MAKE NO LITTLE PLANS, the great Daniel Burnham said, advice that was studiously followed by the Chicago visionaries who in May 1929 announced plans for “the world’s tallest structure ever erected by man,” to be built on Randolph Street east of Michigan Avenue–where the Prudential Building and the Aon Center are now. Featuring a golden dome, gold terra cotta and an aviation beacon at the tip, it was to stand 1,022 feet tall, 38 feet higher than the Eiffel Tower, 218 feet higher than New York’s Chrysler Building, then under construction, even taller than the Empire State Building, which was on the drawing board. It would also be the world’s largest office building, with 3.5 million square feet (though the Merchandise Mart would top it with 4.1 million when finished in 1931). The building was dubbed the Crane Tower, because the Crane Co. would join the Illinois Central Railroad as chief tenants.
Opinions on the colossus varied. “Magnificent,” some called it. A “monstrosity,” a Tribune editorial deemed it (the newspaper was concerned with traffic issues.)
Right about now, you are wondering why you’ve never heard of this giant structure in the heart of downtown. That’s because, as the saying goes, it never got off the ground. Just as construction was about to start, the stock market crashed and financing dried up. It would be 40 more years before a building that tall, the John Hancock Center, would be completed in Chicago.
Which points up another piece of advice, this one from that noted urban planner Robert Burns: “The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.”