31-Mar-18 – The Spire never got off the ground, but it has been re-imagined, at least hypothetically, as a 64-story office tower rising from the 34 existing caissons of the failed project in Streeterville.

Jon Carag won second place in the Skyhive Skyscraper Challenge with his design, Chicago Pillar. Winners were announced on February 18.

The international competition challenges architects, design students, engineers, and artists to submit proposals “that question the potentials of high-rise construction, to redefine skyscraper design with new technologies, materials, programs, forms, facade solutions, and other tools.”

It is organized by Manipal Executive Education, a corporate education center in Dubai. (Left) Entrance to tower from Lake Shore Drive.

Carag’s design makes use of the 78-foot-deep, 104-foot-diameter foundation and substructure that was constructed before money ran out with the collapse of real estate markets in 2008. As it rises to 64 stories – expandable to 80 stories – an outer skin of the building houses gardens.

Every 16 floors, Sky Lounges (right) offer space for meetings and recreation. The building collects rain water and harnesses wind power.

“The design has the potential to be used anywhere,” said the judges. “A simple cylindrical tower is wrapped in a ribbon of perimeter green spaces that transform the typical office, and which are well-designed with details showing deep planters permitting the growth of trees and appropriate drainage. The resulting form is attractive and unique, related directly to its program.”

The tower, imagined over a 2.2-acre site in Streeterville between the Chicago River and Ogden Slip, would offer a pathway connecting the north side of the Chicago River with Navy Pier.

The Spire was introduced to Chicago and the world in 2006. At 2,000 feet, it would have been the tallest residential building in North America. According to a lawsuit filed on February 27, 370 of 1,200 condominium units were pre-sold at an average cost per square foot of $1,400.