March 23--It was supposed to be a strutting 150-story lakefront symbol of the city's virility -- but eight years after construction of the Chicago Spire skyscraper ground to a halt, the gaping hole where it was to have stood has instead become an enduring reminder of the Great Recession.
So owner Related Midwest is now hiding the unsightly circular hole that would have formed the foundation of the world's second-tallest building behind a pile of dirt.
Workers last week started moving dirt to form a landscaped berm that will block the view of the 110-foot diameter hole from a row of 10 Streeterville row homes on the 400 block of East North Water Street.
Eager to dampen excitement that the arrival of work crews might signal a more permanent use of the prime location between the Chicago River and the Ogden Slip harbor, Related Midwest Vice President Nick Anderson recently wrote to neighbors, explaining that workers are simply building a berm and planting trees as "a natural visual screen at their front doors opening to our parcel."
A map outlining the proposed work included in the letter to neighbors delicately referred to the hole next to Lake Shore Drive in quasi-medical terms, describing it only as the "existing condition."
The screen, which won't be tall enough to block the view of the hole from nearby high-rise buildings, is simply "the neighborly thing to do," Anderson said Tuesday, declining to comment on Related Midwest's long-term plans for the land.
The company took title to the land in November 2014, years after Spire developer Garrett Kelleher halted construction amid the global credit crunch.
Designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, the planned 2,000-foot Chicago Spire was to be the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, dwarfed only by Dubai's Burj Khalifa. But work stopped after the foundation was laid, leaving only a 76-foot-deep hole.
kjanssen@tribpub.com
