Tallest building on drawing board.Santiago Calatrava Santiago Calatrava Valls (born July 28, 1951) is an internationally recognized and award-winning Spanish architect and structural engineer whose principal office is in Zurich, Switzerland. , the architect who designed the new World Trade Center Transportation Hub Transportation hub is a location where traffic is exchanged across several modes of transport. These modes may include any of railway, tramway, rapid transit, bus, automobile, truck, airplane, spacecraft, ship, ferry, pedestrian or any other kind of transportation. , has started work on what might be the United States' tallest building. Last week, a Chicago-based developer, The Fordham Company This article or section needs sources or references that appear in reliable, third-party publications. Alone, primary sources and sources affiliated with the subject of this article are not sufficient for an accurate encyclopedia article. , announced plans to create a 920,000 s/f mixed-use property close to the famous Lake Shore Drive Lake Shore Drive (colloquially referred to as LSD or simply Lake Shore) is a mostly freeway-standard expressway running parallel with and next to Lake Michigan through Chicago, Illinois, USA. that would rise 2,000 feet high. Scheduled for completion in 2009, the building would house 50,000 s/f of shops and restaurants on the lower levels, a 250,000 s/f hotel in the middle and 620,000 s/f of luxury condominiums at the top. Although the project has yet to be approved by the city of Chicago, the developer, Christopher T. Calrey, has so far downplayed concerns about the building becoming a terrorist target. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. the company's official release, the Fordham Spire will have a core of reinforced concrete reinforced concrete Concrete in which steel is embedded in such a manner that the two materials act together in resisting forces. The reinforcing steel—rods, bars, or mesh—absorbs the tensile, shear, and sometimes the compressive stresses in a concrete and two independent emergency exits, as well as the added advantage of an irregular, twisting form which will help it avoid "extreme lateral movements." Calatrava said that he based the design for the Fordham Spire--a slender glass structure constructed in rotating folds--on a previously completed sculpture. He also noted that he tried his best to make the building fit in with the surrounding architecture. "The site that has been chosen for Fordham Spire is a place where a great building can be created," he said. Chicago is already home to the country's tallest skyscraper, the Sears Tower Sears Tower, Chicago, the world's third tallest building. Until the opening of the 1,483-ft (452-m) Petronas Towers (1997) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, it was the world's tallest building. Constructed from 1970 to 1974 for Sears, Roebuck & Co. , which stands 1,729 feet high. At 1, 776 s/f, Larry Silverstein's Freedom Tower, which had to be redesigned earlier this summer because of safety concerns, will be taller than the Sears Tower, but will still fail to match the height of the Fordham Spire, if it is built. Chicago city officials have yet to hear from Mr. Carley, who will need some zoning changes to get started with the project. But Joe Moinian, a New York-based developer who owns a stake in the Sears Tower, said that he believes in Carley's vision. "It would be wonderful to see someone put effort and patience into such a project," he said. "I believe he will be a successful command developer and the project will be a success." |
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