Chicago Skyscraper Plans to Pierce the Sky!

Chicago Skyscraper Plans to Pierce the Sky

CHICAGO (AP) - The architect's concept is breathtaking: a spiraling, 115-story tower that would pierce the sky along Chicago's lakefront and grab the title of the nation's tallest building. Off the drawing board, though, history shows that such plans often fail to live up to their record-breaking aspirations.

Over the past 20 years, dozens of high-rise proposals such as the new Fordham Spire in Chicago have been billed as the world's or nation's next tallest building. But most of the projects have ended up either scaled down or scrapped before the shovels even hit the dirt.

"Since 1950, there's only been a handful of world's tallest buildings and those that have been built have ruled for a long time," said Lee Bey, a former architecture critic who is writing a book about unbuilt skyscrapers. "These things are obviously very complicated to build and complicated to finance."

To get high-rise projects off the ground, developers have to clear financial, regulatory and political hurdles while alleviating high-rise security concerns that surfaced after the Sept. 11 attacks.




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Wow I think this is a good idea, Chicago is a good city for this if they can just get the electrical infrastructure fixed.!

That looks cool, But the proposed Millenium Tower in Hong Kong has to take the crown for sky piercers.


And another noticablely HUGE construction project on the Horizon.

The Gibraltar Bridge, Linking Africa and Europe across the straights of gibraltar.

Very nice. But the Chicago Skyscraper can become a target for terrorists just like the WTC. And I have to say the Millenuim Tower IF completed will be a stunning monument.

Originally posted by DaVirus
Very nice. But the Chicago Skyscraper can become a target for terrorists just like the WTC. And I have to say the Millenuim Tower IF completed will be a stunning monument.

In case you didn't know, Chicago already had the tallest building in the US (the Sears Tower), the tallest residential building (the John Hancock building) and currently has 5 of the 10 tallest buildings in the country.

It sounds corny, but if the US stops building anything that can be a "target", the terrorists have won.

Originally posted by jonesey_dude
The Gibraltar Bridge, Linking Africa and Europe across the straights of gibraltar.

May God spare us from that, and I'm atheist.

Originally posted by Starwars51

Originally posted by DaVirus
Very nice. But the Chicago Skyscraper can become a target for terrorists just like the WTC. And I have to say the Millenuim Tower IF completed will be a stunning monument.

In case you didn't know, Chicago already had the tallest building in the US (the Sears Tower), the tallest residential building (the John Hancock building) and currently has 5 of the 10 tallest buildings in the country.

It sounds corny, but if the US stops building anything that can be a "target", the terrorists have won.

Look Of Course I agree with u that we must show that we can endure terrorism. But the USA government must start backing this kinds of project. In order for us to show the "endurance" that we are ready to take. (Sorry I got a little Off-Topic)

[edit on 14-8-2005 by DaVirus]

DaVirus...ahhh, i'm a little confused, what does the US Government have to back?

also, That claim about it could become a terrorist site is just dumb, since if that is actually someones atitude then why do we build anything? I had a friend that wanted to build a house...I warned him not to, because the terrorist could strike it.....See how dumb that sounds. The lessons that 9/11 taught us are still of course very present...make them safer, thats it, thats really all you can do...next to making a massive structure with no windows and 20 foot thick reinforced concrete.

[edit on 14-8-2005 by Murcielago]

It's a matter of insurance, not of surrender towards terrorists. Apparently the risk is bigger for extremely tall symbolic building so it is only natural you ought to pay more to them.

jonesey_dude......Those things are just concepts, there not it any real plans.

As for this Chicago skyscrapper, I like it, it looks good, and I would love to look out that window of 115 stories up.
Its height is impressive at 1,458 feet at the roof, and with its spire its an even 2,000 feet.



I heard before that the US has a limit on how high it can build, and the limit is 2000ft...is this true?

It will be even taller then the New York Freedom Tower, so it will grab the tallest building in the US title...but not the world. Because of the Samsung building in Dubai, which will be a half mile high (2640ft).



[edit on 14-8-2005 by Murcielago]

Originally posted by Simon666

Originally posted by jonesey_dude
The Gibraltar Bridge, Linking Africa and Europe across the straights of gibraltar.

May God spare us from that, and I'm atheist.

scary indeed although that would be one awesome site. Alas, I too do not think it will happen, I mean a chunnel from France to England is one thing, .........

I saw a show that was about a possible bridge across the Bering Strait...

[edit on 15-8-2005 by NWguy83]

Originally posted by NWguy83
I saw a show that was about a possible bridge across the Bering Strait...

More delusional fantasies, it would never be economically viable. At best a few dozen tourists would use it.

Originally posted by edsinger
Alas, I too do not think it will happen, I mean a chunnel from France to England is one thing, .........

Speaking of economically viable, that thing is a monster as well.

Some personal thoughts on these mega-structures:

1) they are not really needed. There is enough space to just have all the offices and rooms in normal buildings.

2) as technology progresses, bigger structures are being planned or made. Eventually, these structures will be so big, as to be visible from space (for example, the Tokyo mega-pyramid). Could it be that Mars is a planet where its visible artifacts (the pyramids, the face etc) are left-overs of a technologically advanced civilization?

I like the idea, it gives us Chicagoans more to brag about.

Yeah I agree with invader_chris. I think we need more of this landmarks for pride.

Who thinks it looks like:

1. A drill bit
   
   
2. A birthday cake candle
   
   
3. A narwhal tusk
   
   
   
   

Originally posted by HowardRoark
Who thinks it looks like:

1. A drill bit
   
   
2. A birthday cake candle
   
   
3. A narwhal tusk
   
   
   
   
   
   

B

Originally posted by NWguy83
I saw a show that was about a possible bridge across the Bering Strait...

Yeah, i've seen that show to, it was on Discovery Channel called Extreme Engineering.

Extreme Engineering

But very highly doubt that bridge would ever get built.

It was a good show though...My personal favorite was the Transatlantic Tunnel...I mean who wouldn't want to hop on a maglev and go 5,000mph.

While constructions like this certainly do impress me, I would suggest that in this day and age (terrorism, etc.) it is a bad idea to unnecessarily concentrate such massive amounts of value in such a small area. Society should be structured in a more distributed way (borg-like but without all the creepy implants?), spread out fairly evenly with local areas doing as much as they can via local means (grow own food, grow/make building materials, etc.) Redundancy like this would make it (nearly) impossible to destroy the whole country by just attacking a few key locations/facilities; at most you'd only hurt the areas that got hurt, then the people from the surrounding areas would still be in good enough shape to assist.

Anyway, I'm dreaming, I know it'll never happen (in this age anyway).

I once heard about huge problems with building at certain heights. Such as wind speeds. I remember watching videos of a tower gently rocking back and forth. I think there were many big problems with working big.

I like the idea of a big tower.. a big tower is one thing though, check out the nuts who want to build the space elevator j/k

Vorta