Davis Brody Bond Architects and Planners and Marks Barfield Architects have unveiled new aerial cable car network for the Chicago skyline. The proposed urban gondola will fly on the south bank of the Chicago River. With the proposed cable car network, the skyline will become the iconic center for the renewed focus to increase tourism in Chicago.

Laurence Geller, chairman and CEO of Geller Capital Partners, together with Lou Raizin, founder of Broadway in Chicago teamed up with Davis Brody Bond Architects and Planners and Marks Barfield Architects to boost Chicago's tourism in the near future. The cable car will make a loop by transporting passengers from the city's Navy Pier to the Riverwalk and Millennium Park, right by the downtown district.

The system will carry up to 3,000 people per hour. Image courtesy of F10 studios

''A sophisticated, environmentally friendly aerial cable car that will enable visitors to appreciate Chicago's lakefront, skyline and world-class architecture in a completely new way'' said by the team of Marks Barfield Architects.

The translucent capsule is designed to carry up to 3,000 people per hour in the "pods" and the system will operate per half-hour tours day and night along the south bank of the river.  It will be suspended 17 stories above the water from Wacker Drive and Lake Street on the west and to Navy Pier on the east. The estimated cost of the cable car is $250 million to turn the idea into a reality, according to Laurence Geller, chairman and CEO of Geller Capital Partners. 

The cost of the journey will be about $20. Image courtesy of F10 studios

''The Skyline is a prime example of how we can move Chicago from old guard to vanguard. We kept coming back to the same question: What's our unique feature? Where's our Eiffel Tower? Where's our Big Ben? These ideas are our attempt to answer this question and are intended to start a conversation in the city about what we would like our reputation to be in the future'' added Raizin, founder of Broadway in Chicago.

The system is expected to attract 1.4 million visitors a year to Chicago. The cost of the journey for the observation decks at the Willis Tower and John Hancock Center, which are about $20. 

Marks Barfield Architects, london-based architecture firm, was also one of the designers of the London Eye, a giant wheel capsules can see up to 25 miles in all directions. Mark Barfield Architects' other vertical cable car design is the Brighton i360, which will be the world’s first vertical cable car and the tallest observation tower outside the UK is being constructed by an international team, bringing together specialist design and engineering from the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Australia and the UK.

In the 52 min. video, you can watch the full speech of Lou Raizin and Laurence Geller about the project in more detail. 

Top Image courtesy of F10 studios

> via Davis Brody Bond Architects / Marks Barfield Architects