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Chicago Tribune
2 days ago
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Edward Keegan: Milwaukee is building contemporary timber towers. What about Chicago?
One of the more memorable displays of old-style Chicago politics and boosterism that I ever witnessed was at a Streeterville community meeting circa 2007 in which outgoing 42nd Ward Ald. Burt Natarus implored his constituents to support Santiago Calatrava's proposed Chicago Spire project. If Chicago didn't have a Calatrava, Natarus argued, we would fall behind Milwaukee — which had the Milwaukee Art Museum designed by the Spanish architect. In the years since, our neighbor to the north has become a hotbed for the development of timber towers — tall buildings that use relatively new mass timber technologies that can replace the steel and concrete traditionally used to support such structures. Since 2022, Milwaukee has been home to the tallest timber tower in the world — the 25-story Ascent MKE at 284 feet in height. That's no Sears Tower, but when you consider that most wood-framed buildings are one to four stories tall, it's quite an achievement. The residential tower was designed by the locally based Korb Architecture for a site just a few blocks from the lakefront at the corner of North Van Buren Street and East Kilbourn Avenue. Clad primarily in glass, Ascent is unnecessarily fussy in its articulation with a few too many nips and tucks in its plan. Recessed balconies are awkward accents on the east and west elevations. Its floor-to-ceiling glass is dark and foreboding and clashes with the lightness of the timber columns and ceilings that can be seen from the street. The building is a hybrid, with its timber tower built atop a concrete parking structure. The transition from concrete to wood structure is revealed, but it's done in a distinctly unartful manner — an unfortunate missed opportunity, given the building's remarkable structural narrative. Ascent is just the beginning for Milwaukee's contemporary wood construction. Ground was recently broken on the 361-foot-tall Neutral Edison along the east bank of the Milwaukee River in downtown. When completed in 2027, the 31-story building will stand above all timber towers in the United States but is expected to be the second tallest such structure in the world, following a building in Australia that should be completed sooner. The Neutral Edison will be the 11th tallest building in Milwaukee. But timber has the potential to shape the upper edges of the city's skyline. Its developer proposes to build a 55-story timber tower on the site next door that would be the city's — and Wisconsin's — tallest building. But the same-height building in Chicago wouldn't even make the top 50 here. Not surprisingly, when there's a tall building to be discussed, there's a Chicago connection. The architects for the Neutral Edison are Chicago-based Hartshorne Plunkard Architecture. Hartshorne Plunkard isn't new to the timber game, having designed the mixed-use INTRO Cleveland project that was the largest mass timber project in the United States when it was completed in 2022. Its design for the Neutral Edison will be a conventional rectangular apartment block with a large grid pattern inscribed across each of its facades. Setbacks between the parking at its base and the rest of the tower will reveal building amenities as well as the structure's typical wood decking. It's simple, straightforward and elegant in a way that we expect in Chicago. Abundant supplies of wood and its adaptability to most construction have made it a favorite throughout architectural history. But steel and concrete became predominant in larger buildings from the late 19th century onward when cities such as Chicago and Milwaukee came into their own. The more recent use of wood in large-scale construction has been fueled by an awareness of a contemporary building's carbon footprint. Buildings — both through construction and operation — have typically contributed almost 40% of the carbon that drives global warming. In recent years, architects, engineers and developers have sought to lower these numbers substantially. Steel and concrete are carbon-intensive, but wood does not require large quantities of carbon to manufacture. Also, trees absorb carbon during their life and continue to sequester the element during their lifetimes as building materials. Thus, wood offers a significant benefit to offset carbon throughout a building's life. For all the stunning achievements that Chicago architects and engineers have accomplished over the last century and a half, there's still a deeply conservative streak that runs through the city's building culture. Fire, through several key historical events, is at fault. The Great Chicago Fire (1871), the Iroquois Theater fire (1903) and the conflagration that leveled the original McCormick Place (1967) all have had impacts on Chicago, and the world's, approach to fire prevention and management. So, perhaps it's not surprising that we now lag many places in the development of new construction with mass timber. Chicago was early to the sustainability movement, which Mayor Richard M. Daley initially embraced and which each of his predecessors continued to varying degrees. And Chicago's architects and engineers have helped lead in the sector as well. It's not that we don't have larger wood structures throughout the city. Late 19th century loft buildings, from River North to Fulton Market to the Near West Side, are generally made of mass timber. And the most recent changes to the city's building code, adopted in 2020, are open to the larger structures such as those in Milwaukee. Burt Ald. Natarus was wrong. Chicago didn't need a building by Calatrava to secure its place in architectural history — although there's no reason we couldn't or wouldn't welcome a design by the talented architect. Nor do we need to best Milwaukee in any particular aspect. But it does seem like a missed opportunity that there's no timber tower currently under construction here. Given that many of the technologies that have made tall buildings possible were either invented or perfected here, why hasn't Chicago embraced this more sustainable way to build tall buildings yet? Full disclosure: A decade ago, I ran communications for the Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Chicago office while it developed the Timber Tower Research Project, an early proof of concept for wood in high-rise construction. And for the last 2 1/2 years, I have been a content creator for Think Wood, a website funded by the Softwood Lumber Board. The opinions in my column are solely my own. Edward Keegan writes, broadcasts and teaches on architectural subjects. Keegan's biweekly architecture column is supported by a grant from former Tribune critic Blair Kamin, as administered by the not-for-profit Journalism Funding Partners. The Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.
Chicago Tribune
15-05-2025
- Science
- Chicago Tribune
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Sue the T. rex's journey to the Field Museum
Our city — the one of 'Big Shoulders' — has always sought out the massive. Chicago has been home to the tallest building (when it was known as Sears Tower), the largest convention center (McCormick Place) in North America, and even one of the world's largest wastewater treatment plants (Stickney Water Reclamation Plant which, OK, is in Cicero, just outside the city limits). The opportunity to increase the city's stature once again materialized in October 1997. That's when the largest, most complete Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton became available at an auction hosted by Sotheby's. But bringing the fossil lovingly named after its discoverer to Chicago wouldn't have been possible without the combination of Sue Hendrickson and a flat tire. As the Field Museum celebrates 25 years since the debut of Sue, here's a look back at how the T. rex made its way from the Black Hills of South Dakota to Chicago. The vehicle of a dinosaur-hunting crew planning to leave a site in western South Dakota at the end of an expedition was found to have a flat tire. While others went into town to make the repair, Sue Hendrickson, a member of that crew, decided to have a look in an area the expedition had not searched. It was a good choice. While examining a cliff's side, she discovered a Tyrannosaurus rex specimen — the largest, most complete and best preserved T. rex found to that date. The dinosaur skeleton — which was estimated to be 90% complete — became known as Sue not because of its sex (undetermined) but after its finder. Peter Larson, whose Black Hills Institute of Geological Research Inc., excavated the tyrannosaur, paid Maurice Williams, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe on whose land the fossil was found, $5,000. The fossil was seized by federal authorities who claimed it was illegally removed from Williams' ranch, which was held in trust by the government. The Black Hills Institute was charged with violation of the U.S. Antiquities Act, theft of U.S. governmental property and theft of Native American tribal property. Long before Sue's discovery, Peter Larson and his brother Neal had built Black Hills Institute on a reputation for highly skilled fossil preparations and exhibit mountings, selling them to a variety of private collectors and public museums, including the Field Museum. When Hendrickson found Sue on Williams' land, the Larson brothers thought the extraordinary fossil would make a dream come true. They were going to build a nonprofit museum in Hill City, their hometown, drawing tourists from nearby Mount Rushmore. Instead, the legal battles Sue sparked nearly bankrupted them. The U.S. attorney's office in South Dakota, setting out to prove that the Larsons had illegally taken Sue and other fossils from federal lands, spent years and millions of dollars investigating the institute, raiding the company and carting off fossils and business records on several occasions. In the resulting six-week trial, however, out of 146 felony charges, the jury convicted Peter Larson on two charges of failing to declare several thousand dollars he had carried with him on two business trips outside the U.S. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Sue's fossil bones technically were a constituent of the soil, part of the land, and belonged to the landowner, Williams. The Supreme Court let that decision stand. Peter Larson, whose success as a private fossil-hunter had raised the hackles of many academic paleontologists, was sent to prison on federal charges that many South Dakotans came to regard as an abuse of prosecutorial power 'I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy,' Larson later told the Tribune. 'This was so hard on my wife, worse for her than for me. On every visiting day she traveled hundreds of miles and was there for me. But the whole ordeal drained her, and when I got out (on Dec. 8, 1998), she decided she didn't want to be married anymore. That was the hardest thing, to lose her.' A judge awarded ownership of Sue to Williams, and the government, acting as his trustee, decided the best way to serve his interests was to auction the skeleton. The bidding for Sue started at $500,000 and rose by $100,000 increments, quickly breaking into the millions as bidders on the floor and on phones competed for what auctioneer Redden called 'a world treasure.' The crowd in the sales room gasped as the bidding broke through $5 million and kept climbing. At the $7 million mark, most of the would-be buyers dropped out and tension mounted in the room as the time between bids lengthened. Finally, after several warnings, auctioneer David Redden knocked Sue down at $7.6 million — for a total of $8.36 million. The auction took little more than eight minutes. In the end, bidding came down to the Field Museum, the J.I. Kislack Foundation of Miami, the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences, and the Dallas Museum of Natural History. Redden said a private buyer was also in the final bidding but refused to identify him. Later, McCarter said he was never confident that Field would come away the winner. 'I was very nervous' as the bidding progressed, he said. He declined to reveal how high the museum had been willing to go to buy Sue. At the time, it was the highest price paid for a fossil (until a stegosaurus nicknamed 'Apex' grabbed that title in 2024). Williams received $7.6 million of the money the museum paid for Sue. But Williams never planned to visit the fossil that once was buried on his land. 'Everybody is knowledgeable about the amount of money (Sue) brought into our family,' Williams, father of four grown children, said in a 2000 telephone interview with the Tribune. 'What we got out of the thing, we're handling it pretty well. Some of the children have used it for education and whatever. 'People here don't talk anymore about that thing.' The Black Hills Institute claimed it had a trademark on the name Sue and that the name couldn't be used without permission. 'The trademark we have on Sue is exactly the same as … Mickey Mouse,' said Marion Zenker, marketing coordinator for the private fossil-hunting institute. 'Walt Disney didn't own the mouse, but he still owned the name.' On April 15, 1998, the dinosaur formerly known as Sue then became formally be known as Sue. The news came as a disappointment to the thousands of kids who entered a contest to give the dinosaur a new name after legal disputes over licensing of the name Sue erupted. But museum officials conceded that lawyers advised that the contest-winning name — 'Dakota' — had the potential to cause legal problems as well, given that it was already used for several products. Hendrickson — who did not have a high school diploma — received her first university credentials in the form of an honorary doctorate of humane letters from the University of Illinois Chicago. The professional fossil hunter and self-taught archaeologist and paleontologist with a namesake T. rex at the Field Museum came to paleontology by way of an early career diving for sunken treasure and collecting fish specimens in the Caribbean. She was a voracious reader as a child in Munster, and decided against a formal university education after talking things over with the head of marine biology at the University of Washington. Hendrickson had always been a hard worker, her mother said, and hoped that her success and the recognition she received serves as inspiration for other people who pursue their ambitions without the benefit of a college degree. Sue — whose chocolate-brown skeleton took 12 people 30,000 hours to remove from rock — debuted in Stanley Field Hall (the lobby inside the Field Museum). 'Sue has a number of features never before observed in the other T. rex skeletons,' Tribune reporter William Mullen wrote. 'The new information underscores what scientists for the last several years have been postulating: that dinosaurs are closely related to birds.' 'Evolving Planet' opened, thanks to a donation by Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel. The $17 million permanent exhibit used video, interactive displays, paintings and lots and lots of fossils to chronicle the evolution of life on Earth over 4 billion years. Sue's new smaller but much more dramatic digs on the museum's second floor opened. The new home also incorporated changes in the presentation of the skeleton — including a much fuller chest thanks to the mounting of formerly separated gastralia, or 'belly ribs' — which were all carefully detailed on accompanying labels that help tell a bigger story. 'We wanted to use Sue as a vehicle to inform the public that science is never done,' said museum CEO Richard Lariviere. 'You're always understanding.' Thanks for reading! Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past.
Yahoo
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Today in Chicago History: Sears Tower becomes the world's tallest building
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on May 3, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) High temperature: 92 degrees (1955) Low temperature: 30 degrees (2004) Precipitation: 1.59 inches (1919) Snowfall: 0.8 inches (1907) 1973: Ironworkers bolted the last girder into place, making Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) the world's tallest building. Sears Tower ended the Empire State Building's four-decade reign as the world's tallest and transformed the West Loop into a glittering office corridor. The 1,451-foot Willis Tower lost its crown as the world's tallest when it was surpassed in 1996 by Malaysia's Petronas Towers, and the American title in 2013 when New York City's One World Trade Center was completed. After decades of construction in Asian countries, it's now the 25th tallest in the world. Chicago Tribune's 28 Pulitzer Prizes: A list of all the winners 1976: The Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize in special local reporting for two major investigations, one demonstrating the devastating effect of FHA loans on inner-city neighborhoods, the other exposing shoddy conditions and practices at several Chicago hospitals. 2009: The Chicago Cubs retired the No. 31 jersey worn by Hall of Fame pitchers Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux at Wrigley Field. If Jenkins had his druthers, he'd have worn No. 30 when he joined the Cubs after a trade with Philadelphia in 1966. Column: Fergie Jenkins soaks up the adoration as the Chicago Cubs unveil his statue outside Wrigley Field 'That was my number with the Phillies, but Yosh Kawano informed me that was Mr. Ken Holtzman's number,' Jenkins recalled. 'He offered me 31, and I said, 'Fine.'' Kawano, the colorful longtime potentate of the Cubs clubhouse, was still around when Maddux showed up 20 years later. Perhaps he knew something when he gave Maddux No. 31. 'They told me it was Fergie's number,' Maddux said. 'I thought, 'That's pretty cool.'' Jenkins was the fifth Cubs player to have a statue unveiled outside Wrigley Field. Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past. Have an idea for Vintage Chicago Tribune? Share it with Kori Rumore and Marianne Mather at krumore@ and mmather@
Chicago Tribune
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Today in Chicago History: Sears Tower becomes the world's tallest building
Here's a look back at what happened in the Chicago area on May 3, according to the Tribune's archives. Is an important event missing from this date? Email us. Weather records (from the National Weather Service, Chicago) High temperature: 92 degrees (1955) Low temperature: 30 degrees (2004) Precipitation: 1.59 inches (1919) Snowfall: 0.8 inches (1907) 1973: Ironworkers bolted the last girder into place, making Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) the world's tallest building. Sears Tower ended the Empire State Building's four-decade reign as the world's tallest and transformed the West Loop into a glittering office corridor. The 1,451-foot Willis Tower lost its crown as the world's tallest when it was surpassed in 1996 by Malaysia's Petronas Towers, and the American title in 2013 when New York City's One World Trade Center was completed. After decades of construction in Asian countries, it's now the 25th tallest in the world. 1976: The Tribune won a Pulitzer Prize in special local reporting for two major investigations, one demonstrating the devastating effect of FHA loans on inner-city neighborhoods, the other exposing shoddy conditions and practices at several Chicago hospitals. 2009: The Chicago Cubs retired the No. 31 jersey worn by Hall of Fame pitchers Fergie Jenkins and Greg Maddux at Wrigley Field. If Jenkins had his druthers, he'd have worn No. 30 when he joined the Cubs after a trade with Philadelphia in 1966. 'That was my number with the Phillies, but Yosh Kawano informed me that was Mr. Ken Holtzman's number,' Jenkins recalled. 'He offered me 31, and I said, 'Fine.'' Kawano, the colorful longtime potentate of the Cubs clubhouse, was still around when Maddux showed up 20 years later. Perhaps he knew something when he gave Maddux No. 31. 'They told me it was Fergie's number,' Maddux said. 'I thought, 'That's pretty cool.'' Jenkins was the fifth Cubs player to have a statue unveiled outside Wrigley Field. Want more vintage Chicago?
