Five decades after Chicago's greatest skyscraper boom, city aims high again
CHICAGO - Fifty years ago this month, construction of the John Hancock Center topped out.
It was a dramatic moment in a still-unmatched development cycle in Chicago, where three skyscrapers over 1,000 feet tall - including the world's tallest, Sears Tower - were completed in a five-year period ending in 1974.
That era in Chicago stirred imaginations, boosted civic pride and spawned architecture and engineering techniques that helped fuel a worldwide race to the sky.
Today several developers are once again aiming for the clouds in Chicago. Years into an already lengthy commercial real estate cycle, one 1,000-foot-plus skyscraper is under construction and another three are in advanced planning.
History has shown there's no guarantee they'll all get there. If successful, this construction boom could generate billions of dollars in investment and tax revenues, waves of construction jobs and new centerpieces on Chicago postcards. Or this go-around could be a repeat of the last cycle, when big dreams brought Chicago's second-tallest building - Trump International Hotel & Tower - but also two lasting eyesores after the world economy collapsed.
