A. Sprint clear of the building, with your arms protectively thrown over your head. (Repeat at each of the dozens of high rise buildings posting similar signage around the city.)
B. Follow the sign’s helpful arrows upwards to see what the fuss is about.
C. Briefly contemplate what you’d do with the settlement money, should you survive any subsequent head blow from an over-sized ice cube.
D. Not a damn thing.
Signs like this have become the “wet floor” signs of Chicago winter. They have become common to the point that they scarcely register a second glance, yet that does not mean that accidents never happen. (For examples, try here or watch the video here.) What isn’t clear is if the signs are meant as a warning or as a notice of release from subsequent liability.
For 130 years the world’s greatest architects have been designing high rises in Chicago, and for just as long pedestrians have been forced to participate in a game of dodge-ice every time it freezes and thaws. And the problem is not confined to the oldest skyscrapers in the city. Plenty of buildings erected within the last 20 years suffer from the same problem. As the next generation of buildings reach for the sky (i.e. the Chicago Spire, Trump Tower, The Loop, Aqua, Waldorf-Astoria Tower), only time will really tell.
Retrofitting existing buildings is not the solution. Prohibitive costs, aesthetic concerns and community/political bickering will prevent any serious measures from ever taking place. So, what do we do about ice falling from our city’s buildings? I would be interested to hear your suggestions, but I’m afraid that the question might be rhetorical.
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