Saturday, January 22, 2011

It will always be the Sears to me

For now this is the tallest building in the United States at 108 floors and 442 meters. It was renamed in 2009 when a new tenant, Willis Group Holdings, Ltd. of London, obtained the naming rights in their lease negotiations. Sears' contract for the building's name had expired in 2003 (Sears sold the building in 1994, but kept the naming rights for a while).

I can't bring myself to call this the Willis Tower.

The tower was completed in 1974 and at that time it was the world's tallest building and remained so until 1998. I remember going up to the 103rd floor observation deck once, but I have no pictures from up there, so it must not have been in 1996 when I took the rest of this series. Besides, the new glass balconies were not yet installed then, so I have two good reasons to go back.

This is the fourteenth in a brief series of photos that I took while visiting Chicago in June 1996. They're 35mm color slides that I've scanned and digitized.
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5 comments:

  1. Cubby22 January, 2011 14:21

    I love your Chicago series, and would like to see more.

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  2. chrissoup22 January, 2011 16:33

    I'm with Cubby.

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  3. Jean22 January, 2011 18:55

    Me too. Not that I ever tire of photos of France - I could look at them endlessly, but your Chicago pictures have been excellent, most enjoyable for a change.

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  4. Rachael22 January, 2011 19:33

    Whatchu talkin' bout Willis?

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  5. wcs23 January, 2011 08:18

    cubby, thanks! There are a couple more left.

    chris, merci.

    jean, thanks... it's fun for me to see these old photos again and scanning them gives me a new way to look at them.

    rachael, you know, I read that people in Chicago make that joke a lot these days... ;)

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