Construction is set to begin on one of the two Chicago Spire towers,
after the developer secured a financing deal that will allocate 20% of units to low-income tenants.
Associated Midwest is the current owner of the project,
located at 400 N. Lake Shore Drive in Streeterville.
Along Chicago’s front door is where the river meets Lake Michigan and boats pass through the locks to get from one to the other.
Chicago Spire is a skyscraper project in Chicago that was partially built between 2007 and 2008 before being cancelled.
It was 2,000 feet (610 m) tall, 150 stories high,
and was the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.
When it was originally proposed as Fordham Spire in July 2005,
The design had 116 floors, including a hotel and residential units,
and was topped with a broadcast antenna.
The building was designed and led by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and Chicago developer Christopher T. Carley of Fordham.
On March 16, 2006, the Chicago Plan Commission unanimously approved the preliminary design for the building.
On November 4, 2016, a court ruling brought an end to the original development plan and extended litigation over the nine-year-old project.
Developer Garrett Kelleher has signed over the property to the project’s largest creditor,
Associated Midwest, which announced it would not build Spire and released plans for a different project.
Design features
The tower was to be a 116-story structure with a hotel and residential units topped by a tall broadcast antenna.
The Fordham Tower could have become the second tallest building in the entire world, preceded only by the Burj Khalifa.
It would have been the tallest free-standing structure as well as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, surpassing the CN Tower in Toronto.
Related now intends to begin construction work on one of the two buildings.
The northernmost tower will be the tallest tower at 840 feet,
or 74 floors, and will include 635 apartments for rent.
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Chicago Spire tower concept
The concept of the spiral tower was conceived from smoke rising from Native Indian campfires along the edge of Lake Michigan.
The swirling façade was artistically designed to honor ancient Americans as well as deflect Chicago winds.
The 610-meter-tall tower was considered the tallest building in North America by 2012, with 150 floors.
The basic design has begun to create a semi-commercial complex that will accommodate 250 hotel apartments, 1,200 luxury apartments,
and a sky observation deck that will enhance the broadcast antenna at the top.
The final design eliminated the commercial aspects and transformed it into a residential obelisk containing 1,194 units.
The apartments ranged in size from 534 to 10,293 square feet,
and their price ranged from $800 to $1,000 per square foot.
It is also planned to integrate the world’s tallest duplex penthouse at the top of the tower.
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