![]() As Sears anticipated future expansion and hence additional staff, they opted to concentrate their first occupancy on housing its merchandising group, leasing out the vacant space to other businesses until more space was required.Ĭonstruction of the Sears Tower (now Willis Tower) in Chicago, Illinois Steveboerger, derivative work Lämpel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons The framework was wrapped in aluminum, while the remainder of the structure was encased with bronze-tinted panels, allowing the tower to get enough natural sunlight and panoramas from every outside wall.Īntennas for local television and radio transmissions cap the tower at its highest point. In addition, the construction method saved up to 10 million dollars in steel expenses. ![]() The method would have a significant impact on skyscraper design and it has since been employed in the majority of skyscrapers, such as the current highest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa. It was considered to be both technically and financially efficient: at 1,400 feet, it offered more office space and was elevated higher than the Empire State Building, all while costing significantly less. The Sears Tower in Chicago was the first building to utilize this novel design. Khan invented the “bundled-tube” design, and these nine tubes created the skyscraper’s core framework.Īs the building rose in elevation, this approach ensured big open offices on the lower floors with unimpeded city views. The varied heights allow the structure to step back, fulfilling setback restrictions and generating the building’s famous staggering appearance. The architects designed a superstructure made up of nine interconnected tubes of varied heights separated into squares that function as distinct structures connected together as one. ![]() After consulting with municipal, state, and federal authorities, the company presented Sears with two potential choices: a two-block region bordered by Jackson Boulevard, Franklin Street, Wacker Drive, and Adams Street, or the Goose Island area. Sears ordered its advisors to submit a recommendation for a location. Sears management wanted to concentrate the thousands of personnel spread over the Chicago metro into a single location. With over 350,000 workers, Sears was considered the world’s biggest retailer in 1969. Highsmith, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons The Willis Tower (previously Sears Tower) in Chicago, Illinois Carol M. The Willis Tower’s height is recorded as being just over 1,400 feet high and comprises 108 levels in total. Additional office space was also required in the plan to accommodate the company’s expected growth. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill was commissioned by Sears to create an office tower that would accommodate its headquarters as well as the various offices they had distributed around Chicago in one structure. The Willis Tower, which soars over the windswept metropolis of Chicago, was once the highest skyscraper in the world when it was completed in 1973. 1.1.1 Law Suits Filed During Construction.On a clear day, it is possible to see four states from the top. 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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