Welcome. It's the super battle of the super towers's super sites! No, it's not about the towers...just where they are located. Which of the five (we'll include Chicago Spire...since the "site" is already in place) has the most beautiful, the most dramatic, the most eye catching location?
I'll try my hand at summarizing (without offering a choice):
JOHN HANCOCK: the only one on the Magnifcent Mile (which alone earns it high praise), it emerges from what is arguably the ritziest location of all the towers and the blocks around it get more tourist/out-of-towner foot traffic of all the locations making it an incredible high energy location. The streetscape is elegant, the tower dominates that special view coming south on LSD, it plays off beautifully when juxtaposed with the Drake, Palmolive, WTP
SEARS: in Chicago, the business community steadily moved westward towards the Metra Stations. Sears Tower rises out of the most massive, the densest location of all the towers. Wacker Drive (along with LaSalle Street) is one of the two most prominent streets in the business district. While not directly on the river, Sears is close enough and high enough to dominate the south branch. None of the towers are as close to the expressway system as Sears, heightened its role as beacon of the city's core when driving in-bound. And Sears's location alone comes with a front door...the remarkable entry point offered by the Eisenhower Expy going through the old post office...emerge at the east side and you are overwhelmed by the view.
AON: where once there was just one street wall, the Michigan Avenue built in the post-fire era, now there are three with the additon of Randolph and Roosevelt. Grant Park is Chicago's front yard and the Aon dominates its landscape. The domination is even greater in Millennium Park...and what building wouldn't want that as its forefront? If the utlimate view of Chicago is the Grant Park walls of high rises, Aon beats the competition based on promience of the site.
TRUMP: the globally unique, tower-lined main branch of the Chicago River...what a powerful and distinctively Chicago site. Add to this that Trump serves as the nexus, the connecting point between Loop and Mag Mile and draws its vistas from both. The straight ahead view north from the Loop on Wabash or south from Rush Street on the opposite bank offer a Board of Trade type of perspective on LaSalle Street. As for immediate neighbors, how can you beat being included in a view that offers Wrigley, Trib Tower?
CHGO SPIRE: the linear Chicago skyline from the lakefront is sliced in half here at the river, Loop to the south, Near North Side to the north. It embraces the lake the way that Trump embraces the river. While probably the least "in the center of things" location, the location is arguably the most dramatic and the one best suited to highlight a building of such height, a signature location by any measure.
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iÂ'm sorry, but some of those pictures of above make me think tha chicago is the daniel radcliffe of cities.....totally confident and not the least bit modest.> |
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