The eighth-tallest building in the world, it remains the third tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, standing 1,450 feet and 110 stories tall. The tower itself is a world-renowned building, a Chicago icon, and a marvel of engineering. Willis Tower’s glass-floor observation box is just one of the attractions that draw people from all around the world to visit Skydeck. In fact, it’s safe to say that The Ledge offers Chicago’s best aerial view-and we know you’ll want to see it in person. At 1,353 feet up, The Ledge’s glass boxes extend out 4.3 feet from the skyscraper’s Skydeck on the 103rd floor, providing never-before-seen views of the city. Many broadcast station transmitters are located at the top of Willis Tower.The Ledge transforms how visitors experience Chicago. The Willis Tower was also appeared in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, I-Robot, Man of Steel, Divergent, and many other movies.has appeared Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Monk, Kenan and Kel, Stargate SG-1 - these are just a few of the TV shows that the tower’s been featured in. The building has appeared in numerous films and television shows set in Chicago. A thick fog settled in near the end of his climb, making the last 20 stories of the building’s glass and steel exterior slippery. In August 1999, French urban climber Alain “Spiderman” Robert, using only his bare hands and bare feet, scaled the building’s exterior glass and steel wall all the way to the top. On May 25, 1981, Dan Goodwin, wearing a homemade Spider-Man suit while using suction cups, camming devices, and sky hooks, and despite several attempts by the Chicago Fire Department to stop him, made the first successful outside ascent of the Sears Tower. 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. 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.
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