Chicago projects that won mayor support but were later sidelined – Chicago

Chicago mayors have known over the years that re-election can be one major legacy project away.

That may have been on Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s mind when she selected Bally’s $1.74 billion casino, hotel and entertainment development for the city last week. But the plan still faces a long approval process and is still far from a sure thing.

In other words, we’ve seen this before. The casino may in fact be built, but many fantastical ideas have gotten mayoral support yet still failed — some of them famously.

Here are our top 10 near misses, with three historians — Ann Durkin Keating, North Central College professor and co-editor of the Encyclopedia of Chicago; Tim Samuelson, the first city of Chicago cultural historian; and Paul Durica, director of exhibitions at the Chicago History Museum — explaining what happened.

Proposed for a 2.2-acre parcel near Lake Michigan and the Chicago River

Proposal: Originally dubbed the Fordham Spire, after Chicago developer The Fordham Co., it was to have been the tallest skyscraper in the U.S. — and the Western Hemisphere. Announced in July 2005, the project aimed to turn an unruly 2.2-acre patch of land into “a tower utterly different from the boxy forms found elsewhere on the Chicago skyline: A skyscraper with gently curving, concave outer walls attached to a massive reinforced concrete core,” the Tribune reported.

Others also tried to build a skyscraper to top the 110-story Willis (then known as Sears) Tower, which was completed in 1974, including the 125-story Miglin-Beitler Tower in 1989 and the 112-story 7 S. Dearborn project in 1999.

“It might, or might not, be built.”

—  Blair Kamin and Thomas A. Cortman, Chicago Tribune, July 26, 2005

Yet only Donald Trump — before he became president — actually got such a project under way. His namesake hotel and condo tower was then under construction along the Chicago River. And, he didn’t care for Fordham’s project.

“Any bank that would put up money to build a building like that would be insane,” Trump said, citing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on skyscrapers less than four years earlier. Though his own tower would top out just 89 feet shorter than Willis Tower.

Mayor’s reaction: “Chicago is known [for] great skyscrapers,” Mayor Richard M. Daley told reporters in 2005. “I am excited about it.”

“It is quality construction, architectural design,” he added at an unrelated City Hall briefing. “It would be a great skyscraper and it is something you should think about.”

Daley shrugged off other concerns about whether the Spire might become a target of terrorism or opposition from some neighbors.

“Why don’t we just close up everything and just say, ‘OK, let’s stop everything. Terrorists have won. Let’s change our whole life.’ We have to move on with life. … We should do what we did in the past.”

As for neighbors’ opposition, Daley said, “If someone builds in front of you, no one likes that.” But everyone “should be able to have an open mind on this.”

What happened: Irish developer Garrett Kelleher — once an aspiring tennis pro — took over the project in 2006. Foundation work was begun on the planned 2,000-foot-tall tower, designed by Spanish-born, Zurich-based architect Santiago Calatrava, without a construction loan. A 76-foot-deep hole still occupies the site. Calatrava finally added a piece of his own work near the Chicago River in 2020 — a flaming red sculpture.

[ Blair Kamin column from 2005: Scaling aesthetic heights ]

Status: Two apartment towers — 875 and 765 feet — are now planned for the site. Related Midwest, which gained control of the property in 2014, calls the project 400 Lake Shore Drive and expects it to be completed in 2024.

What historians say: “Big building…