Art Architecture Dezign

The controversy surrounding the site of Santiago Calatrava's ill-fated Chicago Spire continues, as the city stalls the pair of skyscrapers that SOM's David Childs has proposed for the vacant waterfront plot.

Child's 400 Lake Shore Drive, designed for developer Related Midwest, was rejected by Chicago's vice mayor Brendan Reilly on Monday 22 October 2018 – 10 years after construction on Calatrava's 150-storey Spire was halted.

Reilly announced the news in a letter sent to the community surrounding the Spire Site, which is located where the Chicago River flows into Lake Michigan.

He highlighted a number of issues with the "sister skyscrapers" – including security, the esplanade along the Ogden slip, the height of the podium base, and the inclusion of a boutique hotel – which would need to be addressed before progressing.

"The 400 North Lake Shore Drive proposal will not be moving forward in its current form and is therefore rejected," said Reilly in the letter.

"In the event the developer chooses to address the legitimate concerns regarding their proposal, my office will be sure to provide all impacted neighbours with an update."

In the letter, Reilly details a number of meetings held to address the community's concerns with the projects. These were then listed in a memo sent to Related Midwest on 13 August 2018, but had not been taken these into consideration.

Reilly's rejection of the scheme follows a series of stop-and-starts with the Spire site, which has been left empty since 2008, when Calatrava's project was stopped one year into construction due to the global financial crisis.

Related Midwest took on the site in 2014 and enlisted Childs – designer of New York's One World Trade Center, and chairman emeritus of architecture firm Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM) – to oversee the new project.

His new proposal revealed in May 2018 features two skyscrapers that are nicknamed sisters because, although similar, they are a different shape and size: the 900-feet-high (274-metre) South Tower is slender and tall, while the shorter 850-foot (259-metre) North Tower is more stout.

The towers were designed at angle to one another, with a large gap left gap between to maintain views from Downtown Chicago to the water.

"We are proposing a new urban destination: two residential towers, iconic both at their base and in the sky, differing in placement, rotation, and height," said Childs in a statement released at the time.

A mix of luxury condominiums, apartments and the controversial hotel were planned for inside. Global firm Gensler proposed similar accommodation for another alternative for the waterfront site, which it released in 2016, but this was never picked up.

The Spire is among a number of Calatrava's projects that have encountered issues. Last year, work on the Greek Orthodox church he is working on at New York's World Trade Center site was suspended indefinitely, while the nearby Oculus transportation hub and a Ysios winery in Spain have sprung leaks in the past.

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Apple has launched a MacBook Air with a 100 per cent recycled aluminium alloy shell, reducing the carbon footprint of the computer by almost half.

Introducing the new computer in New York, Apple said that creating a casing for the computer from entirely recycled aluminium was "one big goal that we've had for many years."

"We use aluminium because it has incredible strength, durability and for its sheer beauty. To achieve that we've had to rely on mining high purity ore," said Laura Grove, Apple's vice president of hardware engineering.

The MacBook Air will now be assembled with a shell made from a custom alloy created by the company's material team. "Apple's metallurgy team has designed an aluminium alloy that uses excess aluminium from the production process," said Grove.

"It's designed to use fine shavings of recaptured aluminium that are re-engineered down to the atomic level. This new alloy is as beautiful and robust as any we've used before," continued Laura Metz, Apple's senior product manager.

The alloy makes construction of the computer possible "without mining any new aluminium from the earth," according to Apple. The use of 100 per cent recycled aluminium in the casing has been verified by UL, a global safety consulting and certification company based in Illinois.

The recycled aluminium can itself be recycled. "This helps reduce the carbon footprint of the new Air by nearly 50 per cent and makes it the greenest Mac ever," continued Metz.

The new computer has 47 per cent lower carbon emissions compared with the previous generation of the same product. The calculation was made on the basis of total greenhouse gas emissions of 176 kilograms of CO2 over the lifecycle of a computer.

"With all the care and attention that we put into design and engineering, our teams work just as hard to ensure that our products are environmentally friendly," said Grove.

The MacBook will also feature 100 per cent recycled tin in its motherboard, and the designers have "significantly increased the amount of post-consumer recycled plastic in our internal components, such as the speakers," according to Grove. The amount of recycled plastic in the model now stands at 35 per cent.

The promotional material for the computer states that it has a mercury-free LED-backlit display, arsenic-free display glass, is beryllium and PVC-free and comes in eco-friendly packaging.

The updated version of the Air is also 10 per cent thinner than the previous version, and weighs 340 grams less, at 1.25 kilograms.

During the launch at Brooklyn's Academy of Music, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that there are 100 million Macs currently being used. "51 per cent of Mac buyers are buying their first one, rising to 76 per cent in China," he said.

Last month Apple showcased three new smartphone models at the Steve Jobs Theater at the company's headquarters in Cupertino, California.

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A mash-up of different styles is used to decorate this hotel in Washington DC, which New York firm INC Architecture and Design created inside an old church.

The Line DC hotel is located in an 110-year-old church in Washington DC's Adams Morgan neighbourhood. The neoclassical marble-clad structure is fronted by pillars and features 60-foot (18-metre) vaulted ceilings, millwork and brass detailing inside.

INC Architecture and Design overhauled the historic building to create the hotel's lobby, two bars and two restaurants, while a new mid-rise masonry construction at the rear accommodates 220 guest rooms.

Inside, mismatched furnishings are placed together to convey an old-meets-new design. Inside the lobby, church organ pipes have been repurposed as an architectural chandelier, and pews act as seating. Curvy, cobalt sofas fill the spacious entrance.

Other pieces include upholstered leather dining chairs and writing desks evocative of a lawyer's office, alongside hexagonal Moroccan coffee tables, and minimal wood and chrome designs.

"The Line DC is the ultimate mash-up of old-school homage and vanguard progressiveness," said a project description from INC Architecture and Design. "A bipartisan aesthetic, if you will."

Throughout the hotel, walls are kept white so as not distract from the eclectic mix of furnishings, while herringbone wood floors are a nod to the site's historic features.

Each room has a custom brass bed frame, a solid oak writing desk, and a variety of side tables and other furniture that convey a juxtaposition of old and new.

Also included are mini libraries populated with volumes from neighbourhood store Idle Times Books, and granite bookends by local furniture maker and musician Jonah Takagi.

For food and drinks, guests can pick from the choice of A Rake's Progress restaurant and bar, The Cup We All Race 4 coffee shop, American restaurant Brothers and Sisters, and Japanese eatery Spoken English.

The Line DC also boasts a fitness room, a spacious rooftop, and its own radio station – a feature also found at the city's Eaton Workshop hotel.

This is the third hotel in the Line chain to open in the US, following outposts in Austin and Los Angeles – all managed by Sydell Group.

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