The Illinois 'Mile-High' Tower Architectural Model

[Rood]

Yes, the Illinois was "for Chicago", but to be fair to Mr. Wright, he intended his Mile High to be set in a one-mile-square park.

[SDR]

So that, if it fell over, it wouldn't damage neighboring properties ?

Oops---I guess it would have to be a two-mile-square park . . .!

S

[Rood]

Yes, the Illinois was "for Chicago", but to be fair to Mr. Wright, he intended his Mile High to be set in a one-mile-square park, his reasoning being squarely in line with decentralization. Rather than cluttering the landscape with buildings and streets covering every scrap of land ... it would be possible to build several Mile-Highs and tear down the clutter. As I recall, Mr. Wright said something to the effect, and I paraphrase ... if you want to centralize ... this is the way to do it.

[SDR]

Uh-huh. So, doing Corbu one better ?

https://99percentinvisible.org/article/ ... iant-city/

S

[Roderick Grant]

@ 0:33 the building is shown from above in an urban grid as if it could fit comfortably amid the existing city. One mile square or two miles square, the infrastructure to support getting people into and out of the Illinois would have necessitated demolishing the entire Loop. Parks in spaces between freeways and cloverleaves would be unavoidable; there would be nothing else to be done with the leftover land. Well, maybe an occasional taco truck....

Imagine if it had been built anywhere in the 1950s (it would have required about 15 - 20 years to complete). It would have been the target of choice for Osama and his gang.

[Roderick Grant]

Ville Radieuse was a truthful statement about Utopian ambitions: It is a glaring clarification that Utopia is exactly the opposite of what it was meant to be. People are neither ants, bees nor termites. People don't conform to the insane demands of Fascists and Corbu.

[SDR]

15-20 years to complete---so, as long or longer than one of the Great Pyramids---in the industrial age ? The Empire State building was completed in less than 13 months . . .

I'm not suggesting that the Mile High was a practical solution, to any problem. As to locale, why didn't Wright propose it as a centerpiece to the decentralized Broadacre City, rather than an intrusion in the middle of an existing metropolis ? Granted, Broadacres came from an earlier decade---but its (literal) high points were no more than idealized St Mark's or Price towers, weren't they ?

S

[Roderick Grant]

The World Trade Center - number one - traces all the way back to 1943, when the idea of such a center was first discussed. Minoru Yamasaki was named architect in 1962, and the design as built was first published in 1964, to guffaws from the architectural community. (There was a pastime back then to determine who was the worst name architect practicing, Minoru Yamasaki or Edward Durrell Stone. Stone usually won, since his work was everywhere present.) The not-quite-finished complex was opened in 1973. Those crafty Egyptians eschewed bureaucracy.

As to why FLW planned it for Chicago, that's where the potential backers, who commissioned the tower, were from. Frank always followed the money.