December 2007

The fates of two controversial Chicago real-estate projects were decided over the past week—and both decisions involved freshmen aldermen. The first bit of news concerned X/O, the pair of sinuous towers, designed by Lucien Lagrange, slated to go up in the South Loop at 18th Street and Prairie Avenue. Reacting to residents’ fears that the tall buildings would overwhelm the landmark Glessner House and other historic residences nearby, Robert Fioretti, the newly elected alderman of the 2nd Ward, had proposed an ordinance that would have cut the site’s allowable building height in half, from 450 to 225 feet. Fioretti’s proposal would have essentially repealed the Planned Development Ordinance for the property that the Chicago City Council had approved in October 2006, before Fioretti was elected.

But then came the report late last week that Fioretti had withdrawn his ordinance, thus giving the $300-million project the green light. According to Keith Giles, who is developing X/O with his partner...