Tall Building: The Calatrava Spire in Chicago
I'm way into big buildings. They do a lot more for a city's character and future than most people recognize. So, I think it's HAWTaction [hot ak-shuh
n] to keep tabs on new projects like the Nakheel Harbour and Tower, Bahrain WTC, Honeycomb Skyscraper, Burj Dubai... in Dubai... in Pictures, CCTV and TVCC Towers, Tokyo Sky Tree, Burj Dubai (Revisited), Dancing Towers, Dynamic Tower, Dubai Towers, The Lighthouse (Paris), The Lighthouse (Dubai), Antilla, London's Super Tower, Eiffel Tower, Shuffle Tower, Full Moon, Caspian Bay, Chicago Spire, Chicago's Aqua Tower, Infinity Tower, Teardrop, Christmas Tree or the Burj Dubai.
I want to let you know that sales have started one of the sassiest buildings in the world: The Chicago Spire. This building was designed by my favorite architect, the Spaniard Santiao Calatrava, and he's HAWTaction [hot ak-shuhn].
Calatrava's buildings are as sweeping and beautiful and Gehry's buildings are complicated and chunky. I consider Calatrava's buildings art. They move me. You'd recognize lots of his buildings, like the Orient Station in Portugal, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Olympic Stadium in Athens. I mean, Calatrava gets me going so much, I'm just going to have to do a full post about him. You will be blown away.
The Chicago Spire is a fine example of his work. 2,000 feet tall (the Sears Tower sits at a measly 1,450 feet), it spins and torques like a giant screw sitting on Lake Michigan. Calatrava was inspired by Native American smoke signals coming off the mouth of the Chicago River. The city has forced some key design changes to Calatrava's original plan, including a wider footprint for safety and less tapering towards the top to maximize floor space and apartment size. Still, the design blows my mind.
When completed in 2011, it will have 1,200 apartments, 150 floors, a 4-story transparent lobby and will be the largest building in the U.S. It will also be the largest residential building in the world.
Check out another picture of what the project will look like.
Your head is spinning, ya? Explore the site for the building: The Chicago Spire. Cue the head spinning again.
Look for my future post that will discuss Calatrava's other projects, including a mind-bending set of apartment "cubes" for South Street Seaport in NYC, an apartment building in Sweden that spins into the sky like this one, museums that'll make you want to go see a musuem and the WTC transporation hub at ground zero in NYC. Calatrava's the man. Just hit up his site, and jump around.
FYI, apartments are, officially, for sale in the Chicago Spire. Now that real estate prices are dropping across the board, maybe you can pick up a 1 bedroom unit for $500 million. We should all be so lucky to live in a Calatrava.
Up with huge, eco-friendly, sustainable high density buildings, down with the oil-friendly low density suburbs!!
Oh, man. We need enough readers on HAWTaction.com so I can buy one of these bad boys. That is one giant screw, and I'd like to live right in the tranparent 4-story lobby. John? You've actually done an interesting post.
I love these picturesss
Love John Walsh.