It’s come down to this. Today, Trib critic Blair Kamin asks a question that we’ve kicked around in conversation from time to time: What will we do with that hole if the Chicago Spire never gets built?
Kamin first explains what the practical solutions would be:
1) Ignore what’s on the 2.2-acre site now and build something different; 2) Pour a thick concrete mat over the Spire’s caissons, which ring the hole, and use them to support a typical, right-angled skyscraper; 3) Use the caissons to hold up a shorter, cylinder-shaped skyscraper. Instead of the Spire, it could be called the Spud.
But what fun is that? Several of Kamin’s readers have echoed Stokes’ suggestion from last week that the hole would make a great location for the Children’s Museum. Any other ideas? How many Beanie Babies can fit in a 76-foot-deep by 110-foot-wide storage space?
– Rate and review The Chicago Spire at NewHomeNotebook.com.