by: Gregory Haley AIA AICP LEED AP
Event: An Evening with Santiago Calatrava, New York Preview of the Chicago Spire
Location: The Harold Pratt House, 03.12.08
Speakers: Santiago Calatrava, FAIA — Principal, Santiago Calatrava; Garrett Kelleher — Executive Chairman, Shelbourne Development Group
Organizers: Shelbourne Development Group
“Inspired by nature” is a theme for the Chicago Spire, designed by Santiago Calatrava, FAIA. Located on what Garret Kelleher, Executive Chairman of Shelbourne Development Group, refers to as “the best piece of dirt in Chicago,” the Spire will straddle the urban grid, Chicago River, and Lake Michigan. To Calatrava, this unique location provides an opportunity to explore the relation of the urban and the natural, and fulfill the motto of Chicago: “Urbs in Horto,” or “City in a Garden.”
Considering natural forms such as flowers and snails, Calatrava strives to recreate the balance and harmony found in nature. Soaring upward in a tapered and continually twisting form, each apartment will have a unique view of the Chicago skyline. Calatrava aims “to build for people a message of hope that conveys a certain sense of progress and better living.” The “very simple diagram” of the Spire, he says, will allow him to create “a harmony between the people in the city and nature.”
Gregory Haley, AIA, AICP, LEED AP, is a project architect and urban designer at Studio V Architecture, and has taught at the Boston Architectural Center and the School of Architecture at NYIT.