reveal Competition Design Entry on Former Chicago Spire Site - Lighting, CityscapeSTLArchitects Reveal Competition Design Entry on Former Chicago Spire Site - CityscapeSTLArchitects Reveal Competition Design Entry on Former Chicago Spire Site - Facade, CityscapeSTLArchitects Reveal Competition Design Entry on Former Chicago Spire Site - More Images+ 24

First Images Released of SOM's Proposed Skyscrapers on Former Chicago Spire Site

The Chicago Tribune has released images of an SOM-designed skyscraper scheme for the former Chicago Spire site. The two towers, measuring 1,000 and 850 feet tall (305 and 259 meters), are expected to contain 1.3 million square feet of floor space, including 850 residential units.

The proposal signals a new lease of life for 400 N Lake Shore Drive, where a 75-foot-deep, much-ridiculed foundation hole serves as the only reminder of the once-planned Chicago Spire, a 2000-foot-tall Santiago Calatrava-designed skyscraper.

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SOM to Design 2 Skyscrapers on Former Chicago Spire Site

Since construction was halted on the Chicago Spire, the Santiago Calatrava-designed skyscraper at 400 N Lake Shore Drive, the hole which was to become the tower's foundation has become something of a local punchline, variously being caricatured as the site of semi-ironic proposals for inner-city adventure playgrounds or the pit into which the city's other failed ventures can be metaphorically dumped. But according to a report by the Chicago Tribune, that narrative might be about to change, as their sources within the city government have confirmed that a proposal is in the works to bring two skyscrapers to the site, designed by David Childs of SOM, the lead architect behind 1 World Trade Center.

Gensler Devises a Megatall Replacement for the Chicago Spire Site

Gensler Devises a Megatall Replacement for the Chicago Spire Site  - Cityscape
© Tomorrow AB

Gensler’s “Gateway Tower” is a 2000-foot (610 meter) conceptual proposal for the Chicago Spire site. The project is the winning entry for a company-wide internal competition to generate a new megatall structure for the 2.2 acre plot at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive. The mixed-use proposal throws out the residential luxury model that drove Santiago Calatrava’s design, with a concept inspired by tourism and public engagement. Gateway Tower’s volume is still largely devoted to residential functions, but now condos and apartments are coupled with a hotel and public attractions that connect to the riverwalk, lakefront, and city. The building would include four unique experiences including riverfront public access at DuSable Park, a Funicular ride of pods ascending the building’s structural “leg” over Lake Shore Drive, a Skylobby with hotel and retail amenities, and a Skydeck with a restaurant and sky-garden at the building’s pinnacle.

Gensler Devises a Megatall Replacement for the Chicago Spire Site  - Facade, CityscapeGensler Devises a Megatall Replacement for the Chicago Spire Site  - FacadeGensler Devises a Megatall Replacement for the Chicago Spire Site  - Facade, StairsGensler Devises a Megatall Replacement for the Chicago Spire Site  - CityscapeGensler Devises a Megatall Replacement for the Chicago Spire Site  - More Images+ 5

6 Ways to Repurpose the Chicago Spire "Hole"

With Santiago Calatrava’s unfulfilled Chicago Spire amounting to just a (costly) depression along the Chicago River, what was to be the second-tallest building in the world certainly has not established the legacy it intended. However, following the site’s relinquishment to local developers Related Midwest, it may yet have a meaningful impact on its community. Six Chicago-based firms of various disciplines have developed designs to make use of the "hole" by injecting a public program into the abandoned site.

Check out the inventive proposals, with ideas from firms including UrbanLab and Solomon Cordwell Buenz, after the break.

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Santiago Calatrava's Chicago Spire Finally Axed

Santiago Calatrava's much maligned design for the Chicago Spire has finally met its end, thanks to a lapsed payment deadline from the site's developer, Grant Kelleher. The project, which would have been the tallest building in the USA, began construction in 2007 but was halted at the onset of the global financial crisis, leaving nothing more than a large hole in the ground for over six years.

Despite numerous attempts to revive the Spire, Grant Kelleher's Shelbourne Development Group never overcame its financial troubles. Shelbourne Development Group and its partner Atlas Apartment Holdings received a court order to pay $22 million to one of their creditors, Related Midwest, who had bought $93 million worth of debt from the project. However, the Chicago Tribune reports that within minutes of the October 31st deadline lapsing with no sign of payment, Related Midwest filed papers in a Chicago court requiring that the deeds for the property be passed to them.

Developer Seeks to Revive Calatrava's “Chicago Spire”

Cloaked in financial woes, what was intended to be the tallest skyscraper in the Western Hemisphere has remained a stagnate hole in the Chicago cityscape since the height of the crisis. However, the fate of the Santiago Calatrava-designed luxury condominium may be about to change, as developer Garrett Kelleher is actively seeking court approval to reinstate the project with a $135 million investment from Atlas Apartment Holdings LLC. More on Chicago's 2,000-foot “twisting" spire latest update here on the Chicago Tribune.