Santiago Calatrava
Fordham Spire
Chicago, Illinois
USA

?Calatrava?s design advances the Chicago tradition of skyscrapers as sculptural structures.?
Lynn Osmond
President and CEO of the Chicago Architecture Foundation

Photo courtesy The Fordham Company

Proposed for a prominent 2.2 acre site on North Water Street, adjacent to Lake Shore Drive and near the entrance to Navy Pier, the Fordham Spire will rise to a height of 1,458 feet at its roof and approximately 2,000 feet at the tip of its spire, making it the tallest building in the nation. 

Photo courtesy The Fordham Company

Calatrava?s design is a tall, slender form whose glass facade seems to ripple downward in waves, like the folds of a cloak swirling around a figure. This effect is achieved by means of a structural innovation.
Each floor unit of the tower is built out from the central core like a separate box, with gently curving, concave sides. As these boxes are stacked up, each is rotated by a little more than 2 degrees from the one below. The result is that the floors turn 270 degrees around the core as they rise, giving the facade an impression of movement.
 

Photo courtesy The Fordham Company

The design not only provides the building with its majestic profile but ingeniously allows for the design of living space with a freedom not normally available in high-rises.
Condominium residences will feature unparalleled views through floor-to-ceiling windows; column-free, unobstructed floor plans; and access to the amenities of the building?s five-star hotel.

The twisting form of the tower provides a structural advantage by reducing the impact of wind turbulence, which affects all tall buildings. The irregularity of the tower?s surface ensures that wind forces are reflected from the facade in multiple directions, rather than building up as a single force. In this way, the design averts extremes of lateral movement.

The design for Fordham Spire brings together issues of form and structure that Santiago Calatrava has been investigating for more than a dozen years through two distinct series of works.
The first of these themes is best known through the wing-like sunscreen that opens and closes over Calatrava?s addition to the Milwaukee Art Museum (2001). This series of investigations involves the rippling movement, either actual or implied, generated by the progressive displacement of separate structural members. Other works in the series include the roof of the Bodegas Ysios winery (2001, Laguardia, Spain); and the Nations Wall (2004), created for the Athens Olympic Sports Complex.

The second theme series of investigations involves building the floors of a tall building as geometric modules, which are cantilevered off a central core so as to maximize column-free space and window areas, efficiently concentrate support services and circulation, and create an abstract sculptural form, often involving a twisting or spiralling effect. Other works in the series include the Turning Torso residential tower in Malm? Sweden (to be completed in August 2005).

Photo arcspace 2004
Turning Torso nearing completion

Plans for the 920,000 square foot structure include a five-star hotel and 250 of luxurious condominium residences.
At terrace level, approximately at the height of Lake Shore Drive, Fordham Spire will have a footprint of only 14,000 square feet on the 2.2. acre site.  The remaining 85% of the site will be left open for landscaped gardens, with access provided from the site to DuSable Park and the lakefront. 
Some 50,000 square feet of retail and support space is planned for the podium floors overlooking the river and Lake Michigan.

?Chicago was America?s birthplace for modern architecture, nurturing the genius of Louis Sullivan, Daniel Burnham, Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe. We want to carry that tradition into the 21st century.?
Christopher T. Carley
Founder and Chairman of The Fordham Company
 

Photo courtesy The Fordham Company

More information:
Fordham Company/Calatrava

Developer: The Fordham Company
Architect/Engineer: Santiago Calatrava SA

Height: 115 stories (proposed)
Area: 920,000 gross square feet (proposed), including a terrace level
Site area: 2.2 acres.

The model of Fordham Spire will be on public view beginning July 28 at:
The Fordham Company
Sales Center
15 East Huron
Telephone: 312.587.0660