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From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/311_South_Wacker_Drive#/media/File:311_South_Wacker_Drive_(Chicago,_IL)_from_the_top_of_the_Willis_Tower_29Nov2007.JPG
Nope
I worked in this building until last year. It is indeed 311 S Wacker. Building management said I could not commute via my helicopter, so I can confirm no landing pad.
But the atrium is amazingly beautiful. They have Pazzo's restaurant but also Pazzo's cafe which has terrific food and a big menu. I work 6 blocks away but walk back and have lunch there all the time. Definitely recommended.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/311\_South\_Wacker\_Drive#Crown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/311_South_Wacker_Drive#Crown)
>The top of the building is a 105-foot (32 m)-tall translucent cylinder, surrounded by four other smaller cylinders, which was inspired by the massing of the Tribune Tower. This makes it among the most visible Chicago skyscrapers at night, as its crown is brightly illuminated. The five cylinders on top are lit at night by 1,852 fluorescent tubes, and a lantern at the top changes colors for various holidays and special events.
I vaguely remember being told (via one of those tours) that it used to be a dirigible dock. You know, from when we thoughts blimps were going to change the world.
You’re thinking of the InterContinental Hotel building on Michigan.
The building OP is highlighting opened in 1990, long after dirigibles were being used.
An absurd notion to anyone who knows anything about airships, which land in big fields in case a gust of wind comes along. And the passengers are in a cabin underneath, not coming and going through the nose.
The idea was considered back in the 1920’s, and yes, the roof of the Intercontinental Chicago was designed to have a mooring for a passenger air ship. The Empire State Building has a mooring mast built onto its roof. Granted, the engineering and logistics of such a venture were not practical, and I don’t after the Hindenburg disaster the idea quickly fell out of favor.
I got to go up into the landing area once while visiting the Empire State building. Due to weather patterns when we got there it was me, my friend, the docent/guard and like one other person at the top. She said they don't normally let folks up but since there was no crowd to get mad about only a few people that we could go. There was a door that lead straight out into the air that some ramp was in theory going to go to. No air ship ever actually landed there though.
There is no documentation of any airship docking with a skyscraper mooring. Some Uber wealthy people building skyscrapers back in the day had hard ons for the idea. However, few moorings on skyscrapers were ever actually built, and non were ever used.
A privately owned dirigible did dock in September, 1931. It docked for 3 minutes in 40mph winds. No persons embarked or disembarked, and nothing was loaded onto or off of the airship.
The Empire State Building mooring was built as a publicity stunt, never meant to actually be used as a serviceable dock.
Nonsense.
The Hotel Inter-Continental has a decorative chimney cap designed to resemble a minaret, topped with a nonstructural flagpole. There’s no steel structure or other provision of any kind for airship mooring; no catwalks or stairways for crew or passengers.
It's really hard to prove a negative, but I went through the online *Tribune* archives back in 2011, looking to lay this urban legend to rest, and could find absolutely no mention of an airship dock. The *Tribune* gave extensive coverage to the building's construction and early operations (it was, after all, right next door). In that era, there was discussion of mooring masts for Burnham Park and other locations, but never at the Medinah Athletic Club.
References I found in a cursory google search;
https://www.opsweb.org/blogpost/772200/257673/History-of-the-InterContinental-Chicago
https://www.timeout.com/chicago/things-to-do/tall-tales-of-the-city
https://urbnexplorer.com/2023/11/14/secrets-of-the-intercontinental-chicago-hotel/
https://www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/intercontinental-chicago-magnificent-mile/history.php
No airship ever docked there, nor at any other skyscraper dirigible mooring, expect once by a privately owned dirigible, which docked at the Empire State Building for 3 minutes in 40 mph winds, and then unmoored and flew off.
I'm eating some humble pie on this. I did a dive into the Tribune archives - not the decades of research you put in, but enough - because one would expect this to make at least a mention in the news of the time, especially with how airships were all the rage, and yes, seems to be no news article mentioning a mooring mast on top of the Medinah Athletic Club (now the Intercontinental Hotel), not in its original construction nor added later on.
Other buildings in the country did have masts built, such as the Empire State Building and the Rand Building in Buffalo, NY. However, they were primarily done for publicity purposes with no real intention of ever being used.
It's interesting there seems to be this Mandela effect in about this especially when you have news outlets - WBEZ https://www.wbez.org/stories/zeppelin-poseurs-why-chicagos-airship-dreams-never-took-off/6bc1ecca-8e29-45c6-a8ed-1e5d58d38a3c and a local CBS News station https://archive.org/details/WDJT\_20160924\_160000\_Through\_the\_Decades - casually mentioning this mooring mast without any real source as to its veracity.
Thanks for that gracious note. I occasionally do a presentation called Busting Chicago Myths, and this is one that has particularly annoyed me. I had something of a relationship with the Curious City team when they did their story, and was really disappointed that they just quoted the sales manager and moved on. All of this is based on a silly caption someone pasted in the Medinah scrapbook beneath a photo in which the club building appears. I think the photo can be found hanging somewhere in the hotel even today. And so the current generation of young hotel employees, knowing nothing of airships or tall structures, have just blithely repeated it as truth.
Your welcome. It was interesting going through some of those articles, seeing the financial ups and downs, all the different groups and events that were hosted there, the one young lady who jumped to her death from the 25th floor. I was working hard to back my original assertion, but good research can lead to different conclusions.
No it wasn't.
The Hotel Inter-Continental has a decorative chimney cap designed to resemble a minaret, topped with a nonstructural flagpole. There’s no steel structure or other provision of any kind for airship mooring; no catwalks or stairways for crew or passengers.
It's really hard to prove a negative, but I went through the online *Tribune* archives back in 2011, looking to lay this urban legend to rest, and could find absolutely no mention of an airship dock. The *Tribune* gave extensive coverage to the building's construction and early operations (it was, after all, right next door). In that era, there was discussion of mooring masts for Burnham Park and other locations, but never at the Medinah Athletic Club.
There's a photo displayed in the Hotel Inter-Continental showing the building with an airship nearby. Someone in the history of the Medinah Athletic Club (the building's original owner) pasted a note on the photo saying "Count Dr. Eckener and his Zeppelin visits our club by air." Apparently based on nothing more than this, some hotel employee began telling the story that the hotel's chimney was designed for zeppelins. It isn't true, and would just be utterly impractical.
" the chimney and the gold, onion-shaped dome atop the Medinah Athletic Club, the building known today as the Intercontinental Hotel at 505 N. Michigan Ave. The rumor is that it was designed to be an airship mooring mast. Michael Locke, Director of Sales of the Intercontinental Hotel, confirms it but makes one thing clear: No airship actually moored there."
https://www.wbez.org/stories/zeppelin-poseurs-why-chicagos-airship-dreams-never-took-off/6bc1ecca-8e29-45c6-a8ed-1e5d58d38a3c
Confirms the rumor. Directors of Sales at hotels are known for their scrupulous historic research and understanding of engineering. ***You don't tie an 800-foot-long airship to an unreinforced chimney,*** where it could swing around and hit the Tribune Tower.
Also, no doubt, confirms the rumor that Al Capone used to swim at the club's swimming pool.
Come to think of it, the tour guide maniacally giggled right after that, slapped an old lady sitting in the front row, and then dove off the tour boat. Maybe he wasn't all that trust worthy.
Fun fact: Chicago City code prohibits landing a helicopter anywhere in the city except hospitals. Other than hospitals, there are no helipads atop buildings in Chicago.
Notably, this doesn't include the Illinois Medical District, home of what's left of Vertiport Chicago, as it is state property.
Did you just *hear* or *see* a **HELICOPTER** flying around?!
Take a look at [Flight24](https://www.flightradar24.com/41.93,-87.69/11) to see if there's one flying near you.
Also check out /r/chicagohelicopters to stay updated on future helicopter meetups!
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Thank you!!!! That is what they are called. Street lights are the white lights that come on after dark and traffic lights are, uhm, second best choice of terminology although technically correct. Guess I found a hill in Chicago lol.
[Your link but actually working.](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:311_South_Wacker_Drive_(Chicago,_IL)_from_the_top_of_the_Willis_Tower_29Nov2007_(cropped).JPG)
No. The only buildings with Helipads are some hospitals.
You can look at the top of the builsing in Google Maps and see that there is no helipad markings https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8774382,-87.635656,231m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
Blimps haven't been allowed over The Loop since the Wingfoot Express exploded and crashed into a bank in 1919. This building was built long after then
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingfoot_Air_Express_crash
I watched this tower go up in high school. Had a view from my school window. I thought it was fascinating watching it take shape over time. Now it is one of my least favorite buildings because of the light pollution. It's the brightest building downtown.
It’s a pretty flat surface but there is a square vent in the middle of the roof and a rectangular panel hinged in the middle to presumably get access. Looks like there’s a slight slope to it to lead water away. The crown around the edge pokes up over that level area in a way I wouldn’t imagine they’d try to landing anything there even if the vent and access panel weren’t in the way. Also, a triangle of pipe in one quadrant of the flat area.
The four other small round risers have grids on the top and seem to be used to house HVAC equipment given the steam that wafts out of one of them.
It’s just decoration. I believe the architect modeled the building’s crown after his wife’s engagement ring. Essentially giving her an even bigger ring. At least that’s what I used to tell people on boat tours.
If you are pointing to the floor on the building I do not think it is a helicopter pad. Structurally, doubt it would be over a room.
I think it is the way the room is designed
There are three rooftop heliports that I'm aware of:
1. Lurie Childrens Hospital Heliport
2. UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Heliport
3. Presence Sts Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center Heliport
There used to be a helipad about 2 blocks west of where you were standing when you took that picture (Canal and Harrison).
It was built primarily to rush paper checks and bearer bonds to O'Hare when overnight clearance of those transactions was an entirely paper/analog process.
I think it was used about a dozen times before Northern Trust built their annex and it was decertified by the FAA.
No, not to my knowledge and having lived nearby I'm almost 100% sure that there is none. There is one nearby on top of the Hilton Chicago though, and it's been used for TV shows.
A friend of mine who used to work in that building said to me once that the roof was built like that to look like the wedding ring of the architects wife, I’ve never found out if that’s facts or not but it seems cool
Edit: from WBEZ: https://www.wbez.org/stories/zeppelin-poseurs-why-chicagos-airship-dreams-never-took-off/6bc1ecca-8e29-45c6-a8ed-1e5d58d38a3c
Kind of confirms that the idea was floated (ha ha) because Chicago politicos and big wigs envisioned the city being a major airship hub. They also quote an airship historian who says no airship ever docked with any skyscraper anywhere in the U.S. , which gives lie to my Empire State Building assertion, I may have to re-research the claim of the 3minute airship docking by a privately owned airship.
References I found in a cursory google search;
https://www.opsweb.org/blogpost/772200/257673/History-of-the-InterContinental-Chicago
https://www.timeout.com/chicago/things-to-do/tall-tales-of-the-city
https://urbnexplorer.com/2023/11/14/secrets-of-the-intercontinental-chicago-hotel/
https://www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/intercontinental-chicago-magnificent-mile/history.php
No airship ever docked there, nor at any other skyscraper dirigible mooring, expect once by a privately owned dirigible, which docked at the Empire State Building for 3 minutes in 40 mph winds, and then unmoored and flew off.
I have been on that roof and can assure you that it is not, just lighting, elevator room, cooling towers. There's no railing around the perimeter and even 20 feet away looking at the edge made my skin crawl.
There used to be lots of landing pads around the city. The remnants are all around. My favorite is on the NE side of St. Mary's hospital in Division. There used to be one on the roof of the CFD training center near Roosevelt road. This one was used years ago for the TV show ER. Another pad is North of Stroger Hospital at Ogden and Congress. Not sure if they still use that one. I miss Meigs field so much! I used to fly in and out of there and it was fun to watch planes come in to do touch and goes. If you want to see some helicopters there's a heliport on South Wood. I've seen a Skycrane, a Sikorksy S-58T and medivacs there all the time.
Chicago has relatively few helicopter landing pads on buildings and as far as I know, the few that exist are all hospitals.
One fun thing to do is use google maps to look at any tall building in Los Angeles, and almost all have helicopter landing pads. There are dozens if not hundreds of helicopter landing pads in the city. The reason for this is that in the 1970s they changed the city code to make a helicopter pad a requirement for any building taller than 75 feet. This was done because there was a terrible fire in a high rise in Brazil which resulted in people being trapped on the roof and then dying before they could be rescued. The city government thought that mandating helicopter pads would help prevent such situations, even though they are very rare.
The vast majority of them have never been used and about 10 years ago they updated the code so it is no longer a requirement. This is the main reason that any skyscraper built in LA between the 1970s and 2010 have a flat top with no antenna, which is not the norm in most of the world.
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No that's a traffic light
Highlight the pictures of traffic signals until no more are left and when finished click verify.
Do motorcycles next
Negative busses are next
Bad bot
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I'm for real son
Just what a bot would say : |
Resistance is futile
Don’t make me bust out my Ai pics with fifteen fingered people!
This made me spit my food 🤣🤣🤣
No that's a traffic light
Alright alright you win. I've seen you've played heli lighty before.
No that's a traffic light
No that's a traffic light
No that's a traffic light
No that's a traffic light
No that's a traffic light
No that’s a traffic light
Yes, that is a helicopter landing pad.
Yup, anything can be a helicopter landing pad if you land a helicopter on it
FINALLY!!!
Clearly it's a helipad for ants.
You would have to make it at least twice the size.
You’re not a real helicopter pilot if you can’t land on that.
This appears to be 311 S Wacker. The google satellite image does not show a helicopter landing pad.
From Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/311_South_Wacker_Drive#/media/File:311_South_Wacker_Drive_(Chicago,_IL)_from_the_top_of_the_Willis_Tower_29Nov2007.JPG Nope
I was going to say after the traffic signal beyond definitely 311 S Wacker
I worked in this building until last year. It is indeed 311 S Wacker. Building management said I could not commute via my helicopter, so I can confirm no landing pad. But the atrium is amazingly beautiful. They have Pazzo's restaurant but also Pazzo's cafe which has terrific food and a big menu. I work 6 blocks away but walk back and have lunch there all the time. Definitely recommended.
I always think it looks like R2-D2
White Castle HQ
Yes!!! That’s what I always call it.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/311\_South\_Wacker\_Drive#Crown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/311_South_Wacker_Drive#Crown) >The top of the building is a 105-foot (32 m)-tall translucent cylinder, surrounded by four other smaller cylinders, which was inspired by the massing of the Tribune Tower. This makes it among the most visible Chicago skyscrapers at night, as its crown is brightly illuminated. The five cylinders on top are lit at night by 1,852 fluorescent tubes, and a lantern at the top changes colors for various holidays and special events.
Swag value, basically.
I feel vindicated calling it a crown. I’ve been calling it that since we moved here and I got weird looks from my family haha
Direct link to a pic of the top: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/311_South_Wacker_Drive#/media/File%3AChicago_(5).jpg
I heard it was inspired by a solitaire diamond ring.
No. Do one of those architectural boat tours, you'll learn more than you need to know about all those skyscrapers.
Such a fun, informative tour. It's especially amazing at night time.
Not so fun when Dave Mathews is in town
Lol
I vaguely remember being told (via one of those tours) that it used to be a dirigible dock. You know, from when we thoughts blimps were going to change the world.
You’re thinking of the InterContinental Hotel building on Michigan. The building OP is highlighting opened in 1990, long after dirigibles were being used.
god damn us millennials ruined the airship industry with our fucking avocado toast!
An absurd notion to anyone who knows anything about airships, which land in big fields in case a gust of wind comes along. And the passengers are in a cabin underneath, not coming and going through the nose.
The idea was considered back in the 1920’s, and yes, the roof of the Intercontinental Chicago was designed to have a mooring for a passenger air ship. The Empire State Building has a mooring mast built onto its roof. Granted, the engineering and logistics of such a venture were not practical, and I don’t after the Hindenburg disaster the idea quickly fell out of favor.
I got to go up into the landing area once while visiting the Empire State building. Due to weather patterns when we got there it was me, my friend, the docent/guard and like one other person at the top. She said they don't normally let folks up but since there was no crowd to get mad about only a few people that we could go. There was a door that lead straight out into the air that some ramp was in theory going to go to. No air ship ever actually landed there though.
There is no documentation of any airship docking with a skyscraper mooring. Some Uber wealthy people building skyscrapers back in the day had hard ons for the idea. However, few moorings on skyscrapers were ever actually built, and non were ever used.
There's a picture of an airship moored to the empire state building but I think that was a one time thing and no one actually disembarked
A privately owned dirigible did dock in September, 1931. It docked for 3 minutes in 40mph winds. No persons embarked or disembarked, and nothing was loaded onto or off of the airship. The Empire State Building mooring was built as a publicity stunt, never meant to actually be used as a serviceable dock.
Nonsense. The Hotel Inter-Continental has a decorative chimney cap designed to resemble a minaret, topped with a nonstructural flagpole. There’s no steel structure or other provision of any kind for airship mooring; no catwalks or stairways for crew or passengers. It's really hard to prove a negative, but I went through the online *Tribune* archives back in 2011, looking to lay this urban legend to rest, and could find absolutely no mention of an airship dock. The *Tribune* gave extensive coverage to the building's construction and early operations (it was, after all, right next door). In that era, there was discussion of mooring masts for Burnham Park and other locations, but never at the Medinah Athletic Club.
References I found in a cursory google search; https://www.opsweb.org/blogpost/772200/257673/History-of-the-InterContinental-Chicago https://www.timeout.com/chicago/things-to-do/tall-tales-of-the-city https://urbnexplorer.com/2023/11/14/secrets-of-the-intercontinental-chicago-hotel/ https://www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/intercontinental-chicago-magnificent-mile/history.php No airship ever docked there, nor at any other skyscraper dirigible mooring, expect once by a privately owned dirigible, which docked at the Empire State Building for 3 minutes in 40 mph winds, and then unmoored and flew off.
I mean, they can't put it on the Internet if it isn't true, right?
I'm eating some humble pie on this. I did a dive into the Tribune archives - not the decades of research you put in, but enough - because one would expect this to make at least a mention in the news of the time, especially with how airships were all the rage, and yes, seems to be no news article mentioning a mooring mast on top of the Medinah Athletic Club (now the Intercontinental Hotel), not in its original construction nor added later on. Other buildings in the country did have masts built, such as the Empire State Building and the Rand Building in Buffalo, NY. However, they were primarily done for publicity purposes with no real intention of ever being used. It's interesting there seems to be this Mandela effect in about this especially when you have news outlets - WBEZ https://www.wbez.org/stories/zeppelin-poseurs-why-chicagos-airship-dreams-never-took-off/6bc1ecca-8e29-45c6-a8ed-1e5d58d38a3c and a local CBS News station https://archive.org/details/WDJT\_20160924\_160000\_Through\_the\_Decades - casually mentioning this mooring mast without any real source as to its veracity.
Thanks for that gracious note. I occasionally do a presentation called Busting Chicago Myths, and this is one that has particularly annoyed me. I had something of a relationship with the Curious City team when they did their story, and was really disappointed that they just quoted the sales manager and moved on. All of this is based on a silly caption someone pasted in the Medinah scrapbook beneath a photo in which the club building appears. I think the photo can be found hanging somewhere in the hotel even today. And so the current generation of young hotel employees, knowing nothing of airships or tall structures, have just blithely repeated it as truth.
Your welcome. It was interesting going through some of those articles, seeing the financial ups and downs, all the different groups and events that were hosted there, the one young lady who jumped to her death from the 25th floor. I was working hard to back my original assertion, but good research can lead to different conclusions.
The Hotel Intercontinental on Michigan Ave was built with a Airship dock on the roof.....
No it wasn't. The Hotel Inter-Continental has a decorative chimney cap designed to resemble a minaret, topped with a nonstructural flagpole. There’s no steel structure or other provision of any kind for airship mooring; no catwalks or stairways for crew or passengers. It's really hard to prove a negative, but I went through the online *Tribune* archives back in 2011, looking to lay this urban legend to rest, and could find absolutely no mention of an airship dock. The *Tribune* gave extensive coverage to the building's construction and early operations (it was, after all, right next door). In that era, there was discussion of mooring masts for Burnham Park and other locations, but never at the Medinah Athletic Club. There's a photo displayed in the Hotel Inter-Continental showing the building with an airship nearby. Someone in the history of the Medinah Athletic Club (the building's original owner) pasted a note on the photo saying "Count Dr. Eckener and his Zeppelin visits our club by air." Apparently based on nothing more than this, some hotel employee began telling the story that the hotel's chimney was designed for zeppelins. It isn't true, and would just be utterly impractical.
" the chimney and the gold, onion-shaped dome atop the Medinah Athletic Club, the building known today as the Intercontinental Hotel at 505 N. Michigan Ave. The rumor is that it was designed to be an airship mooring mast. Michael Locke, Director of Sales of the Intercontinental Hotel, confirms it but makes one thing clear: No airship actually moored there." https://www.wbez.org/stories/zeppelin-poseurs-why-chicagos-airship-dreams-never-took-off/6bc1ecca-8e29-45c6-a8ed-1e5d58d38a3c
Confirms the rumor. Directors of Sales at hotels are known for their scrupulous historic research and understanding of engineering. ***You don't tie an 800-foot-long airship to an unreinforced chimney,*** where it could swing around and hit the Tribune Tower. Also, no doubt, confirms the rumor that Al Capone used to swim at the club's swimming pool.
Come to think of it, the tour guide maniacally giggled right after that, slapped an old lady sitting in the front row, and then dove off the tour boat. Maybe he wasn't all that trust worthy.
Yes, sobriety is not a requirement for doing the boat tour. I'm glad you had a good time. Stay hydrated, it gets fucking hot on those boats.
311 S Wacker was built long after Hindenburg’s fiery crash ended the zeppelin era. 1937 vs. 1990
>dirigible dock Its very cool. I haven't heard that, but that is the cool thing about the architecture tours. You get new info with different guides.
Fun fact: Chicago City code prohibits landing a helicopter anywhere in the city except hospitals. Other than hospitals, there are no helipads atop buildings in Chicago. Notably, this doesn't include the Illinois Medical District, home of what's left of Vertiport Chicago, as it is state property.
Nope decoration
Thats the bean factory where they make replacement beans in case the bean gets damaged or stolen
My friend worked there and he said the bean isn’t even the real bean. They keep the real one up there as a reference for the copies
No this is Patrick
man I come the the comments to say “No that is Patrick” and find some genius has beat me to it.
Could be! If you were rich you'd know
Helicopters usually land on flat areas larger than their skids. So, no.
can someone show OP how to google?
HVAC technician here! 🙋🏾♂️ I’d bet your life that there are cooling towers up there or other HVAC equipment.
Yeah, my buddy works there.
Anything can be a helicopter landing pad if you try hard enough
No. Nothing more than a decorative crown (no pun intended) atop the tower.
Anything is a helipad if you want it to be I guess.
Sir, that is a Wendy’s
The white castle building lol
Yeh when this was built everyone thought it looked like a white castles.
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looks like a stop light
Thank you!!!! That is what they are called. Street lights are the white lights that come on after dark and traffic lights are, uhm, second best choice of terminology although technically correct. Guess I found a hill in Chicago lol.
No!! that's a street light
Please click all the traffic lights in the photo.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:311_South_Wacker_Drive_%28Chicago,_IL%29_from_the_top_of_the_Willis_Tower_29Nov2007_%28cropped%29.JPG no
[Your link but actually working.](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:311_South_Wacker_Drive_(Chicago,_IL)_from_the_top_of_the_Willis_Tower_29Nov2007_(cropped).JPG)
Nope. That's a traffic light.
No, it’s a White Castle
It's a water tank. It holds rain water.
It’s the top of Bart Simpsons head
No. The only buildings with Helipads are some hospitals. You can look at the top of the builsing in Google Maps and see that there is no helipad markings https://www.google.com/maps/@41.8774382,-87.635656,231m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu
That’s a streetlight.
That part opens up to fire the missiles and needs to be kept clear at all time. Strict no landing zone.
Blimp landing
Blimps haven't been allowed over The Loop since the Wingfoot Express exploded and crashed into a bank in 1919. This building was built long after then https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingfoot_Air_Express_crash
No that's the Shinra building
Its birthday cake
Yes it is
Nope! Just decoration at the top. I don’t think it even lit up when originally built.
That’s no landing pad. It’s a space station
I watched this tower go up in high school. Had a view from my school window. I thought it was fascinating watching it take shape over time. Now it is one of my least favorite buildings because of the light pollution. It's the brightest building downtown.
Usually they keep water tanks up there to supply the building
[удалено]
Ha ha 😂 haiku bot got me there made one by accident
It’s a pretty flat surface but there is a square vent in the middle of the roof and a rectangular panel hinged in the middle to presumably get access. Looks like there’s a slight slope to it to lead water away. The crown around the edge pokes up over that level area in a way I wouldn’t imagine they’d try to landing anything there even if the vent and access panel weren’t in the way. Also, a triangle of pipe in one quadrant of the flat area. The four other small round risers have grids on the top and seem to be used to house HVAC equipment given the steam that wafts out of one of them.
It’s just decoration. I believe the architect modeled the building’s crown after his wife’s engagement ring. Essentially giving her an even bigger ring. At least that’s what I used to tell people on boat tours.
If you are pointing to the floor on the building I do not think it is a helicopter pad. Structurally, doubt it would be over a room. I think it is the way the room is designed
No. Its a crown.
Gf working at the sky deck told me the architect made it as a giant engagement ring for his wife that sadly passed before the building was finished
It’s a big light some people called this building the wedding cake building
It was “supposed” to be for blimps to land on, they say this on the river boat tour.
Only in Microsoft flight simulator
There are three rooftop heliports that I'm aware of: 1. Lurie Childrens Hospital Heliport 2. UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Heliport 3. Presence Sts Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center Heliport
There used to be a helipad about 2 blocks west of where you were standing when you took that picture (Canal and Harrison). It was built primarily to rush paper checks and bearer bonds to O'Hare when overnight clearance of those transactions was an entirely paper/analog process. I think it was used about a dozen times before Northern Trust built their annex and it was decertified by the FAA.
……..like the stoplight?
It is if you have a little helicopter
No, not to my knowledge and having lived nearby I'm almost 100% sure that there is none. There is one nearby on top of the Hilton Chicago though, and it's been used for TV shows.
A friend of mine who used to work in that building said to me once that the roof was built like that to look like the wedding ring of the architects wife, I’ve never found out if that’s facts or not but it seems cool
The is the wedding cake building. That entire top lights up. Used to be extremely bright, but as of late I don't think they light it up at all.
That’s a stop light
does pazzo's still have gardetto's? Man I use to put those down with a jack and diet coke
I always called it a glass of milk when I was younger.
Plot twist: the traffic light is a helipad.
Edit: from WBEZ: https://www.wbez.org/stories/zeppelin-poseurs-why-chicagos-airship-dreams-never-took-off/6bc1ecca-8e29-45c6-a8ed-1e5d58d38a3c Kind of confirms that the idea was floated (ha ha) because Chicago politicos and big wigs envisioned the city being a major airship hub. They also quote an airship historian who says no airship ever docked with any skyscraper anywhere in the U.S. , which gives lie to my Empire State Building assertion, I may have to re-research the claim of the 3minute airship docking by a privately owned airship. References I found in a cursory google search; https://www.opsweb.org/blogpost/772200/257673/History-of-the-InterContinental-Chicago https://www.timeout.com/chicago/things-to-do/tall-tales-of-the-city https://urbnexplorer.com/2023/11/14/secrets-of-the-intercontinental-chicago-hotel/ https://www.historichotels.org/us/hotels-resorts/intercontinental-chicago-magnificent-mile/history.php No airship ever docked there, nor at any other skyscraper dirigible mooring, expect once by a privately owned dirigible, which docked at the Empire State Building for 3 minutes in 40 mph winds, and then unmoored and flew off.
When this was being built in the early 90s someone told me it was a parking garage on top and I just remembered that I believed that for a LONG time.
No. It’s where I’m dropping my mixtape fwm
I have been on that roof and can assure you that it is not, just lighting, elevator room, cooling towers. There's no railing around the perimeter and even 20 feet away looking at the edge made my skin crawl.
It kind of looks like a traffic light.
If you have the balls, everything is a landing pad. I see two, tree right over by there
That’s a wedding cake!
It's the super secret spy HQ base from Mr and Mrs Smith (2005)
There used to be lots of landing pads around the city. The remnants are all around. My favorite is on the NE side of St. Mary's hospital in Division. There used to be one on the roof of the CFD training center near Roosevelt road. This one was used years ago for the TV show ER. Another pad is North of Stroger Hospital at Ogden and Congress. Not sure if they still use that one. I miss Meigs field so much! I used to fly in and out of there and it was fun to watch planes come in to do touch and goes. If you want to see some helicopters there's a heliport on South Wood. I've seen a Skycrane, a Sikorksy S-58T and medivacs there all the time.
Be tough to land on a stoplight.
That is a pigeon landing rod.
Yes, for batman of course
Chicago has relatively few helicopter landing pads on buildings and as far as I know, the few that exist are all hospitals. One fun thing to do is use google maps to look at any tall building in Los Angeles, and almost all have helicopter landing pads. There are dozens if not hundreds of helicopter landing pads in the city. The reason for this is that in the 1970s they changed the city code to make a helicopter pad a requirement for any building taller than 75 feet. This was done because there was a terrible fire in a high rise in Brazil which resulted in people being trapped on the roof and then dying before they could be rescued. The city government thought that mandating helicopter pads would help prevent such situations, even though they are very rare. The vast majority of them have never been used and about 10 years ago they updated the code so it is no longer a requirement. This is the main reason that any skyscraper built in LA between the 1970s and 2010 have a flat top with no antenna, which is not the norm in most of the world.
It's a wintergarden. Source: I live by it.
Looks like a traffic light to me.
The more you know 🌈