Santiago Calatrava must be cursed in this town. The architect's Spire advanced far enough to taste and then flopped. And, several years before that, his far more terrestrial vision for a symmetrical set of pedestrian bridges flanking Buckingham Fountain also crashed out. Lee Bey took a moment yesterday to recall that plan, dubbed The Queen's Landing Bridge, and its promise and demise at the hands of Mayor Daley. The pair of elegant harp-like bridges offered a critical link between the lakeshore and the city for bikers and pedestrians, but Daley couldn't be sold on the design or the cost. Apparently, he wasn't even convinced people should be crossing the Drive here at all. Now that's a vision! Calatrava invested a lot in persuasion, but came up short. And thus, 11 years later, new concepts are still arriving for this natural crossing point but Calatrava's is conspicuously absent. Click through to see more of the old renderings. [WBEZ]
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