CHICAGO: 2010 future vision 3D model

[Steely Dan]

there's a photo of a model of it in one of the old books i have, along with harry weese's 2,500' proposal for a chicago world trade center that's even cooler. if i remember the SOM plan correctly, graham said it would be based on the sears use of bundled tubes, but this tower would have 15 of them, instead of 9, and they would go in a 7-5-3- sequence with the 3 setbacks in the same sequence and the 7 tube section rising to the full 2,300' height, so it looks like your render is mostly right, though i'm not sure what the lower level bustle seen on the west side of it is.

[STR]

^Would it be possible to make scans? Inc. the Wesse pyramid-ish design?

[Steely Dan]

^ perhaps in a couple months time, my entire library is boxed up right now as i'm in a temproray living situation. i'm not postive which book it's in, but i'm pretty sure the images of those two are in The Sky is the Limit: A Century of Chicago Skyscrapers, which can be picked up at any chicago area bookstore for around 60 bucks. if you don't own this volume already, you need to own it because it's fantastic, so just fork over the dinero and enjoy.

[STR]

Do you recall how the tubes were arranged?

Was it like this:




this




or possibly this?









Some other configuration? You can move the .gifs around to depict it.

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by STR

Do you recall how the tubes were arranged?

Was it like this:

that one is correct. with the top seven going to 2,300', the middle 5 going to ~1,800' or so, and the bottom 3 going to ~1,300. i'm not sure about those heights of the lower setbacks, but it was something along those lines.

[STR]

Thanks a million Dan. All I need is the location and facade details and this thing is final. I'll have a render of the correct massing in about 10 minutes.

[STR]

I'm very disappointed with the true version of this building. It really, really needs some more setbacks.

[HK Chicago]

^ while the other side must be horrible, that rendering is hot... good old 70's/80's supertall design.

[JACKinBeantown]

I think it's interesting to look at for now, but I hope you take it off the city rendering soon. I really like what you're doing for two reasons. One, it looks freakin fantastic... and two, it's based on buildings that will actually be built (or probably will) soon in Chacago.

[STR]

^No worries. It's just a temp thing. But I feel it's important to see what's been shown in the past, so I'll throw one of these blasts from the past out every once in a while.

[STR]

A uploaded some new renders to the diagram. Currently pending approval.

_

[Adam186]

Massive!! Great angles, STR. By the way, does anyone know why this fell through? Also, there were supposed to be 2, one 2,300 ft and another 2,500 ft?

[STR]

Actually there's 3 designs. The Graham 2,300 footer, the Wesse 2,500 footer (which is done I just need to render) and third design also by S.O.M. This third tower was the first design to be released in 1981 and is probably the lamest of the 3 designs, though the 3 cutouts through the building were interesting. I'm not sure why they fell through, as pre-leasing actually went pretty well, with letters of intent for 2/3 of the office space. I'll have to do more research.

EDIT: Seems like an almost parrallel story to 7 South Dearborn. I found the obituary in a 1984 New York Times article. I'll post it later. But apparently the developer went broke in the end and didn't even have enough money to pay the $850,000 fee he owed SOM. The Wesse design appears to be an independant study unrelated to te WTC, but details are still sketchy.

This book seems to have some indepth some in it too. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/039...lance&n=283155

[STR]

Original Plan




Graham Design


More info I dragged up

Chicago World Trade Center

Location: Chicago, USA
Original Proposal Date: October 27, 1981
Projected Cost: 1 billion (circa 1981) dollars
Height of Rooftop: 2300 feet
Stories: 184
Height of Highest Occupied Floor: 2280 feet
Status: Unbuilt but possibly revived
Materials: High strength steel
Fascade Material: Gray and black aluminum
Main Architect: Bruce Grahm of SOM
Main Structural Engineer: John Zils of SOM

The Chicago World Trade Center would truly be an amazing building if built. Here are the facts I know about this building so far. The Chicago World Trade Center would stand 2300 feet high with 184 stories. That is more floors than Aesop had fables! It had a bundled tube design, like the sears tower. The Chicago World Trade Center's design is different, though, being a 5x9 tubed design. Each tube is a 45 foot square. Here is how the building is set up. The first three rows are the full 9 tubes wide and rise the complete 184 stories at 2300 feet. The fourth row is 7 tubes wide and rises up to 80 percent the full height, or to the 150th story at 1845 feet...Finally, the fifth and final row is five tubes wide after the first few stories and rises up to 78 percent the full height, or to the 147th story at 1800 feet...The total amount of rentable space within this building (13.5 million square feet) would have exceeded the amount of rentable space within Sears Tower and both of the original New York WTC twin towers combined!

The engineering of the Chicago World Trade Center project began in 1980 and took a little over a year to complete. Tentative plans for the project were formally announced on October 27, 1981. Groundbreaking took place in February 1982. Excavation on the Chicago World Trade Center's foundation was scheduled to begin in April 1982. Completion of the project was scheduled for late 1988. The building would have been open for buisness by 1990.

Here are a couple more fun facts:

The fourth row of the building, which is seven 45 foot tubes wide is a somewhat darker shade of grey than the rest of the building. The architects made the building's colors this way to help enhance it's splendor even more.

The topmost floor of the CWTC would have been a restaurant that would have enabled people to dine at an altitude of 2280 feet above Chicago!

Apparently Mr. Raskow didn't get a warm reception here.


I'm working on the Wesse plan right now. Keep watching this post. There's quite a bit of stuff to look through and I keep turning up a lot of really interesting stuff, like the new quote in my signiture, which is from an interview just a year before his death in 1984. I'm saving all the pdf's and will be able to post higher-res images of everything if needed.

Check this out! A brand new supertall proposal from about the time of the 1970's Boom.

[STR]

I'm also turning up stupid crap like this. I saw the render and it wasn't that bad. Not to mention it was obviously not meant to be very accurate.

[Adam186]

Wow, thanks STR!

[Steely Dan]

^^ great research, STR! as long as you seem to be in the history sluething mindset (and have access to the trib archives), here's another little chicago doozy to check out. see what you find for an unbuilt project called "Schaumburg Planets" or "Schaumburg Planet" or "The Planet of Schaumburg" or something along those lines. there was a diagram of it in either the trib or sun-times back when 7SD was first making headlines. from what i remember, it was to be a super-tall out in schaumburg, if you can believe that. i don't remember which year it was first proposed, but i'm almost certain it was post-1980.

[jcchii]

bloody hell that's giant

[STR]

Originally Posted by Steely Dan

see what you find for an unbuilt project called "Schaumburg Planets" or "Schaumburg Planet" or "The Planet of Schaumburg" or something along those lines. there was a diagram of it in either the trib or sun-times back when 7SD was first making headlines. from what i remember, it was to be a super-tall out in schaumburg, if you can believe that. i don't remember which year it was first proposed, but i'm almost certain it was post-1980.

You know what, when I was searching I did come across a article with a Schaumberg headline, but I thought it was backround static. Though, since I was focused on 1981 to 1984, the life span of the World Trade Center, it probably was. I'll have to take a look at it when I go back to class on Tuesday, if you can stand the wait.

The interesting thing is that with all the research, I'm little closer to piecing this story together. I know how it began, with the press conference in which the developer didn't show up. I know how it ended, with Stanley Raskow (I wonder if he's still alive? Nothing like going to the source) moving is prospects to Dallas and owing SOM almost a million dollars for their work. The inbetween is completely absent. When did the Telescoping Tube turn into the Bundled Tube or was it vice versa (I'm leaning towards thinking the bundled tube came first)? Where does Henry Wesse fit it? Where was the Wesse Tower located? The SOM designs were sited at 300 N LaSalle, However, I'm unsure where the Wesse Design would be. Does anyone recognize the site below?

BTW Thanks to Mark C. (a lurker who's been invaluable help in my search) for several of the photos.

[1ajs]

wow such a shame they never built it..........