Chicago Property Investment

Dublin-based Shelbourne Development is moving forward with plans to build the tallest high-rise in the United States, a 2,000-foot (600-meter) residential tower on Chicago’s waterfront designed by famed Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

Calatrava’s design unveiled this week calls for a twisting needle of 150 stories. Scheduled for completion in 2011, the Chicago Spire will offer 2,000 apartments ranging in price from $750,000 to $40 million (€525,000 to €28 million).

Calatrava’s vision will also shape the interior spaces. According to a press release, “Calatrava has conceived the design as an aesthetic whole, overseeing the development of all apartment floorplans and creating new designs and artwork for the interiors.”

“His artistic hand is literally all over the building, in door handles modeled on clay he gripped that bear his imprint,” says Chicago Tribune architecture critic Blair Kamin, in this article. Another Tribune article notes the project is “redefining the price of luxury living” in Chicago.

Spire Interior

The project also further establishes Calatrava as one of the world’s most distinctive and dynamic architects. His projects include the Tenerife Opera House and the Orient train station in Lisbon, not to mention the landmark City of Arts and Sciences in his hometown of Valencia.