![]() The building leans about 10 centimeters (4 inches) towards the west due to its slightly asymmetrical design, placing unequal loads on its foundation.Ħ roof-mounted robotic window washing machines clean all 16,100 windows. The restrooms on the 103rd floor, at 412 meters (1,353 feet) high, are the highest (relative to street level) in the Western Hemisphere. The lowest level of Willis Tower is 13 meters (43 feet) below the Franklin Street entrance. The Franklin Street entrance is the point from which all building heights are measured. Owners considered swapping its black façade for a silver veneer but quickly decided that the Chicago landmark should only undergo one change at a time. It was renamed after the Willis Group bought it.įor a brief period in 2009, the building entertained a makeover to accompany its rebranding as the Willis Tower. Until July 16, 2009, the building was called Sears Tower. Visibility from the Skydeck is approximately 40-50 miles (65-80 kilometers). On a clear day, you can see four states: Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. More than one million people visit the Skydeck each year, making it one of Chicago’s most popular tourist destinations. ![]() Located on the 103rd floor of the tower, it is 1,353 feet (412 meters) high. The Willis Tower observation deck, called the Skydeck, opened on June 22, 1974. The Willis Tower elevators operate as fast as 1,600 feet (488 meters) per minute – among the fastest in the world. The Willis Tower has 104 elevator with 16 double-decker elevator The Willis Tower has approximately 1 6,100 bronze-tinted windows. Within the building, there are 40 kilometers (25 miles) of plumbing, 2,400 kilometers (1,500 miles) of electric wiring, 130 kilometers (80 miles) of elevator cable, and 145,000 light fixtures. The construction cost about US$150 million at the time, equivalent to US$800 million in 2016. Two (the northwest and southeast tubes) ascend to the building’s 50th story two (northeast and southwest) to its 66th three (north, south, and east) to its 90th and two (west and center) to the Sears Tower’s peak on the 108th story. The “tubes” share a uniform width, measuring to 23 meters (75 feet) square, but are diverse in height. The Sears Tower was actually constructed as a collection of nine separate buildings, planted together in a unifying square. It took 2,000 workers and 3 years of construction to make it into the iconic structure that it is today.Ĭonstruction began in August 1970 and was completed in May 1973. The design was inspired by an advertisement for a package of cigarettes. ![]() ![]() On a clear day, it is possible to see four states from the top.With 416,000 square meters (4,477,786 square feet) of space, the building is comparatively large for its height, with its foundation and the first 50 floors taking up an entire city block before the building begins to narrow.Ĭommissioned by Sears, Roebuck & Company, it was designed by the chief architect Bruce Graham and structural engineer Fazlur Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, SOM. Though no longer the tallest building in the world, the Tower is still title to the world's highest occupiable floor and the highest roof deck, and an elevator ride. The Sears attracts some 1.5 million tourists each year, despite the loss of its title to the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur in 1997. The Tower is fronted by a separate tourist entrance, the Skydeck Pavilion added in 1985 by Skidmore Owings and Merrill. Above the fiftieth floor, some squares dropped away as the tower rose to create smaller floor plates and a distinctive stepped silhouette. At 1454 feet, its height surpassed the World Trade Center by 100 feet and was, according to Sears "as tall as the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) will let us go." For more than twenty years after its completion in 1974, Sears Tower remained the tallest skyscraper, and it is still the largest.Īs designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Khan of the Chicago office of Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM), the structure was a "bundled tube" system of nine squares with sides of 75 feet (for an overall 225 x 225 ft), sheathed in a curtain wall of dark tinted glass. The building slowly stretched to 4.5 million ft2 and 110 stories, and in July 1970, Sears trumpeted its plans for the world's tallest building. The first designs were for a boxy structure exclusively for Sears, but the architects and real estate advisors pressed for a taller tower with upper floors for tenants. ![]() The company determined it needed 3 million ft2 of office space with floors of 50,000 ft2 to accommodate its 13,000 employees in their major departments. In the late 1960s, Sears Roebuck and Company, then the world's largest retailer with $8.9 billion in sales, decided to consolidate its administrative operations in downtown Chicago. ![]()
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