Chicago Will Be Back to 2nd with Skyscrapers

By Sean Stillmaker in News on Nov 6, 2010 3:00PM

The Sears tower was the tallest building in the world until 1997. But it was still the tallest building in the Western hemisphere since its completion in 1973. However, New York will once again take the title when it completes the new World Trade Center in 2013. But nobody can take away our title of having the first skyscraper climber.

The proposed Chicago Spire was supposed to be 2,000 feet tall making it the second tallest building in the world, but a recently filed foreclosure lawsuit is foreboding. The Irish government will soon own the 2.2 acre site overlooking Lake Michigan.

It’s Irish real estate developer, Garrett Kelleher’s Shelbourne Development, has not made payments over a year and is most likely bankrupt. The Anglo Irish Bank, now owned by the Irish government, filed a $77 million foreclosure suit in October.

Trump tower was originally planned to be the tallest skyscraper in the world, hovering a little bit over 2,000 feet. But the day they had a meeting to discuss this, just so happened to be 9/11. So Trump and the architect Skidmore Owings & Merrill decided to scale it down to its 1,362 foot height.

SOM is based in Chicago and has been designing skyscrapers for some time. They designed the tallest building, Burj Khalifa in Dubai, standing at 2,717 feet, which opened this year. Lately Tom Cruise has been dangling on it filming the new Mission Impossible movie. Chicago is home to the first skyscraper though, the Monadnock building, standing at 197 feet when it was completed in 1893.

Chicago is also home to the first skyscraper climber. “Spider-Dan” climbed the 1,451 foot Sears Tower on May 25, 1981 in seven and a half hours. He was charged with disorderly conduct and fined $35.