Chicago to see new Ferris wheel at Navy Pier in 2016
By Mary Wisniewski
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago will enjoy a new 196-foot-tall (60 m) Ferris wheel on its lakefront next year, almost 50 feet taller than its current wheel, the city announced on Tuesday.
The wheel, privately financed with a loan from Fifth Third Bank, will be at Navy Pier, a popular, multi-use tourist attraction on Lake Michigan which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2016.
The country's third-largest city is the birthplace of the Ferris wheel, a feature of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair.
It was named after George Ferris, Jr, an engineer who designed and constructed the first wheel for the fair in 1893.
The current Navy Pier wheel, which will be taken down starting in September, debuted in 1995 as part of a renovation of the pier.
The new wheel comes from Dutch Wheels, the same Netherlands-based company that built the pier's current wheel, said Nick Shields, spokesman for the non-profit Navy Pier, Inc.
Features of the new wheel include a fortified structure to withstand winds of 115 miles per hour (185 kph) and safety glass against the city's unpredictable weather.
The gondolas will seat 10 passengers, in contrast to the current wheel's six, and will have TV screens for educational videos about the city and the Pier, said Shields.
The gondolas will also be temperature controlled, rather than open-air like the current wheel, so the wheel can be used all year, Shields said. Construction, including landscaping, will cost an estimated $26.5 million.
There has been a boom in city observation Ferris Wheels in the last few decades including the 443-foot London Eye (135 m) unveiled in 1999; the 525-foot Star of Nanchang in China (160 m) put up in 2006, and the 550-foot High Roller (168 m) in Las Vegas in 2014.
The 630-foot (192 m) New York Wheel is scheduled to open on Staten Island in 2017, according to a website for the wheel.
But the size of Chicago's new wheel was chosen because it fit the footprint of the current one, the city said.
"We weren't looking to get the biggest wheel in the world - it's about celebrating our 100th anniversary and respecting the city's skyline," said Shields.
(Reporting by Mary Wisniewski, editing by G Crosse)
