Gold Pigs Will Fly When Chicago's Trump Tower Sign Looks Good, Design Firm Says

CHICAGO, IL — A design firm wants to "provide visual relief" to Chicagoans by floating inflatable pigs in front of the 20-foot-tall sign that adorns Chicago's Trump International Hotel and Tower.

Chicago-based New World Design Ltd. described its downtown improvement idea involving President-elect Donald Trump's building at 401 N. Wabash Ave., on the firm's blog last month. The "folly," as it's called, would involve tethering four gold-colored pig balloons to buoys in the Chicago River so that they would be "interrupting the view of the ostentatious Trump Tower Chicago sign," according to the posting.

The use of porcine balloons to create "a partial blockage of the sign’s visual noise" works on multiple levels, the firm says, calling it:

• a critique of "the gaudy style of Mr. Trump's own gold ensconced penthouse interior he has labeled 'comfortable modernism'."
• a reference to Trump calling former Miss Universe Alicia Machado "Miss Piggy."
• an homage to the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album "Animals."

(Sadly, the flying pig sketch from "The Kids in the Hall" was not cited as an influence for the project.)

"The design scheme follows rigorous rationale in providing layers of meaning while allowing for nuanced interpretations by viewers," the blog post stated, forcing many people to wonder if "nuanced" had ever been used before to describe large, gold, pig balloons floating over a major urban center.

Even though the design project was proposed almost a month ago, Jeffrey Roberts, the principal architect at New World Design Ltd., told The Associated Press his firm was still trying to pull off the "folly."

Go to the blog for New World Design Ltd. for more about the floating pigs.

Trump International Hotel and Tower (photo by Alvesgaspar | Wikimedia Commons)

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