Chicago, tickling the sky
It was from 1880 when this legend that still lasts began to take shape. The Chicago School pioneered the construction of those buildings that today continue to tickle the clouds . It can be said that The Chicago Building, with its characteristic dark bricks, its terracotta, and its wide windows, is the first example of the Chicago School of Architecture. From this building that seems small to us now, a career began that was soon joined by New York.
Chicago, that open museum of the history of modern architecture , continues to influence new creators, who pay homage to the city. Designer Al Boardman has stripped down the five most outstanding buildings to their simplest, most elegant lines. , and play with its structure through virtual animations.
Chicago - Five Great Buildings from Al Boardman on Vimeo .
In this tour, we tell some curiosities:
1)TRUMP TOWER
The Trump Tower in Chicago is the fourteenth largest skyscraper in the world and the third largest in the United States after the new World Trade Center in New York and the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago. Adrian Smith - of Sikdmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) - styled his signature high-rise cuts. Its current owner, Donald Trump, intended to make it grow, but on September 11 he postponed the project indefinitely.
trump tower
2) MARINA CITY
The architect Bertrand Goldberg designed several residential and institutional buildings with the intention of turning them into "a city within another city". The two residential towers stand out , with its famous reinforced concrete structure finished off with majestic and dynamic curved terraces, which serve as white petals hanging from the stems.
Marina City, a city within another city
3) JOHN HANCOCK CENTER
The skyscraper, currently ranked 12th tallest at 344 meters, was designed by Bruce Graham and structural engineer Fazlur Khan of SOM. It houses offices, homes and restaurants, and its two white rooftop antennas are familiar to all Chicagoans , as well as the shiny black glass and metal facade. Today it is affectionately called “Big John”, but when it was built it had many detractors. On the top floor is the observation deck that competes with the Willis Tower for the best views of the city and the surrounding area.
The John Hancock Center and its two white antennas
4) WILLIS TOWER
The famous Sears Tower -today called the Willis Tower- snatched the title of tallest skyscraper in the world from the Twin Towers of New York, which had been inaugurated the previous year, in 1973, and he lost it twenty-five years later, in 1998, with the construction of the Petronas in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia.
Graham and Khan repeated the team and designed an innovative structure using huge tubes supported mainly by beams located on the outer skin that was very resistant to wind, something essential in a city they call “Windy City”. The viewpoint -the Skydeck-, located on the 103rd floor, is visited by a million and a half people every year and has its own entrance through Jackson Boulevard.
The famous Sears Tower (now Willis Tower)
5)CRAIN COMMUNICATIONS BUILDING
Designed by A. Epstein and Sons and completed in 1984, it was its shape that provided fame to this black and white striped skyscraper. Rhomboid in shape, with a sloping double peak finish , reminiscent of a diamond. And for that reason it has received many names, some loaded with a sense of humor, such as “The Vagina Tower”. It was one of the first "intelligent buildings", those that aim to save energy.
To learn about the architecture of Chicago -and of the whole world-, it is advisable to follow the blog and the magazine MAS CONTEXT , a debate forum directed by the Spanish Iker Gil , an architect based there and a member of the Chicago Architectural Club.
Crain Communications Building, a diamond with black and white stripes