There’s plans for a new monster 2,000 foot tall building to appear on the lakefront in Chicago. Blair Kamin of the Chicago Tribune wrote an excellent review pointing out how the old plan had the tower gracefully pointing upward into the sky with a twisting tapered body and culmanating spire.
Now we have a twisting cylinder that looks like a Twizzler. That’s his words, “Twizzler Tower.” This should catch on as the unofficial name for the building, much like the “Chicago Picasso” and the “Chicago Bean”. So I bought the domain, www.twizzlertower.com.
What is most significant about the before and after designs is that the original design was about verbs–gracefully twisting upward. Now the tower is about a noun. A Twizzler.
Before –1,127 feet tall –450 condo units –Verb: twisting After –2,000 feet tall –1,300 condo units –Noun: Twizzler
Other name suggestions have been: —“Chicago Spire” (I believe this is the official name for now, which makes no sense, because it no longer has a spire on top) —“Churro Tower“ —“Drill bit” (previous design) —“Fordham Spire” (previous design and previous developers) —“400 North Lake Shore Drive” —“Calatrava Spire” —“Financial Suicide” (by Donald Trump in a Tribune article)
News stories: —Santiago Calatrava takes a leaf from Chicago architects with new-look Chicago Spire, 12/7/2006, YoChicago —Major redesign is latest twist in plan for spire, 12/7/2006, Chicago Tribune —Giant condo tower raising big doubts, 12/8/2006, Chicago Tribune —Trump calls Spire “financial suicide”, 12/8/2006, YoChicago —Let’s twist again, 12/11/2006, Chicago Tribune
I’m surprised that mega-star architect, Santiago Calatrava let all this happen. The original design is graceful and powerful. The new design is stripped of 75% of its original grace and power. I wonder how the pubic would have reacted to the current design if the original was never shared. I believe another factor in the public’s outcry is due to the renderings of the concepts. The original is a sleek silver model. The current concept is a photo-realistic rendering. Some of the mystic powers is lost with the photo-realistic rendering.
Donald Trump is such a little baby. He can’t stand the idea of another skyscraper overpowering his new skyscraper.
i love how the rendering showing the building at night-time has lights on top shining into the sky simulating spires or antennas. Nice try, but it doesn’t help the “crew cut” that this building has.
i forgot the link for my last comment. Here’s the Twizzler Tower at night: http://wibiti.com/images/hpmain/410/153410.jpg
looks quite alian…
This project remains surrounded by questions, none more pressing than whether Kelleher will be able to come up with the funds to build it. But if he can–and if Calatrava continues to gracefully develop a design concept that is now back on track–this could be Chicago’s finest supertall building since the mighty John Hancock Center.