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Chicago Skyscraper Leaves 83rd Floor Empty For Wind To Blow Through

A 95-story skyscraper under development in Chicago is making room for the wind. The engineers of the new Vista Tower were concerned that the building would sway in the wind — possibly enough to make its future inhabitants feel sick. So architects opted to leave the 83rd story of the building empty, creating a tunnel for the wind to rush through nearly 1,000 feet above the street.

Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson talks with Juliane Wolf, one of the building’s designers.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

A rendering of the Vista Tower in Chicago. (Courtesy Studio Gang)
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A rendering of the Vista Tower in Chicago. (Courtesy Studio Gang)