Design
Chicago vs. This Very Large Hole
What happens to a magisterial tower project deferred?
For a brief moment in 2014, there was hope.
The Santiago Calatrava-designed Chicago Spire was supposed to be the tallest tower in the Western Hemisphere, set to loom above the Windy City’s skyline at 2,000 feet. The project’s 1,193 condominiums would go for between $750,000 and $40,000,000. But the Spire announcement came in 2007; the recession followed in 2008. By then, construction workers had already carved a hole 110 feet wide and 76 feet deep. With the developer, Shelbourne, deep in a foreclosure suit, everyone left the Chicago Spire site to its weeds and its dirt.