Willis Tower
| Willis Tower | |
|---|---|
_30.05.2015.JPG)
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| Basic data | |
| Place: |
Chicago , United States
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| Construction time : | 1970-1974 |
| Status : | Built |
| Architectural style : | International |
| Architect : | Bruce J. Graham and Fazlur Khan ( SOM ) |
| Use / legal | |
| Usage : | Offices, observation deck, telecommunications |
| Owner : | Willis Group Holdings |
| Client : | Sears |
| Technical specifications | |
| Height : | 442.3 m |
| Height to the top: | 527.3 m |
| Height to the roof: | 442.3 m |
| Top floor: | 436 m (technology), the highest usable floor (CTBUH criteria) is 412.7 m |
| Rank (height) : | 20th place (world) 2nd place (USA) 1st place (Chicago) |
| Floors : | 108 |
| Elevators : | 104 |
| Usable area : | 418,064 m² |
| Building material : | Structure: steel , facade: glass , aluminum |
| Building-costs: | 175 million US dollars |
The Willis Tower (until July 2009 Sears Tower ) is the tallest building in the city of Chicago , and is also currently the third tallest skyscraper in the United States and the twentieth tallest building on earth . The building is located in the Chicago Loop on South Wacker Drive at the corner of Adams Street. The address is 233 South Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60606 .
history
Construction and opening
The Sears Tower , built on behalf of the American retail group Sears ( Sears Roebuck and Co. ) from 1970, was opened in Chicago in 1974 after a four-year construction period . Cushman & Wakefield was in charge of the construction project and the subsequent administration . With a height of 442 meters (total height with antenna 527 meters, 108 floors), it was the tallest building in the world after its completion, replacing the World Trade Center (417 meters) in New York as the tallest skyscraper. The Sears company, which is based in Chicago and which was the largest retailer in the world with 350,000 employees when the tower was opened, housed its corporate headquarters in the building.
Altitude records
In 1998, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur (452 meters in total, roof 378 meters, highest floor at 375 meters) claimed the title of the tallest building for themselves, but subsequently there was heated argument about the decisive dimensions, in particular whether the total height was included Antennas, the roof height, the height of the highest floor or the structural height is decisive. The skyscraper in Chicago still had the highest roof. However, until 2000, the building did not hold the record for the highest overall height. This title still bore the north tower of the New York World Trade Center (526.7 meters), as well as the highest usable floor, which at 413 meters was only half a meter higher. Only when one of the antennas on the building was raised to 527 meters (previously 520 meters) in June 2000 did it become the tallest building in the world.
In 2004 he lost the title of the highest roof and the highest floor to the Taipei 101 (total 508 meters; roof 448 meters). However, the Sears Tower remained the tallest building in the world with a total height of 527 meters to the top of the mast. It was only when the Burj Khalifa broke all records at its official opening in January 2010 (total height 830 meters, structural and official height 828 meters) that the tower also lost this record. Today the Willis Tower is still one of the tallest non-guyed structures in the world and the second tallest free-standing structure in the USA. After completing a few taller buildings in Asia, he still retained the title of tallest skyscraper in North America or on the Americas. After the One World Trade Center in New York reached its final height of 541 meters in May 2013 , it was replaced as the tallest building in the USA after 39 years. The One World Trade Center surpasses it both in the architectural (official) height and in the total height in that its spire towers above the antennas of the Willis Tower, with the roof of the One World Trade Center being slightly lower at 417 meters. The Willis Tower remains the tallest structure in Chicago.
renaming
On July 16, 2009, the previous Sears Tower was renamed Willis Tower after the London insurance company Willis Group Holdings rented around 13,000 square meters of office space in the building and acquired the naming rights to the high-rise. A spokeswoman for the Sears Group, which secured the naming rights from 1973 to 2003 and had its headquarters in it until 1992, called the name change "sad". Even after 2003, the tower officially kept the name Sears Tower. In the United States, the name change was rejected according to polls by the Chicago Tribune . This was mainly due to the fact that the building has had his first name for over three decades since it was completed in 1974, which means that it had a permanent connection with the city of Chicago. In common parlance, the tower is therefore often still called the Sears Tower .
architecture
description
The Willis Tower consists of nine square columns in a 3 × 3 arrangement that end at different heights. Up to a height of 200 meters (49th floor) the nine tubes form a large cuboid, from there two of them end at opposite corners. From the height line of 200 meters to a height of around 260 meters (65th floor), the tower consists of seven tubes, at a height of 260 meters the other two tubes end at the corners. From 260 meters up to 360 meters (89th floor) five tubes lead in a cross-shaped cross-section, in which three of the five tubes then end. Only two of the nine tubes go up to 442 meters (108th floor), namely the central tube and another one at the edge. Due to this unique design, the Willis Tower offers so many different views from different perspectives than almost any other building. The load-bearing elements of the building consist almost entirely of steel. This type of construction is used less frequently today (most new buildings have steel and concrete structural elements). The Willis Tower is still the tallest building of this type.
The whole building is clad in black aluminum . The facade consists of around 16,100 windows.
Floors 29–32, 64–65, 88–89 and 104–108 cannot be used as offices etc., these are the operating floors (recognizable by the facade (darker, without glass windows)), in which technical systems such as Elevator motors, electrical switching stations and air conditioning systems are housed. Since the top floors are also company floors, the highest usable floor (the 103rd) is only 412.7 meters high, whereas the highest floor (the 108th) is 436 meters.
Between the two antennas on the flat roof there is a two-story structure that houses a cleaning robot for the windows, among other things. If you include this structure, which is no longer added to the official height, the Willis Tower would have 110 floors. This number of floors is given by some sources, contrary to the official number of floors.
In the lobby is the sculpture The Universe by Alexander Calder .
Skydeck visitor platform
From the 412-meter high viewing platform on the 103rd floor ( Skydeck ) you can against entry look far in four different states on some days up to 80 kilometers. Two elevators bring the visitor to the Skydeck in 45 seconds at around 8 m / s (28.8 km / h, 480 meters per minute); they are among the fastest in the world. There is an alternative viewing floor on the 99th floor if the one on the 103rd floor is closed.
Glass balconies
After the Willis company took over the tower in the summer of 2009, a new attraction was opened at the 412 meter high observation deck on the 103rd floor. On the west side of the building facade, on which the wall, in contrast to the other sides, goes straight down to the ground, three closed glass balconies were installed. These allow the visitor to stand on a glass plate that is only attached to one side of the tower facade and is otherwise free, and thus to look 412 meters down through the glass floor. Since the collapse of the South Tower of the World Trade Center in New York in September 2001, the observation deck of which was 420 meters high, the observation deck of the Willis Tower at 412 meters has been the highest observation platform in the USA. There is currently no building in North America apart from the Willis Tower, which has another floor at this height.
On May 28, 2014, cracks formed in the floor of one of the glass balconies. The affected glass plate, a protective layer over the actual glass floor, was replaced the next day.
use
With around 350,000 m² of office space, the tower is predominantly an office building. In addition to the Willis Group (use of approx. 13,000 m² of office space), the tenants include companies such as Backstop Solutions , UniCare Life & Health Insurance Company , Tradestation Securities , TRU Office Advisors , Tressler Lawyers LLP and United Airlines . The latter moved into the building at the end of 2010 after the merger with Continental Airlines and set up the operations center there in 2012. From 2010 United was the largest tenant in the building, using almost 20% of the total office space on around 60,000 m². For as of June 2012, took airline with headquarters in Chicago 12 floors of the Willis Tower, where it employed approximately 4,000 people, and planned by the end of 2012 other employees in the building too embarrassed to give up to other administration sites in Chicago. As of 2013, more than 4,000 United employees were working on 16 floors and around 75,000 m² in the building that functions as United Airlines' operations and corporate headquarters. Another renaming, e.g. to United Tower , was ruled out by the building operator in 2012.
Data collection
Temporal data
- Laying of the foundation stone: August 1970
- Topping-out ceremony: May 1973
- Opening: May 1974
- Antenna installation: February 1982
Technical specifications
- Height of roof: 442.3 m
- Highest floor: at 436 m
- Highest usable floor: at 412.7 m
- Western antenna: 527.3 m
- East antenna: 520 m
- Viewing floor: 103rd floor (at 412.7 m)
- Elevators: 104
- Elevator speed: 480 m per minute
- Floors: 108
- Base area 68.58 m × 68.58 m
- Underground floors: 3
- Total weight : approx. 220,000 t
- Landings: 2109
Miscellaneous
- The antenna tip of the Willis Tower is the highest point in the US state of Illinois . The antenna tip is 527.3 meters above street level in Chicago and 708 meters above sea level . The roof is 442.3 meters above street level and 623 meters above sea level, the observation deck (sky deck) on the 103rd floor is 412 meters above street level and 593 meters above sea level. The main entrance of the building, and thus Chicago's street level, is 181 meters above sea level. The highest natural point in Illinois is the Charles Mound , a hill measuring 376 meters from sea level.
- The building deviates about 10 centimeters from the vertical, caused by its slightly asymmetrical design, which results in an uneven load on the foundation.
See also
- List of tallest buildings in Chicago
- List of tallest buildings in the United States
- List of tallest buildings in the world
- List of tallest office buildings in the world
- List of tallest buildings in North and Central America
Individual evidence
- ↑ CTBUH WTC 1
- ↑ a b Willis Group press release at Reuters: Highest building in the western hemisphere renamed Willis Tower ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ Ole Reissmann: British want to rename Sears Tower. In: Spiegel Online , March 14, 2009.
- ↑ Tallest steel structure buildings in the world , ctbuh.org
- ↑ The Willis Tower's viewing platform is cracked at Spiegel Online, accessed May 30, 2014
- ↑ Karen Jordan: United Airlines opens operations center in Willis Tower. In: ABC News , June 18, 2012 (English).
- ^ Emily Morris: United shows off new downtown operations center. In: Chicago Sun-Times , June 18, 2012 (English).
- ↑ Ryan Ori: United parent mulls HQ move to Willis Tower. In: Crain's Chicago Business , March 12, 2012.
- ↑ Gregory Karp: United completes HQ move to Willis Tower. In: Chicago Tribune , July 23, 2013 (English).
- ^ Gregory Karp: United move to make it biggest tenant at Willis Tower. In: Chicago Tribune , April 19, 2012 (English).
- ↑ CTBUH- Willis Tower
- ↑ Climbers Take on Willis Tower for SkyRise Chicago to Benefit Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago ( Memento from April 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
Web links
Coordinates: 41 ° 52 ′ 43 " N , 87 ° 38 ′ 9" W.