steve wrote:Yeah, not going to happen. I'll take even money on $100 that it isn't built by 2015, or if it is built, it won't be nearly as big as planned.

Any takers?

Didn't they already break ground & drive the pilings in for the foundation?? Couldn't find it on a quick Google, but I could swear I've read that somewhere sometime over the summer.

steve wrote:Yeah, not going to happen. I'll take even money on $100 that it isn't built by 2015, or if it is built, it won't be nearly as big as planned.

Any takers?

I think it will be finished by 2015. As in, there will be a building called the Chicago Spire standing there before then, for sure. I don't want to bet on the semantics of size though.

I'll take this bet for $200, Albiz.

The MayorofRockNRoll wrote:Imagine if a female King Kong or Godzilla did masturbate with the spire. Everybody who lived there would get to see the inner workings of this giant beast through their windows, smell it too.

I hope they wouldn't suffocate, and washing the windows after that would have to suck.

<lots of shocked faces>:

King Kong is not hard enough to masturbate with that thing. He is just a little bitch.

cwiko wrote:Didn't they already break ground & drive the pilings in for the foundation?? Couldn't find it on a quick Google, but I could swear I've read that somewhere sometime over the summer.

yes, they have begun installing the 150-feet-into-the-bedrock things. i think steve is predicting a north korea style failure-to-complete (see my earlier link the ryugyong hotel wikipedia entry). the ryugyong is actually topped off and looks great imo, but it has no windows or guts. it's one big, snazzy husk... the kind of place where societies of outcasts live in sci-fi novels.

my prediction: the spire will be completed... if they come up short on cash they just make it a little shorter.

tommydski wrote:

steve wrote:Yeah, not going to happen. I'll take even money on $100 that it isn't built by 2015, or if it is built, it won't be nearly as big as planned.

Any takers?

I think it will be finished by 2015. As in, there will be a building called the Chicago Spire standing there before then, for sure. I don't want to bet on the semantics of size though.

I'll take this bet for $200, Albiz.

If it is up to 30 feet shorter than proposed, it's a push. If it is shorter than that, I win. Is that okay? If so, book it.

Okay, I will take that bet.

steve wrote:

tommydski wrote:

steve wrote:Yeah, not going to happen. I'll take even money on $100 that it isn't built by 2015, or if it is built, it won't be nearly as big as planned.

Any takers?

I think it will be finished by 2015. As in, there will be a building called the Chicago Spire standing there before then, for sure. I don't want to bet on the semantics of size though.

I'll take this bet for $200, Albiz.

If it is up to 30 feet shorter than proposed, it's a push. If it is shorter than that, I win. Is that okay? If so, book it.

98.5% of the planned height is more than a push to me. An over/under of 80% would at least make it interesting.

The height is the hardest part, and the reason I think it won't go. If it is shorter by a couple of floors, that's no big deal, which is why I say 30 feet.

It's booked anyway. See you at the payoff dinner at Kuma's in Jan 2015.

steve wrote:If it is up to 30 feet shorter than proposed, it's a push. If it is shorter than that, I win. Is that okay? If so, book it.

30 feet does seem sort of a small concession for a proposed 2000 foot building - I wouldn't say it qualifies as "not nearly as big as planned".

Regardless - I really don't think it will become a matter of feet. If it is cut back at all, I think it will be on a much larger scale.

steve wrote:The height is the hardest part, and the reason I think it won't go.

How much would you bet on the Burj Dubai not reaching 3084 feet?