Flying pigs proposed to block Trump Tower sign
Idea takes Chicago’s removal of street signage honoring billionaire a step further
The Windy City is certainly showing creativity in expressing its antipathy to a Donald Trump presidency.
City workers earlier this week removed honorary street signage near the Chicago Trump International Hotel and Tower, a slap at the president-elect for calling the city a “war-torn country” during the campaign. Meanwhile, a Chicago architecture firm has come up with a far-fetched plan to install giant flying pig balloons to block the building ’s massive sign.
The removal of the honorary signage comes after the City Council in Democratic-controlled Chicago voted last month to withdraw it to express anger over Trump’s rhetoric about the city’s surge in violence. The signage dubbed a block of Wabash Avenue near Trump’s hotel and condominium building “Trump Plaza.”
Chicago has recorded more than 700 murders since the beginning of the year — more than New York and Los Angeles combined — leading Trump to com- pare the adopted hometown of President Obama to a conflict zone. The bulk of the violence has occurred in a handful of low-income and predominantly African-American and Latino neighborhoods. Trump has vowed to tackle the problem once he becomes president.
Weeks after the City Council action, the architecture firm New World Design posted a mock-up of a proposal for a four gold-covered pig balloon installation to obstruct views of Trump’s Chicago tower. The firm says on its blog that the installation along the Chicago River will “provide visual relief to the citizens of Chicago by interrupting the view of the ostentatious Trump Tower Chicago sign.”
The firm is still trying to figure out just how they would install the giant pigs, which it says are an homage to the cover Pink Floyd’s 1977 album Animals. New World Design says the pigs would be aligned to appear to be flying eastward toward the nation’s capital.
The flying refers “to the perceived chances of Mr. Trump winning the presidential election,” the firm wrote in its blog post.