Willis Tower
The Willis Tower, originally the Sears Tower, is a 110-story, 1,451-foot (442.3 m) skyscraper in the Loop community area of Chicago in Illinois, United States. Designed by architect Bruce Graham and engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), it opened in 1973 as the world's tallest building, a title that it held for nearly 25 years. It is the third-tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, as well as the 23rd-tallest in the world. Each year, more than 1.7 million people visit the Skydeck observation deck, the highest in the United States, making it one of Chicago's most popular tourist destinations.[5]
Willis Tower
Sears Tower (1973–2009)
Completed
Office, observation, communication
233 S. Wacker Drive
Chicago, Illinois 60606
United States
Willis Towers Watson
Sears (1973–2009)
1970
1974
September 1973
1,451 ft (442 m)[1]
1,729 ft (527 m)[1]
1,354 ft (413 m)[1]
110 (+3 basement floors)[3]
4,477,800 sq ft (416,000 m2)[1]
104,[1] with 16 double-decker elevators, made by Westinghouse, modernized by Schindler Group and recently remodernized by Otis Elevator Company
Jaros, Baum & Bolles (MEP), Aon Fire Protection Engineering, formerly Schirmer Engineering Corporation (Fire)[1]
Morse Diesel International
The building occupies a site bounded by Franklin Street, Jackson Boulevard, Wacker Drive, and Adams Street. Graham and Khan designed the building as nine square "tubes", clustered in a 3×3 matrix; seven of the tubes set back at upper floors. The tower has 108 stories as counted by standard methods, though the building's owners count the main roof as 109 and the mechanical penthouse roof as 110.[1][3] The facade is made of anodized aluminum and black glass. The base of the building contains a retail complex known as the Catalog. The lower half of the tower was originally occupied by retail company Sears, which had its headquarters there until 1994, while the upper stories were rented out.
The structure was known as the Sears Tower from its construction until the naming rights were included in a 2009 lease with the Willis Group. Local area residents still refer to the building by its old name.[6] As of April 2018, the building's largest tenant is United Airlines, which occupies around 20 floors.[7][8][9] Other major tenants include the building's namesake Willis Towers Watson, and law firms Schiff Hardin and Seyfarth Shaw.[9] Morgan Stanley became the building's fourth-largest tenant in 2017.[9][10]
Cultural depictions
The building has appeared in numerous films and television shows set in Chicago such as Ferris Bueller's Day Off, where Ferris and company visit the observation deck.[207] Late Night with Conan O'Brien introduced a character called The Sears Tower Dressed In Sears Clothing when the show visited Chicago in 2006.[208] The building is also featured in History Channel's Life After People, in which it and other human-made landmarks suffer from neglect without humans around, collapsing two hundred years after people are gone.[209]
In the 2008 film The Dark Knight, it is part of Gotham City.[210] In the 2011 film Transformers: Dark of the Moon, it is featured in a number of scenes.[211] In the 2013 film Man of Steel, the tower is the location of the offices of the Daily Planet.[212]