Chicago: The Latest Architecture and News

Chicago Architecture Today announced two competitions currently initiated and concluding in April 2010. The first is student-based Mock Firms International Skyscraper Challenge which focuses on a studio brief for Mexico City. More details here.

Our friends from Design Crave shared with us these amazing photos of the recently opened public glass balconies for public viewing. The 1.5″ thick glass floor (which resists up to 5 tons) offers amazing views over Chicago, from 1,353 feet in the air.

As you can see on a picture after the break, the balcony cantilevers from the main structure.

More images after the break.

Chicago Union Station, by Germany-based Graft Architects will treat the user group as two: the traveler and the inhabitant.

The traveler has a destination, a purpose, a need to get through the process as efficiently as possible. The penetration into the site will be minimal; the tickets purchased en route, the space and time between the city and the outbound areas are optimized. The inhabitant seeks an extended stay; the coffee shop, the sunday morning market, life anchored to the city. The station becomes a rock jutting out of a raging river. The place of the inhabitant is at the center of the chaos, a place to better experience the city, a place to relax, a place to watch the chaos unfold.

The station serves as infrastructure for the city. It’s not a singular building, a place confined by boundaries. The interface with the city is blurred, inside and outside undefined.

Seen at designboom. More images after the break.

The “Spire”, the skyscraper designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, was going to be the tallest building in the United States. That title will have to wait, at least until the economic crisis affecting construction all over the world starts having better days.