Why There's a Huge Pit in the Middle of Downtown Chicago...

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Жыл бұрын

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@ThatIsInterestingTII Жыл бұрын

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@A_Legal_Immigrant_1776 Жыл бұрын

Shit-cago

@rickybobby5950 11 ай бұрын

I lived in Chicago for many years and worked for the architect of record for ‘The Spire’. Santiago Calatrava designed it but computer wind load testing showed it could be pushed over at even mild to medium gusts. They added a more aggressive twist rate and tapered the top slightly to reduce flat surfaces in any direction to help deflect wind loads and structural engineers increased the number and depth of the piles needed in the foundation of such an ambitious design in a very hostile location. I remember having scale models in plexiglass cases and the beautiful floor plan drawings displayed around our Chicago office and we could see the project site from the East windows, (at least until the, then under construction Trump Tower, eclipsed our floor and blocked most of our view of the Chicago river and Navy Pier). What you would see today, if were not flooded, is the underground parking structure and the tops of the 65 or so huge piles that were to hold the building above. The site was deep below Lake Michigan and required constant pumping to keep from flooding, as it is now and the construction managers complained about how hard the site was to work in due to its tiny footprint and lack of access for equipment. It was a huge project that spanned over a year at my firm and my team assisted with some of the interactive floor plan maps for the different levels that were displayed in the leasing office on touch screens. They had even constructed mock up units in the Trump Tower once it had opened a few months later and the ‘views’ were images taken from a helicopter (way before drones!) that were printed full size to showcase your view of the city or the lake from your unit. It was all really over the top and once they stopped paying their bills around town and the lawsuits started flying (including ours), the project ‘who’s name shall never be spoken’ became a huge dirty word around the office. I witnessed mass layoffs and many good people lost their jobs because this project and, though never completed, it will always be etched into my memory as an example of how much work went into a big, ugly hole in the ground.

@awaiting...His...return 11 ай бұрын

@rickybobby5950. Thank you for sharing your insights on this. I find it amazing how the engineers can factor so many hidden, yet important, scenarios into the design, such as the wind that you mentioned. If you were to guesstimate the life of the existing foundation, do you feel it has a likelihood of still being viable for construction of the original building if construction were to resume ?

@LZGARAGE. 11 ай бұрын

You wouldnt of happened to have performed design work on the shanghai tower would you?

@Matt.P. 11 ай бұрын

Liar.

@Thornbloom 11 ай бұрын

Frigging Trump.

@sammycampbell1654 11 ай бұрын

You gave more information on this topic than the creator did in 8+minutes

@marscaleb 11 ай бұрын

I'm baffled by the footprint of this thing. It was going to be nearly the tallest building in the world, but yet the lot is smaller than the hotel I stayed in last night.

@unregisteredcoward 11 ай бұрын

so was I, but some further reading leads me to believe that was the foundation structure for the central core of the building

@marscaleb 11 ай бұрын

@@unregisteredcoward Ohhhh, so its not the whole footprint! That makes a LOT more sense!

@ntatenarin 11 ай бұрын

Now with all the super-skinny skyscrapers in NYC, this doesn't seem so weird.

@PrebleStreetRecords 11 ай бұрын

It's wild to think that skyscrapers are built on such tiny plots of land. The Sears Tower has a smaller footprint than my yard.

@tweezerjam 11 ай бұрын

@@PrebleStreetRecordssweet yard

@YoungGandalf2325 Жыл бұрын

How deep is the pit and how many bodies have been dumped in it?

@FekDindad-xy9vz Жыл бұрын

6 and 11

@joedirt3449 Жыл бұрын

25:or 6 to 4

@reesbritton6623 Жыл бұрын

@1984Phalanx 11 ай бұрын

All the bodies

@Lychee-Nut 11 ай бұрын

Yes

@MicahThomason 11 ай бұрын

I looked it up... 76 feet deep. You're welcome.

@Novusod Жыл бұрын

It is pretty much impossible to construct a super tall skyscraper that tall without government subsidies. The economics of building that tall just don't pencil out. Every tower taller than the Sears Tower has been built with government funding as part of a national prestige project. The Burj Khalifa is the perfect example of that. Burj Khalifa was not built by any private company but was the personal project of Sheikh Khalifa who was the King of Dubai. He basically had unlimited funding to do with what he wanted so the project would still get built no matter how impractical and unprofitable it was. The goal of the project wasn't to make money but to satisfy the ego of the Sheikh.

@zentran2690 11 ай бұрын

Yeah pretty much every mega construct that's been made have all been funded by the government. Its why China has so many. Because the government of China says we want to have the widest highway because we want to be the coolest.

@TheSpecialJ11 11 ай бұрын

And the Sears Tower only made sense due to some ingenious design that efficiently utilized floor space relative to costs, at least reasonably so. These vanity towers do not do the same.

@NathanTarantlawriter 11 ай бұрын

Spot on!

@stickynorth 10 ай бұрын

It actually was designed to increase the value of the real estate around it and put Dubai on the map globally, not to be profitable itself... It did its job and then some... Also most tall buildings make their majority of cash from tourists and observation decks not the office and hotel rentals people think they do. Those are usually money losers for years in most towers... Empire State Building makes $90M/year from people going to the top floors but only $10M/year from all its other real estate assets...

@AverytheCubanAmerican Жыл бұрын

To put into perspective just how much money they owed to everything you mentioned at 5:03: Architect Santiago Calatrava placed an $11.34 million lien on the construction site, then the Anglo Irish Bank made them pay back the 69.5 million dollars (nice) they borrowed (which ended up becoming a 77 million foreclosure lawsuit), the owner of the NBC Tower sued to evict them from their sales office within the tower because they were behind 316K in their payments (and they ended up getting ejected), and then Bank of America filed a lawsuit for 4.92 million to get back the sum of two unpaid loans for the initial construction! Oh yeah, and they faced eviction from ANOTHER building called 111 South Walker Drive which they moved to after the NBC Tower! They tried working with AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations) in late 2009 for a potential land loan of 170 million dollars that would've retired the developer's loan from Anglo Irish Bank, pay off the outstanding liens, and restart work in exchange for making the construction a complete union job as the union workers were desperate for work and the construction would've provided 900 full-time jobs, however, when the developer was looking for union bailouts, four major labor union investment funds said no.

@DeadLongEnough 11 ай бұрын

The words "Anglo-Irish Bank" and "NAMA" (National Assests Management Agency) send shivers down the spine of any Irish person, and it is no surprise there is a large hole in the ground in Chicago with their names on it...

@TheMarschmallow 11 ай бұрын

My dad worked for the architect at the time all this was happening, it was absolute chaos

@markmonse5285 11 ай бұрын

I'm kinda surprised the original project was approved, as I can envision its height interferring with the ILS approach to runway 22L at MDW, just as the Sears/Willis Tower did.

@Bbbuddy 11 ай бұрын

Ha! It’s Chicago. Approval is no problem if you have money.

@trojanbitbasher 11 ай бұрын

Nice presentation! Thanks for keeping it interesting!

@drummerlinn Жыл бұрын

It’s sad that it’s nothing, but isn’t it good that a giant engorged twizzler isn’t threatening to take out 30 blocks? That concept photo of the skyline was a nightmare.

@TheInsultInvestor Жыл бұрын

engorged twizzler LOLOL imma use that

@alzo7891 11 ай бұрын

Aside from the notion that visiting farmers would get a chuckle because it resembled the rudest part of a hog, it's an impressive formal design. But that foundation has got to be very, very deep, given that the Streeterville neighborhood is all sandbar and it's right up against water. Also, for the height of this thing, the footprint is surprisingly small. As a Chicagoan, I'm glad this oversized sore thumb didn't happen. But it makes for a hell of a wishing well.

@dx1450 11 ай бұрын

If Sigmund Freud were alive today, he'd have a thing or two to say about all these tall skyscrapers.

@Kodakcompactdisc 11 ай бұрын

That foundation was just for the core.

@scottabc72 11 ай бұрын

Interesting thanks. The pit looks kind of small to me to be the foundation for the continents tallest building but Im not a skyscraper architect

@user-vf6ru8gm9p 11 ай бұрын

I was thinking the same thing.

@joshheselton633 11 ай бұрын

He did say that it was supposed to be the foundation, so maybe it was just gonna be part of the foundation.

@Rosarium2007 11 ай бұрын

Elsewhere in the comments someone said the pit was the foundation of the central core of the Spire tower.

@EvanG529 Жыл бұрын

Very interesting, I never knew about this one. Sad it never got built. Some are saying the recession marked the end of the skyscraper era.

@petercarioscia9189 11 ай бұрын

Which recession? There's a recession every decade, sometimes two.

@EvanG529 11 ай бұрын

@@petercarioscia9189 The big one

@arandomcommenter412 11 ай бұрын

@@EvanG529which one

@_JoeMomma 11 ай бұрын

@@arandomcommenter412 the big big one

@unoriginalname4321 11 ай бұрын

@@_JoeMommawhich which one?

@zacharyswassing6741 11 ай бұрын

Man I'm so excited for when u get a good mic and outdoor cam, it's always at that point where a mil comes out of nowhere...

@zacharyswassing6741 11 ай бұрын

also why did KZfaq just do 2 updates at once, @username and bitrate speed becoming a revenue stream man not cool

@RICKRATT1 11 ай бұрын

Great vid Carter, well done.

@adventureswithedna 11 ай бұрын

That pretty cool. Were always looking for interesting places to explore

@Stacy_Smith 11 ай бұрын

Hustler should take over the project. Can you imagine a building shaped like that called "Hustler Tower"?

@wyldstallyn2016 Жыл бұрын

cool vid I remember walking past this excavation when it was fresh on a trip to Chicago as a kid.

@joedirt3449 Жыл бұрын

cool story, bro

@MikeA15206 11 ай бұрын

Your voice over work is very good, and natural.

@AaronSmith-kr5yf 11 ай бұрын

We had something similar happen in Nashville at 16th and Broadway back during the recession. Only the hole in the ground was WAY WAY WAY bigger, think like the size of four NYC sized blocks, about 75 feet deep. And it all had to be drilled/blasted out cause Nashville=limestone rocks. Developer was way over-leveraged, banks wanted their money back, bam had a hole full of water for the next 12 years or so. It finally was built/completed about 1-2 years ago, two 21 story towers. One is a hotel and condos, the other is office space. I'm sure the developer is still losing their ass on this project because of the pandemic/work from home movement. Nobody wants office space anymore, half the space in this development is office space.

@Dave-bj3pq 11 ай бұрын

😂😂😂 4 NYC blocks..... not even close

@perryrush6563 11 ай бұрын

@@Dave-bj3pqyeah I agree. I lived in Nashville and it is NOT 4 new york sized blocks. It was a neat hole though....but not that big.

@stickynorth 10 ай бұрын

This one is a bit of a heartbreaker along with the unbuilt MB Skyneedle and 7 South Dearborn... With these 3 towers, the skyline would totally look like Chicago in I, Robot...

@unclenogbad1509 11 ай бұрын

That was interesting. Thanks.

@BalderOdinson 11 ай бұрын

I remember reading about this place 20 years ago and always thought it looked cool. Kept wondering when I'd hear about it opening. This answers my question but now I'm depressed 😞

@ryanshannon6963 11 ай бұрын

Depressed? Over a tower not being built and clearly having no association to it?

@bpark222 11 ай бұрын

A stagnant pit of water right by a major body of water, there must be a horrible mosquito epidemic there

@billygribble9939 11 ай бұрын

Ha there's an epidemic in Chicago but it ain't mosquitos

@msbgone 11 ай бұрын

Wow, and here I thought the new buildings were half up already! Good vid, thanks!

@markgarin6355 Жыл бұрын

Pool...city pool. Wonder what Freud's thoughts would have been about the proposed building, or resulting hole?

@andersenpeters Жыл бұрын

This actually happened in Moscow. Stalin had a massive cathedral torn down to make way for a massive replacement building celebrating communism but after his death the project stalled and ended up in limbo. There was a massive foundation already in place that instead of being used as a foundation was turned into a giant public swimming pool. Eventually after the collapse of the Soviet Union the pool was closed and the cathedral was rebuilt.

@markgarin6355 11 ай бұрын

@@andersenpeters life imitates art...ha

@MicahThomason 11 ай бұрын

Sometimes a spire is just a spire.

@peacefulpossum2438 11 ай бұрын

@@MicahThomasonand a hole is just a hole

@GaryBurtka 11 ай бұрын

I worked for their digital marketing agency in 2006 launching & running their initial Google search ads & their SEO. Never expected this to happen.

@ghostdreamer7272 Жыл бұрын

I remember hearing about this, so long ago. Also it’s nice to see a face!

@hadlock 11 ай бұрын

When you shoot in log format, you need to remember to color grade the video afterwards. That's why your video color is so flat in so many shots

@maxi-me 11 ай бұрын

Disagree. The color was _very_ hilly & voluminous and had grading out the ying-yang throughout the video

@hadlock 11 ай бұрын

@@maxi-me uh sure. Have you shot f-log before? Because it sounds like you haven't

@maxi-me 11 ай бұрын

@@hadlock It would seem that way, huh? But after a brief peruse of a vague _Reddit_ thread on the subject just now, I'm a veritable EXPERT! XD

@HarvestStore Жыл бұрын

Great video.

@danielleahy15 11 ай бұрын

good shit dude

@elgoog7830 11 ай бұрын

There's something else going on with that site. Valuable property in Chicago, rarely stays vacant. The city usually will make sure it happens, one way or another. The fact everything keeps falling through, is a big red flag. Even the fact they said buildings will be built by 2024, yet, they didn't even pump the pit out, bring any equipment to the site, or even cut down any of the trees, that is all mighty odd.

@sharkheadism 11 ай бұрын

If others are correct, it has tens of millions of dollars worth of liens on the property.

@MM-fe9mz 11 ай бұрын

The spire was going to be a masterpiece, way better than the current proposal.

@LtDan-lj7oj 9 ай бұрын

New sub. Looking forward to your content.

@JDoors 11 ай бұрын

I had high hopes for the Spire. I had come to the realization the United States didn't do big, bold skyscrapers anymore, while other countries were surpassing anything we ever did (e.g., the Burj Khalifa, with many more on the way). Ouch, my pride was hurting and the Spire would assuage it. Seems a shame two stepped glass towers were proposed ... yawn ... but I guess they're not happening either.

@SheriLynNut 11 ай бұрын

‘High hopes”…. I see what you did there 😏😆

@denali9449 11 ай бұрын

Tall buildings are all about ego; the owner's and the designer's. After a certain point they lose the financial advantage that the height gives them; cost to build vs the lease income. I worked for SOM when Sears was designed, It was never intended to be so tall. Bruce Graham played the owners egos perfectly and we ended up designing and building the tallest building in the world. Great place to work and a great experience for a young engineer 'on loan' from another company.

@JDoors 11 ай бұрын

@@denali9449 A lot of civilization's accomplishments, and failures, are due to ego.

@TheSpecialJ11 11 ай бұрын

Do the math though and most skyscrapers are a waste of resources unfortunately. A vanity project here and there is okay, but part of this country's success has been its focus on practicality. We've just lost our way in how we go about that, acting as if big number go bigger is the ultimate measure of practicality.

@JDoors 11 ай бұрын

@@TheSpecialJ11 Most skyscrapers make at least a small return on investment (

@Jazzaconda 11 ай бұрын

Liked & Subbed! awesome channel!

@PetrGladkikh Жыл бұрын

F-Log is meant to be graded.

@andrewdavidson7656 11 ай бұрын

That space doesn't look like it's even big enough for a 500 ft tall tower.

@Embassy_of_Jupiter 11 ай бұрын

Chicago looks like the lazily built backdrop to a monster movie that eventually gets flattened and no one misses it

@petertippmann7271 11 ай бұрын

Imagine being a stoned metalhead and clicking this video only to think “oh they mean that kind of pit nvm” It’s me. You’re imagining you’re me rn.

@erich1394 Жыл бұрын

Holy shit you're not a disembodied voice!

@JKLauderdale 11 ай бұрын

Riverside bandshell with weekly shows, swimming in the summer and skating in the winter.

@dlfoster311 11 ай бұрын

GG Carter, I know it's not easy to show your face on yt looking young. I love the format being on location!

@paulkelly4731 11 ай бұрын

Chicago downtown real estate is cheap!.... but the taxes and HOA fees make it a very poor investment indeed.

@mikezilla4053 11 ай бұрын

There is a shit ton of empty buildings in Chicago. I can’t tell you how many I had a hand in building including trump towers. Over 25 yrs hvac… but haven’t worked in downtown Chicago since 2018. My company wants nothing to do with downtown I guess. I personally want nothing to do with Chicago. I’ve worked right next to this hole. I heard there was issues with the ground along with money issues.

@gregmattes8053 11 ай бұрын

400 Lake Shore is a different parcel. A simple google map search shows that. The aerial view also shows an active construction site at 400.

@nonmatt 11 ай бұрын

If you use Google Maps, it seems more like 599 E. North Water Street gets you to the gates of nowhere which is the location of the project (and the ground level pic of the site). This video was really well done! Like the on-location shots and research. Just great work!

@newshodgepodge6329 Жыл бұрын

It sounds like the people who ended up in control of the project planned to build just another set of nondescript skyscrapers. I hope their worthless pit collapses at cost high enough to derail their cookie cutter project. The view of the riverfront deserves better than some prefab looking design.

@jpdurr 11 ай бұрын

Wow, your sound levels vary considerably. This is something that can be corrected / adjusted during editing.

@rurirotaru516 11 ай бұрын

So chicago missed out on having a giant dilo of a building sticking uphigh into the sky for all to see.

@jbshaka653 11 ай бұрын

Chicagoans should be thankful that phallic spiral rocket ship was not built.

@Kire1120 Жыл бұрын

As an Illinoisan, the failure of this project is disappointing.

@billygribble9939 11 ай бұрын

The whole state is a failure

@matthewdavies2057 11 ай бұрын

The Burj was never completed either. The top 1/3 has no water. Not for drinking or flushing. None. No water and therefore no tenants.

@krashd 11 ай бұрын

Someone wanted to turn the Earth into a unicorn...

@yesh3 11 ай бұрын

Plans for the building fell through, when it was realized that after it was built, it would be located in Chicago.

@maxi-me 11 ай бұрын

This comment needs more thumbs 😂

@coachhannah2403 11 ай бұрын

This comment needs more dumbs.

@grantdubridge7995 11 ай бұрын

Very Interesting

@tehjamerz 11 ай бұрын

Randall Carlson's "Fire in the Sky" is a good look at the Chicago fire

@SquibzVids 3 ай бұрын

They recently started construction back up on this project. Not the tall spire but the two skyscrapers. Project should be complete in 2027

@michaelcook7107 11 ай бұрын

Personally I think they should turn the hole into a giant jacuzzi.

@JaCrispy3060 Жыл бұрын

Yknow, I'm all for less dystopian skyscrapers. Make it into a free park / community center instead

@jimschiltz5343 11 ай бұрын

I drove by this site this morning.

@sammycampbell1654 11 ай бұрын

"Let's build an iconic skyscraper. One that everybody will see and instantly think Chicago. And lets get an architect from Baltimore to design it."

@Jason-fm4my 11 ай бұрын

There's usually penalties for leaving buildings unfinished?

@davecool42 11 ай бұрын

Remember to add a LUT to convert your Log footage to Rec709. Otherwise great video.

@jfwfreo Жыл бұрын

Is this one of the many cases of borrowers who were current on their loans when the GFC hit but had lenders come after them anyway because of fear around what might happen in the future or did the people behind this project actually miss payments on those loans? (plenty of banks that were in trouble called in otherwise OK loans because it was the only way to prevent total collapse)

@jeffreyyoung4104 Жыл бұрын

It was because the Irish bank that loaned the original amount was failing, and calling back the money they had loaned to others. If they had not done that, construction would have started, and the bank would have made more money, but the owners were scared of losing their shirts, which they did because of their bad decisions over the years!

@burningchrome70 11 ай бұрын

I'm surprised this isn't in Jim Butchers "Dresden Files".

@TheLiamster Жыл бұрын

I prefer the Gateway tower rather than the Chicago Spire

@ILOVEBACONBOY2018 Жыл бұрын

Its still the sears tower to me. Just saying from Chicago.

@ghost307 Жыл бұрын

Agreed; the tourists just don't get it. It's spelled "W I L L I S" and it's pronounced "Sears".

@J.C... Жыл бұрын

Sweet!

@waterearthmud4116 11 ай бұрын

Good video Thank you Your audio is really really low Keep up the good job

@Codyjrt 11 ай бұрын

I’m not an architect but that foundation looks pretty damn small for a huge tower.

@safetymikeengland 11 ай бұрын

that was pretty good.

@robkeir6953 11 ай бұрын

Wasn’t there a 9 hole par 3 golf course at that location 30 years ago? If not, it was very close by.

@raydunakin 11 ай бұрын

It's still a golf course, but instead of nine holes there's just one really big one.

@mjmcomputers 11 ай бұрын

So basically it was a money pit.

@maximeme9166 Жыл бұрын

Peak Content 💯💯💯

@terrydavis8451 11 ай бұрын

I actually met one of the initial developers for this project before everything went to shit.

@anthonyloconte7835 Жыл бұрын

The only magatall skyscraper ever approved for the U.S.

@Guspech750 11 ай бұрын

I forgot all about this. Cool video and thanks for reminding me of this. 🤟

@IanZainea1990 Жыл бұрын

Makes sure you slap that lut on your footage

@charliebecker2216 11 ай бұрын

I meet my boss once 2 months before I got laid off he had a fruit box full of coffee cups for major nuclear and oil/ gas companies projects that got canceled. Another project about 300 million was on just got shut down for 30 million in unpaid bills .

@BS-vx8dg 11 ай бұрын

Amazing the views you can get with a drone.

@rapidthrash1964 Жыл бұрын

Maybe you could trick passersby’s into thinking that it’s the gates of hell

@krashd 11 ай бұрын

The hole or Chicago itself?

@dennism4816 Жыл бұрын

Someone call Leslie Knope

@petenoseworthy2939 11 ай бұрын

Skyscraper started in Edinborough Scotland in the 60 14 or 1500 and they grew from there

@davemilligan1171 11 ай бұрын

I just found your channel. Great content, even though it's mostly US based from what I have noticed. None the less, I still live in North America as well and find all your topics very interesting. I subbed and gave ya a like and look forward to watching many of your previous vids.