#004 l Sears Tower l CHICAGO l 442m l 108fl

[Jasonhouse]

Sears Tower
Chicago, United States

HEIGHT: 442 meters/1,450 feet
FLOORS: 108
COMPLETION: 1974
ARCHITECT: Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill LLP

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. 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.

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 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. 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.

As 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. Above the fiftieth floor, some squares dropped away as the tower rose to create smaller floor plates and a distinctive stepped silhouette.

The tower is fronted by a separate tourist entrance, the Skydeck Pavilion added in 1985 by Skidmore Owings and Merrill. 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. 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 elevator ride. On a clear day it is possible to see four states from the top.

[Jasonhouse]

DMac really created this thread. I had to recreate it to fix the Poll feature.

[RafflesCity]

9/10

This building gets by on SHEER height. If it looks this amazing from pictures..it must be immense in real life.

[SteelCity32]

America's daddy

boooyaaa 9/10

[Ersh]

It's tall and black which is pretty cool, but I've never liked boxy forms in skyscrapers. 8/10

[Bobdreamz]

it's our tallest so it gets points for that though the design is kind of bland but overall I'll give it a 9/10..

PS: I do like this polling option!...great idea Jason..

[BoresvilleMcYawn]

big poppa!10/10

I like the 9-towers-in-1 design.

[Homeroids]

Yep, absolutely amazing. I was gobsmacked when I saw it in real life. 9.5.

I have to give it a 10... I drove past this thing, at night, on I-90 passing through Chicago on my way to Michigan this summer, and damn.... I reaffirmed my faith in myself as someone who doesn't need to watch the road at all times when he's driving... *lol*

By far one of the best towers in America!. 9.5

[AndrewC]

Tall, and I think the boxyness of it is a positive.

7/10

9/10 - a classic with an unparalled sense of height.

G

[Insomniac]

Truly something future civilizations should remember us for....I'll have to bend my normal rules about believing that no building is perfect (thus no building gets a 10/10). I give the Sears Tower a:

10/10

[ryanr]

I've been to it's observation deck Very nice interior!
Great view, awesome scraper. 9/10

[RafflesCity]

GreyX, cool!
Tell me about the lift ride up the building..was it a direct lift?
And how big is the observation deck?
I really wanna see it in person.

[Bob di Gills]

I like the colour of this monster of a building.

7/10

Fazlur Khan must have spent some time playing with a Soma puzzle .
Nothing like walking down Adams mid-winter with a north wind blowing

[AG]

Love the 9-tubes style and it's dark colour facade and windows.

8.5/10

[Patrick]

10/10 just great, i can't say it with words

black, tall, nice form...