Quote:
Originally Posted by LouisVanDerWright
The Spire Hole on the other hand is stopped at the best possible spot, after completion of cassions and bathtub slurry wall, but before any superstructure or even the mat is built. They can simply figure out how to set the building on the existing foundations and build whatever they want from there. I would imagine we won't see anything quite as tall and slender as the Sprire...
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You forget, the Spire was basically a 7-sided polygon (heptagon) with a round core. The caissons are laid out in this shape also. Unfortunately this implies a polygonal or round floorplate and wedge-shaped units, which are super-inefficient and extremely difficult to sell. Every realtor worth their salt will tell their clients to look elsewhere first before buying at Related's project - those one-percenter condo buyers could get the same views in multiple Lakeshore East or Streeterville buildings after all.
Kelleher/Shelbourne faced this problem too, which is why he had Calatrava design the unit interiors and even the door handles - he had to create enough prestige and design star power to outweigh the major drawbacks of the condo layouts.
Related could fix this by switching to a rectangular floorplate, but this would involve some massive and very expensive load transfer, either with a HUGE mat/grade beams or some structural acrobatics above ground.
Will be interesting to see how they resolve this - either they go the Shelbourne route and sink money into world-class design that works around the problems of the foundation, or they spend that same money on structure to switch the configuration to a rectangle. Or maybe Chinese buyers flood into Chicago looking to park their money, and none of this will matter...