The Air Up There

Yep, we hauled Nathen, Jennifer and Annie up to the top of the Sears Tower. This is all part of the Kason and Sara tour of Chicago (admission to buildings not included). Just the other day Sara was telling me that we have far too many pictures from the observation deck on top of the Sears Tower. She's probably right. I am quite proud of myself though for having not posted all of them on my blog. Here's Nathen dancing with Annie atop the Western Hemisphere's tallest skyscraper. Just look at those building way down there, from the ground those buildings are no short chunks of steel, but from big daddy Sears, they look like toothpicks. Zoe has a strange addiction to the step that surrounds the telescope thingies in the observation deck. As soon as the elevator gets to the top floor she makes a bee-line to one of them and steps up and down the entire time, while the rest of us are pointing and picturing.

Sara recently informed me of an upcoming Chicago skyscraper scheduled to be completed in 2011, the Chicago Spire. I'm so excited about this I might wet my pants. Check out the new Chicago skyline:

The skyscraper will be 150 stories tall (compared to the Sears Tower's 110 stories) and when completed will be the Western Hemisphere's tallest building (by the way, the CN Tower in Toronto is taller than the Sears Tower, but not a skyscraper). Look how close it'll be to Navy Pier, too! The coolest thing about this joint is that it will be twisted from top to bottom, and designed by Santiago Calatrava, the same guy who did the Milwaukee Art Museum. This isn't some architect's pipe dream either, the foundation has already been poured and the plans have been set in motion. For any of you skyscraper fans, the wikipedia site is worth a read, be careful though, as you click from building to building, you will get lost in a fantastic maze of super structures http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Spire. The world's in a skyscraper fever pitch right now, with most of the action happening in Asia, so its nice to have some fun getting built close to home as well. Oh if only I could visit the United Arab Emirates to see the completion of the Burj Dubai...ho hum.