Chicago

The Sears Tower

Nearly 34 years later and the Sears Tower is still standing. It is also the fourth tallest building in the entire world. Even though it is no longer the tallest building it has the greatest number of the stories, which is one hundred and ten stories high. The Sears Tower is currently the tallest building in the United States followed by the Empire States building which is located in the state of New York. How does the Sears Tower compare to the other major/ well known land marks through out the country?

"Engineers sought different ways of emphasizing the city of Ð''broad shoulder', and the desire for Chicagoans (including their businesses) to always be bigger, bolder, and better. The Sears Tower is perfectly reminiscent of a thriving, innovative period in Chicago architectural history" (Krause 237). Many of the architects working on the construction of the Sears Tower had to make quite a few Ð''fast track' decisions on the building the Sears Towers. One of the most imperative Ð''fast track' decisions was choosing which materials would be used on the exterior walls of the towers.

The Sears Tower was originally designed around 1967 by Bruce Ghram, an architect of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill also known as S.O.M. The Sears Tower has

bronze-tinted glass and stainless aluminum, rising motivation although elegance starting

with its most decorated foundations to the tops of the massive antennas.

The Sears Tower face major competition for the title of the Worlds tallest building. Some of the buildings/ skyscrapers that were competing for the titles were the Aon Center, the World Trade Center, and the John Hancock building. The Sears Tower went under construction to increase a local Chicago television station, which happens to be NBC. The Towers also added a seventy-five feet by adding a self supporting antenna's for WMAQ-29, WLS-52 and WPWR-52/22 on top of an already existing support tower. The Sears Tower is currently the tallest skyscraper in the western hemisphere and the biggest commercial-use office building with the most available space that can be rented out in the United States.

In February of 1982 two television antennas were added, which increased the towers total height to 1707 feet. Later on the tower added on a western antenna and later increased the height to 1,729 feet on June 5th. The Tower was upgraded/ renovated with four combination antennas, each of them at 29.4 feet tall. A S-64F air crane was used to lift the load from the top of a parking garage for a quarter of a mile. The city had to close four city blocks during the massive operation. While adding these changes it insured that the Chicago land area was able to receive High Definition Television, which is also known as HDTV. Throughout the years the Sears Tower has had many owners. Some of the owners have been Joseph Moninan from New York, Joseph Chetrit from New York, John Huston of Illinois and the Towers are currently being managed by CBRE which is formally known as the CB Richard Ellis Inc.

"Sears Tower, alongside the John Hancock Center and Amco building, was the epitome of the Chicago skyscraper craze during the latter half of the 20th century- a time

when the American economy was booming and tall buildings were a sign of commercial strength and success"( Unknown).

The Sears Tower started out with about 350,000 employees, and is one of Chicago's most visited tourist attractions. A public toll conducted by the American Institute of Architects, in commemoration of its 150th anniversary, ranked Sears Tower as America's third favorite Chicago land architectural landmark. Yearly about 1.3 million people visit the observation deck alone, making the "Big Store" the 7th most popular tourist destination in Chicago. Many people say that if you catch the Sears Tower on a windy you might possibly be able feel the sways the building from side to side. For a

toddler that is 3 years of age and younger the Tower waives