Well $3000/mo for an apartment is 30% of a $120,000/yr salary. That's pretty typical income for your techy types whom, up until recently, Chicago has had almost none of. I have a feeling the job creation downtown particularly in tech is driving this. Also remember that there have been a grand total of two luxury condo towers this cycle, both of which are under construction and in the Gold Coast. Assuming we have the same demand for condos downtown that we did in the last boom, we need to build at least 3,000 condos a year for the next few years to even begin to absorb that demand. I have a feeling there are some market forces demanding condo units starting to pent up and they will be released through flashy new towers.

This is just surreal. I am so stunned about all these recent proposals. I'm so happy I could just puke.

Also, I'm not sure I quite understand the massing yet, but I'm looking forward to Jahn schooling BIG and 2 WTC on how to properly design a building that cantilevers outwards as it rises.

love the height...but have to wonder - why no questions about the "why" that it is cantilevered like this? seems Wanda caught a heck of a lot more grief for an equally arbitrary design element that doesn't seem to reflect context...

i'm just sayin..bring it on nonetheless!!

I'm holding all judgement until we see actual renderings.

Yes. I can't wait to see the renderings! I'm trying to picture it in 3D.

A few more that might help you better visualize the shape/cantilever
http://i61.tinypic.com/2lckxhf.jpg
http://i62.tinypic.com/2mdkirr.jpg
http://i57.tinypic.com/zjuomc.jpg

Guys, I'd avoid hyperventilating about this until there's an actual proposal and plans and whatnot. Plans get out for buildings that don't come.

Neighboring building is part of the project sub area, yet occupied and protected, limiting the footprint of the proposed building. However, as a residential building ascends, so does the price per square foot of the units, and the premium put on lake views, and/or unobstructed views. So it only makes sense to have the floor plates get larger as the building gets taller. Add some deflection so the SW corner units have 'lake views' and you have dramatically increased the estimated return of your building.

same, i normally hate cantilevered buildings... ie. WTC2 and the first nordstrom tower proposal.

Wanda caught a lot of heck for poorly conceived rationale of many of the design elements. We haven't heard any rationale from Jahn yet. With 3 decades of solid work under his belt from the Chicago seven to his recent work that is by contrast quite formal I think we can expect this to be quite a bit more thought out than say Bjarke's 2WTC

Possibly, but lets also realize that we're dealing with different alderman now.

This is no longer the 2nd Ward and Fioretti isn't around.

Because of gerrymandering, this is the 4th Ward, Will Burns. He's the same guy who got Vue53 through in Hyde Park against the NIMBYs there.

The South Loop now has 3 aldermanic representatives; Dowell, Burns, and Solis.

You speak much truth, and I very much agree that I'll believe it when I see it. The only thing I'd say to counter that is that not only are these proposals happening earlier in the cycle of this boom, the last boom was killed by the worst recession in recent history, caused by the subprime mortgage crisis. What's more, the Spire was an insanely ambitious proposal. A tower barely breaking 1000 ft is hardly on par with the Spire.

BVic is right, there being three aldermen in the area changes the dynamic. They're all south and southwest side guys who are elected by those neighborhoods and deal with their kind of issues and haven't built a career upon inserting themselves to multi-hundred million dollar construction projects. When I listed to Dowell at these meetings it does not sound like she gives a single shit about the emotional plights of rich prairie-landers the way Reilly has to pretend to for River Northers and the SOAR crowd.

Without that big ego factor from Reilly or Fioretti, maybe these kinds of projects will be able to squeak through without all of the bullshit. Or maybe things will get screwed up because they haven't dealt with things of this scale before.

What is happening? WOW

She sure does care what people think, but you probably missed the way she handled it. You see, she asked the developers when the PD was last amended to allow this development. The developer said 2008, as in, this thing went through when it was part of the 2nd ward. The nimbys had their chance and it was on someone else's watch. If you want to complain about something, complain about something she can do something about.

Oh, and by the way, I noticed that Tina Feldstein of PDNA was at the meeting and said nothing against (or for) any of the developments.

Chicago's living proof you don't have to be on the East and/or West coast to get high-rise development!!

I'll defend SOAR for the most part on this one. They're not the same neighborhood group they were 10 years ago. They're fairly progressive development wise and advocate for the tall and thin.

Remember, they were very pro-Spire. They also have no problem with the height of the Stern proposal. They supported the Waldorf Astoria proposal that would have been 1,200' where the Lowe's currently is.

He definitely kisses the asses of River Northers though...

Yeah SOAR seems ok, but anyway, holy fuckballs! what??? To reiterate the hysterics of the clip WHAT'S HAPPENING????