Sky Scraper or Scrap Heap?

CHICAGO
(AP) – The 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.

from Assoc/
Press