tallest skyscraper – DesignApplause

Chicago spire twists in wind.

Dec 22, 2009

Chicago’s AFL-CIO investment trusts take a pass.
When Chicago was in the running for the 2016 Olympics, the local AFL-CIO Investment trusts signaled interest in helping foot the bill for an Olympic Village in Chicago. The trusts represent 24 trades.

But two union funds identified by a local labor leader and a Spire spokeswoman as having expressed interest, the AFL-CIO Building Investment Trust and the union-backed life insurer ULLICO Inc., are taking a pass, according to top executives there. Representatives of two others, the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust and the Multi-Employer Property Trust, say the Spire isn’t a suitable investment for them.

“It’s not something we’re able to do,” says Edward Smith, president of ULLICO. “Unfortunately, these are just very difficult markets.”

The idea of putting union funds to work, to provide work not as popular in Chicago as one might think. The boo birds vocal on this one.

below: the 2,000-foot-high 150-story condominium tower has remained a large hole in the ground for over a year ever since financial woes stopped construction work.

below: the latest 3D renderings.

For $40,000,000 you can get the 10,000 square-foot penthouse condo, which by-the-way was bought by Ty Warner, creator of the Beanie Baby toys; for $750,000 a bottom-end 543-square-foot starter unit. The average per-square-foot cost of a bit under $2,000 marks a new top price point in Chicago.

below: the latest 3-D interior renderings.

above: santiago calatrava, the architect, in the Chicago Spire sales office in NBC Tower.

The Spire was supposed to be finished by 2012 and the Irish developer staged a global marketing campaign. Buyers have snapped up a third of its 1,194 luxury condominiums to date.

Calatrava has placed a lien on the building, claiming that he was owed $11.34 million. But while in Chicago last month, he said it was his “personal wish” that the four-year-old project “was not dead,” noting that some of his projects have taken up to 13 years to complete.

Full story…

Resources:
the chicago spire
blair kamin – not DOA yet
chicago architecture info
chicago real estate daily
lynn becker
savills
NYC’s top 10 crazy things that didn’t get built

Chicago spire. Case reopened.

Dec 1, 2009

the Chicago Spire was under a shadow of the 2016 Olympics until a few weeks ago.
When Chicago was in the running for the 2016 Olympics, the local AFL_CIO Investment trusts signaled interest in helping foot the bill for an Olympic Village in Chicago. The trusts represent 24 trades. Now that the Olympic bid is lost the trusts have another investment opportunity. The Chicago Spire.

Though it appears today, 12/1, that a meeting between the Chicago & Cook County Building & Cosntruction Trades Council which represents the trades, and the Spire’s developer, Shelbourne Development Group was uneventful, the issue of funding the restart of the project is still on the table. Under discussion is a potential $170 million land loan that would payoff liens and restart work on the dormant project.

below: the 2,000-foot-high 150-story condominium tower has remained a large hole in the ground for over a year ever since financial woes stopped construction work.

below: the latest 3D renderings.

For $40,000,000 you can get the 10,000 square-foot penthouse condo, which by-the-way was bought by Ty Warner, creator of the Beanie Baby toys; for $750,000 a bottom-end 543-square-foot starter unit. The average per-square-foot cost of a bit under $2,000 marks a new top price point in Chicago.

below: the latest 3-D interior renderings.

above: santiago calatrava, the architect, in the Chicago Spire sales office in NBC Tower.

The Spire was supposed to be finished by 2012 and the Irish developer staged a global marketing campaign. Buyers have snapped up a third of its 1,194 luxury condominiums to date.

More… spire not spared — spire news

Resources:
the chicago spire
blair kamin – not DOA yet
chicago architecture info
chicago real estate daily
lynn becker
savills

Chicago Spire not spared.

Oct 22, 2008

Another USA financial crisis casualty. This bit of news not about Joe the plumber. On the contrary, it’s an example of the very wealthy feeling it. Make you feel better? Probably not.

Architect Santiago Calatrava is in the news suing the developer of the Chicago Spire.

Mary Ellen Podmolik and Blair Kamin, Chicago Tribune reporters spell it out.

“The Chicago Spire’s penthouse may be sold but there is growing doubt whether the project will rise out of the hole that’s been created at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive.

Consultants on the project are starting to line up seeking payment for their work on the development, designed to become the tallest skyscraper in the United States and one of the tallest in the world. The most well-known of the consultants, architect Santiago Calatrava, filed a lien on Oct. 8 through his Lente Festina Ltd., seeking more than $11.3 million in payment from Spire developer Shelbourne Development Group Inc.

Separately, Chicago-based architectural design firm Perkins+Will Inc. filed a lien against Shelbourne for almost $4.85 million in payment. The two liens were filed with the Cook County recorder of deeds.

The liens suggest the project’s financing, as well as its feasibility, is shaky.”

Recently, Donald Trump was in town to top off his 92-story Trump Tower. Here is an excerpt from the Chicago Tribune

DA editor’s note: Struggles of this scale and stature have not happened very often in the U.S. In other parts of the world it may be more commonplace. One enjoyable and very enlightening exhibition I attended at the Art Institute of Chicago was on Russian architecture. All the buildings on display were never built! Things were ( are? ) so bad in Russia at the time that the frustrated architects, who never could get funding, had competitions of concepts only. The guest architects laughed about the great deal of vodka drinking and story-telling taking place at these competitions. Creative therapy in action.

Let’s hope everything works out in the end. From a design perspective, Chicago would like to see a Calatrava somewhere in town – his work, inspirational. If it has to be utilitarian in this economic environment the city has many needy bridges. Until then, the Milwaukee Art Museum, an hour away, will not disappoint, especially at sunset when the “wings” unfurl.

( above ) Image found one week after original post: dynamic architecture next big thing! Inspiration strikes in the most unlikely places.

more information via chicago tribune wikipedia chicago spire