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Architect Envisions Tallest Building in USThe architect's concept is breathtaking: a spiraling, 115-story tower that would pierce the sky along Chicago's lakefront and grab the title of the nation's tallest building.
Off the drawing board, though, history shows that such plans often fail to live up to their record-breaking aspirations.
Over the past 20 years, dozens of high-rise proposals such as the new Fordham Spire in Chicago have been billed as the world's or nation's next tallest building.
But most of the projects have ended up either scaled down or scrapped before the shovels even hit the dirt.
"Since 1950, there's only been a handful of world's tallest buildings and those that have been built have ruled for a long time," said Lee Bey, a former architecture critic who is writing a book about unbuilt skyscrapers.
"These things are obviously very complicated to build and complicated to finance."
To get high-rise projects off the ground, developers have to clear financial, regulatory and political hurdles while alleviating high-rise security concerns that surfaced after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Chicago is home to the nation's current tallest building, the Sears Tower, and has seen more than one unsuccessful attempt to top the 110-story structure.
Sixteen years ago, the 125-story, Cesar Pelli-designed "Skyneedle" was supposed to go up just
more: news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=... (315)
16/8/2005 | Viewed 18,697 time(s)
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