Two towers, one reaching 1,100 feet and the other 850 feet, will take their place in the Chicago skyline.
Developer Related Midwest recently announced the long-awaited successor to the development site that still bears signs of a failed development infamously designed by Santiago Calatrava.
The site of the never-built Spire, as the Calatrava design was dubbed, sat dormant for years in prime real estate long lake Shore Drive in Chicago. Now, Elizabeth Blasius reports, the developer has a plan for what's next.
In a generous and surprising nod to the Chicago School of Architecture, David Childs with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill has designed two sister towers in terracotta and glass for the former site of the Chicago Spire. Announced Tuesday night at a community meeting by developer Related Midwest, renderings for the development show two towers rippling upwards, set upon a masonry base resembling a rectangular photo carousel.
The development is now known as 400 North Lake Shore Drive, and Blasius includes more info on the design and development plans, although details on how the construction of the new building will address the interrupted remains of the Spire have not been made available.
Read the full story: Former Calatrava Spire site in Chicago will hold two SOM-designed skyscrapers
Two Skyline Changing Apartment Towers Proposed to Rise on the Site of Chicago's Failed Spire
An infamous site has new development life after developers returned to the public with a revised project proposal.
Chicago's Never Built Skyscraper—Now a Hole in the Ground and a Pile of Dirt
The high-water marks showing where the last boom broke under the pressure of the Great Recession are still visible in cities all over the country. The Chicago Tribune recently checked on a particularly poignant example in Chicago.
Aldermanic Obstruction Too Strong for Former Chicago Spire Site Plans
Developers Related Midwest have new plans for the infamously failed development site, but have so far been stymied by demands from the office of Alderman Brendan Reilly.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
In Texas, data centers are swallowing promised parkland
Residents who moved to Taylor, Texas for a rural community now have to contend with three data centers in their backyard.
How a Chicago-sized wind farm beat the odds and powered on
The project spanned five presidential administrations and a standoff with a U.S. military base.
MTA gives itself 30 days to transform pit into basketball court
The site has been under construction since 2022; the city originally estimated it would finish the court in 2024.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority