CHICAGO | Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower) | 1,451 FT / 442 M | 108 FLOORS | 1974 - Page 38

Skyguy_7 · #**741** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 12:17 PM**

Regarding today's announcement of "Willis Tower" being sold to Aon for a whopping $30 Billion dollars; can I trouble someone to help me wrap my head around this? We've seen recent, relatively large, office tower sales between $750 million - $900 million, and I recall Trump Tower being valued at over $1 billion, which is somewhat similar in scale to Sears, but how on earth is Sears valued at $30 billion?

Suburban Shadow · #**742** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 12:25 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skyguy_7

Regarding today's announcement of "Willis Tower" being sold to Aon for a whopping $30 Billion dollars; can I trouble someone to help me wrap my head around this? We've seen recent, relatively large, office tower sales between $750 million - $900 million, and I recall Trump Tower being valued at over $1 billion, which is somewhat similar in scale to Sears, but how on earth is Sears valued at $30 billion?

Aon bought the Willis insurance group for $30 Billion. They did not buy the tower itself.

Skyguy_7 · #**743** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 1:04 PM**

^Thank you. The news this morning literally said the "Willis *Tower* has been purchased for $30 Bn."

trvlr70 · #**744** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 1:34 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skyguy_7

^Thank you. The news this morning literally said the "Willis *Tower* has been purchased for $30 Bn."

Confusingly, the insurance company is actually called "Willis Towers Watson"!!

gebs · #**745** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 2:37 PM**

^^ And sometimes people cut it to just "Willis Towers" which adds to the confusion. Now get ready for two Aon towers!

Handro · #**746** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 3:21 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by gebs

^^ And sometimes people cut it to just "Willis Towers" which adds to the confusion. Now get ready for two Aon towers!

I read that there's a chance this merger moves Aon AND Willis out of Chicago to London, since Aon relocated their official headquarters there a few years ago and Willis' main HQ is there as well...

Kngkyle · #**747** Posted **Mar 10, 2020, 4:55 PM**

United Tower makes sense, given they're the largest tenet (850k sqft), Chicago-based, and just renewed their lease through 2033. It also sounds about a billion times better than Willis.

Zapatan · #**748** Posted **Mar 11, 2020, 1:01 AM**

Nice, Willis is a lame name, they should rename John Hancock while they're at it too.

aaron38 · #**749** Posted **Mar 11, 2020, 3:53 PM**

I might call it United Tower if that becomes official. But since I never stopped calling it Sears, I won't miss the Willis name at all.

uaarkson · #**750** Posted **Mar 14, 2020, 5:18 PM**

Sears Tower forever. I will NEVER call it anything else. That name was not just a corporate logo - it was this nation's and the world's tallest skyscraper for decades.

Jordan de California · #**751** Posted **Apr 17, 2020, 8:31 AM**

I'm not from Chicago, so take this suggestion for what it's worth, and if the people were to demand that the building be permanently named the Sears Tower, I'd be all for it, too. But hear me out...

How does "Fazlur Rahman Khan Tower" sound to you?

Possible variations could of course include "Fazlur Khan Tower" and just "Khan Tower."

In any case, it would be the American equivalent of the Eiffel Tower, naming the greatest work of the country's most influential structural engineer after him. I can think of no better tribute to his memory.

The city or state would probably have to buy the naming rights from the owners, and it would probably require some PR work to make it happen, but I think it would be a whole lot better than cycling through a bunch of corporate names for the next few hundred years.

Amanita · #**752** Posted **Apr 17, 2020, 11:40 PM**

Khan Tower sounds absolutely, epicly bad-ass!

ardecila · #**753** Posted **Apr 18, 2020, 2:05 PM**

Even if you want to honor the designers, wouldn't that give pretty short shrift to Bruce Graham though? My understanding is that it was a pretty collaborative process.

Also, the Eiffel Tower comparisons are not quite the same, while Graham/Khan created a truly innovative and iconic design they were not quite as singular in the Sears Tower's conception as Eiffel was in the Eiffel Tower.

For Sears, the idea of the world's tallest building and the political heavy lifting to get it built were done by Sears Roebuck, and not by the design team. SOM was just a consultant, even if we agree their work was inspired.

Jordan de California · #**754** Posted **Apr 20, 2020, 11:32 AM**

^ Yeah, those are all excellent points. My idea isn't perfect, for each of those reasons. I think the best thing all along would have been to keep the Sears Tower name. Consider the Chrysler Building in New York. That company has almost nothing to do with the namesake tower now, but the name stuck. It should for Sears Tower as well, especially given that the company was such a huge part of American life for so many years; it's a bit of history!

But... if, because of reasons, "Sears Tower" is off the table, I think that memorializing the designers that made most modern supertall buildings possible is a better way to go than just whoever the richest or biggest tenant of the decade is. Bruce Graham could certainly be included. "Khan-Graham Tower," maybe? They both collaborated on John Hancock Center, too, so that one would need a different name. Or each tower could represent one of them. Lotsa possibilities.

harryc · #**755** Posted **Apr 20, 2020, 12:08 PM**

Sears Tower - it always has been , and always will be , Sears Tower.

Let us not rush too quickly in burying all traces of what little history we have.

Hudson11 · #**756** Posted **May 22, 2020, 6:03 PM**

Power Outage :|

Dark Tower by Vinod Kalathil, on Flickr

KevinFromTexas · #**757** Posted **May 22, 2020, 6:45 PM**

^I've always doubted the Sears Tower could be any more badass, but even during a flood that caused an inconvenience for the building, it is.

I was hoping to find some good photos of the blackout. I may have just found a new background photo.

hauntedheadnc · #**758** Posted **May 22, 2020, 7:24 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevinFromTexas

^I've always doubted the Sears Tower could be any more badass, but even during a flood that caused an inconvenience for the building, it is.

I was hoping to find some good photos of the blackout. I may have just found a new background photo.

I'm not sure what to make of that facial expression on the upper floors there. Seems to be a face filled with sinister, hungry glee...

Amanita · #**759** Posted **May 22, 2020, 8:15 PM**

Poor thing looks kinda upset. First most of his tenants are avoiding him because of this whole Corona thing, his observatory is probably closed now too, and then this happens. Looks like he needs a hug.

KevinFromTexas · #**760** Posted **May 23, 2020, 6:04 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hauntedheadnc

I'm not sure what to make of that facial expression on the upper floors there. Seems to be a face filled with sinister, hungry glee...

It looks like an emoji of some sort. Like it's trolling us about the current state of things with a certain stern stare of disapproval, and the lights out thing being its way of not wanting anything to do with us. Or a harbinger of death.