Sears tower new name7/31/2023 The tower will be officially renamed sometime this summer, a spokesman for the building management group said.įirst opened in 1973, the Sears Tower held the record for the world's tallest building for 25 years until the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia were built in 1998.ĭesigned with a series of stepbacks that allow a wide base to support the narrower upper tower, the tower's 4.56 million gross square feet would cover 105 acres if spread across one level. Willis Group Holdings won the naming rights after negotiating to lease several floors of the 110-story black tower which dominates the Windy City's skyline. Now, buildings that are considered monuments put their names up for lease.CHICAGO - Chicago's iconic Sears Tower - the tallest building in the United States - will be getting a new name after a British insurance company made a deal with the building management. Putting a name on a building may have been a sign of ego, but it also implied a commitment to a community something that would last more than a generation or two. Once, you had to build something - a skyscraper, a stadium - to put your name on it. 11, many people worried that iconic skyscrapers could become targets.Ī man who is distraught about the name change wrote me a note this week that suggested, "Those who build it should get to name it."Īnd that made me reflect a bit on all the money that has been spent since the boom and bubbles that began in the 1990s by people who weren't building businesses, but buying them just to sell them off. The profile of Sears Tower has always reminded me of four mammoth pistons, at different heights, pounding into the sky - a gorgeous signature for a powerful city.īut the building's occupancy rate is down to 85 percent. Daley offered only a shrug of indifference and reminded reporters that Sears had moved its corporate headquarters to a suburb years ago anyway.Īs Joseph Plumeri, chairman of the Willis Group, said, "The headline should be: A company has decided to invest money in Chicago, and if you miss that headline, you've missed the side of the building by a mile and a half." Local reaction to renaming Sears Tower has ranged from adverse to murderous, though Mayor Richard M. You wouldn't want to change them according to who buys the building, any more than you would change the name of Mount Ranier or Mount Whitney according to who gets elected governor. Those names are also markers of local history. Their names and places are the way we find our way around: walk past the Hancock until you see the Wrigley Building, right across from Trib Tower. I don't want to sentimentalize what is, after all, a name change from one company to another, a retailer to an insurance firm.īut it's hard not to see this name change as meaning something more in this current world economy.įor those of us who love cities, tall buildings are the mountains of our landscapes. This week, Willis Group Holdings, the London insurance brokers, announced it will lease three floors of America's tallest building to house 500 employees.Īnd oh yes - the name of Sears Tower will be changed to Willis Tower.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |