Skyscraper Projects Booming in Chicago

Who says the big city isn't the place to be anymore?

http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifSkyscraper Projects Booming in Chicago

Since 2000, no fewer than 40 buildings at least 50 stories high have been built, are under construction or are being planned. It's a surge in high-rise construction that hasn't been seen here since the 1960s and 1970s when the Sears Tower, John Hancock Center and other buildings helped give the city one of the most distinctive skylines in the world.

Add to that, buildings taller than the Chrysler Building, and even the Sears Tower are in the plans!

One factor that has fed the construction frenzy is the attitude at City Hall. Chris Carley, developer of the Fordham Spire, remembers the time several years ago when proposals for high-rises would prompt city officials to ask about knocking off 10 or more floors.

Today, the official attitude is reversed.

"I remember at least two (planning and development) staff members saying `Can't you make it taller? We really would like it taller,'" Chicago architect David Haymes says about discussions with the city for a planned condominium tower.

I guess the hide-and-spread-out mentality that some said 9/11 caused is B.S... at least in Chicago. I've been to several big cities: Chicago is just plain breathtaking. Of course, the Chicago area is a booming metropolis well spread out and populated, but there is a great mass transit system there to put it all together. I doubt this would all be happening in the old "cheap parking" mentality, so where these skyscrapers are going up had to have been low-rises and/or parking lots.