Monday, August 20, 2007

The Sears Tower

Believe it or not, on our way there we actually confused the Sears Tower for a completely different building. We almost went to the John Hancock Center (I mean, the Herbie Hancock Center) in downtown Chicago. And I don't put all the blame on us. For reasons unbeknownst to me, there are two huge black towers in Chicago. I guess this is a chicken and the egg thing (unless that is irrelevant), but whichever building came first should have had jurisdiction on having a huge black tower.

The Sears Tower building was the tallest structure for 28 years, but it was surpassed. Now it is like that High School sports hero who everything in the town was named after, and was a local celebrity until thirty years later, all his records were smashed. We know this guy... his identity is entwined with this record, so he starts making up reasons he should still have the record. "In my days, we didn't have this new fangled equipment." "I had to do it against better defenses." Well, the Sears tower is now that guy. In a video, one developer claims "Well, we still have the tallest antennas in the world." Let it go, Sears, let it go...

That said- the tower is great. And it's different than "the top of the world" (check out post numero uno for that one) in two ways: 1. It's a hell of a lot closer to the top of the world. 2. The building is interesting as a structure and not just as an observation deck. Take a second to learn about how it was built: 9 columns, different heights, pretty cool concept actually.

That's not to say that the observation deck is not great... it is. You take a minute elevator ride from LL2 (let's assume that stands for Lindsay Lohan who operates on the lower level.) to floor 103. Your ears actually pop on the way up. Some of our fellow riders seemed uncomfortable by the packed elevator. They have clearly never exited the number 1 train at 181st street.

The observation deck really is an incredible view. On a clear day, you can see 15 miles in every direction. We got a great view in every direction and we actually have a good mental picture of downtown Chicago. I assume this will help us never.

How good was the view.... A number of people were able to see into the Wrigley bleachers and view the lack of bikini top. The Sears tower is pretty cool.

2 comments:

Danny said...

According to Wiki:

"On August 12, 2007, the Burj Dubai in Dubai, United Arab Emirates was reported by its developers to have surpassed the Sears Tower in all height categories. It overtook the Sears Tower antenna (527.3m) and the building now currently stands at least four metres taller (531.3m)."

That video you watched is soooo two weeks ago.

Dan

ECS said...

Before Dubai celebrates, Chicago is still the home of the largest man-made box (not you, box containing junk)