[ethereal_reality]

A 1,500 foot stone tower, proposed for Jackson Park
on the site of the 1893 World's Fair.

The architect was MIT professor Desire Despradelle.

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/2497/beaconlgfy0.jpg

A 12' by 16' foot version of Despradelle's drawing hung
for several years in the atrium of the old Roger's Building
on Boylston Street in Boston.

WHERE IS IT NOW? Let's try to find it.



http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/2013/11abeaconchartnr5.gif


http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/3505/11abeaconsepiapj3.gif


http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/9021/11abeaconaerialpa4.gif


http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/6016/11abeacon1qq8.gif

If anyone has more information on this 1900 proposal please post.

The above illustrations are courtesy of MIT Library.

[M II A II R II K]

That looks like it would have been a very dominating building.

[BVictor1]

Looks like something out of the Michael Keaton Batman films

[ethereal_reality]

It reminds me a bit of this Tribune Tower proposal.



http://img79.imageshack.us/img79/2217/11aatribst5.jpg

Of course this proposal is miniscule compared with the Beacon of Progress.

[Biff]

Looks really heavy!

[aaron38]

A 1500' tall Egyptian monolith in Chicago? That would've been weird. It looks so dark and forbidding. It doesn't look like a beacon but a sacrificial temple.
I'm glad it never got built.

[Biff]

It would have been weird to have a 1,500 ft stone monolith towering above all of the modern glass and steel towers that make up modern day Chicago's famous skyline....only now to be surpassed by the Spire in 2010.

[ethereal_reality]

^^^
The proposed site for the Beacon of Progress was 4 miles south of downtown.
Many people don't realize the 1893 World's Fair was that far from the center
of Chicago. :)

The 1933 World's Fair was downtown.

[Nowhereman1280]

^^^ Exactly why it should have been built, the views from that height and location would be absolutely SICK. Plus we would have had the WTB for like 100+ years and the Sears probably would have been made taller to unseat this beast.

However, unless he had a really clever foundation engineered, there is no way this could have been built, would have sunk 120' into the muck in a matter of months if it didn't fall over first...

[ethereal_reality]

I especially like this aerial view.

http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/9021/11abeaconaerialpa4.gif

I believe that's the Museum of Science and Industry on the right hand side
(next to the lagoon)

[ethereal_reality]

I found a larger scan.

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1254/11111desoi4.jpg

I believe the dots at the bottom are people. :)

[dunbrine47]

Lol Looks like something out of an epsoide of Stargate.

[erbsenzaehler]

Now this... kicks ass!

Any chance somebody finally wants to realize this proposal? ;)

[JDRCRASH]

I'm sure the Dark Lord Sauron would have loved this building.:rolleyes:

[Alliance]

This was such a cool proposal. I did a drawing/gel transfer of the original Despradelle drawing for a class last semester. It was sweet.

What bugs me about why this was scrapped in 1983 is the legacy. I don't think it outdid Eiffel in anyway (which is what American engineers were trying to do) but Ferris' wheel didn't have any permenant structural legacy, something the Beacon would have had.

[Nowhereman1280]

They should have built it with the ferris wheel on top, that would surely have left a lasting legacy and engineering marvel!

[ethereal_reality]

Several issues of a Fair Corporation subscription magazine (from 1891)
presented several 'centerpiece' ideas for the fair.

One a blatant ripoff of the Eiffel Tower.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/1997/chgowceprefair1891propoqv9.jpg

Another one had a crystal palace-like base with a tower.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/9743/chgowceprefair1891propofu9.jpg

There was this behemoth.

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/1373/chgowceprefair1891freedgh4.jpg

Also, an idea to go in the opposite direction (as in...underground)

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/3434/chgowceprefairproposedmbu5.jpg


I wish I had more information and better scans.
I imagine the Ryerson Library has issues of these magazines.

[ardecila]

Architects have been imagining monolithic stuff like this for centuries...

For certain people the idea of a pure monolithic form, totally abstracted from function, use, structure, or financing holds a lot of appeal.

[erbsenzaehler]

^ And it still does..


Build this! Just for the sake of it! :dancing:

[CGII]

It's so bloody terrifying, like a temple to industrialism.

I'm not sure what to make of it. It's just so fucking hardcore imposing (a Chicago trademark) but I feel like it is so intense and huge that it is almost a caricature of the capitalism it is trying to memorialize.

[Chicago103]

The map shows that it would have basically been built on top of Wooded Island.

[Ottawade]

It's so bloody terrifying, like a temple to industrialism.

I'm not sure what to make of it. It's just so fucking hardcore imposing (a Chicago trademark) but I feel like it is so intense and huge that it is almost a caricature of the capitalism it is trying to memorialize.

As much as I actually like the design the "beacon of progress" giving nods to human civilization through the ages this building is so dark, brooding and imposing.

All I can think of imaging myself walking up to its steps is the entrance to the corporate institution in the film Brazil...

[Untitled]

When we, as Americans, embrace evil as a foreign policy, then we'll build it.

I'm thinking 20 years.

[Mr Downtown]

However, unless he had a really clever foundation engineered, there is no way this could have been built, would have sunk 120' into the muck in a matter of months if it didn't fall over first...
Couldn't he just have excavated 40 feet to get to hardpan, and laid the first course there? The problem Jenney and Sullivan had with the Manhattan and the Auditorium was that there were other buildings adjacent. Not a problem in a big park.

[Lecom]

Imagine if this was built, as well as the USSR's Palace of the Soviets. Imagine how the symbolism of the Cold War would've changed, at least visually.

[JDRCRASH]

Then it would be a battle of skyscrapers, not bombs.

[Lecom]

Then it would be a battle of skyscrapers, not bombs.

Well, if the Cold War era penis envy manifested itself in a highrise race rather than an arms race, the 20th century would've been a much cooler time.

[philvia]

this would have been pretty awesome.

[GFW]

Lol, if this were built then they would probably need to make the antenna ontop of the ESB taller to beat it.

[SkyscrapersOfNewYork]

ehhhhh i really dont like it it looks like a huge ancient temple....definately not for chicago...

[new.slang]

would have been sick...any idea what the inside would have been like?
Would it be just a giants room with a series of elevators/and or stair cases to the top?
someone should photoshop the building into the current skyline haha

[ChicagoChicago]

^^^ Exactly why it should have been built, the views from that height and location would be absolutely SICK. Plus we would have had the WTB for like 100+ years and the Sears probably would have been made taller to unseat this beast.

However, unless he had a really clever foundation engineered, there is no way this could have been built, would have sunk 120' into the muck in a matter of months if it didn't fall over first...

Good point! Jackson Park is a swamp. They had enough trouble just getting the temporary structures in place for the fair. I can't imagine what a 1500 ft stone monolith would do in that stuff...

[Chicago103]

A 1500' tall Egyptian monolith in Chicago? That would've been weird. It looks so dark and forbidding. It doesn't look like a beacon but a sacrificial temple.

Its a sacrificial temple for NIMBYS.