A jaw-dropping rendering of a new 1,700-foot mixed-use supertall was presented by state Republicans and Governor Bruce Rauner as part of a renewed effort to get Illinois’ divided lawmakers behind a plan to sell-off Chicago’s state-owned Thompson Center. According to Crain’s , the 115-story conceptual design comes from Chicago’s Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill and would easily surpass the Windy City’s current tallest building—the 1,450-foot Willis (Sears) Tower—if ever realized.
Lol, you’re on a forum founded as an offshoot of New York YIMBY, so take a guess what city they might be referencing.
I actually think that Chicago had a very strong case for having the best skyline in the world between 9/11 and the construction of the new World Trade Center. And Chicago still may be more compositionally beautiful, but in the last 10 years, NYC has become pretty awe-inspiring, in a class all its own (IMHO).
Despite all its faults, I like the Thompson Center. If the state does sell it, I hope they go with Helmut Jahn’s proposal to keep the famous atrium and build a 110 story addition to it. That way, the original building is largely preserved, and we still get a new supertall.
Never going to happen in this Chicago. Too many parties have a say in what gets built and how it will look. The audacity of attempting to surpass Sears would be looked upon unfavorably and the hounds would come out to scale the height back to some existing reference point.
Reilly will pander as usual after he “works with the developers to bring in realistic proposals.” His process is meeting with developers to force his demands onto them that cause long awaited revisions becuase he knows his ward and what the people want and what they don’t. He knows what good development is and what is not.
He’s quite the expert in architecture, engineering and urban planning for a guy from Denver that worked as an executive for AT&T.
Three six-story heritage buildings will form the base of a proposed mixed-use Toronto skyscraper that, when completed, will stand among the tallest buildings in the city. (Norm Li/Courtesy Dream Office REIT, Humbold Properties)
SHoP and BIG are at the top of my wishlist for a signature Chicago tower. Jeannae Gang is the only heavily idealistic architect designing work here in that elite tier. David Childs’ original design for the Spire site was also world class on the highest level. Too bad Related was the developer as they are notoriously the worst of the huge-promise/under-deliver firms that we have and the redesigns were further testament.
For Thompson Center to really come to fruition with a signature, trophy tower especially from a SHoP or equivalent it would probably have to be foreign billionaires that aren’t completely governed by pragmatism.
