The Sears Tower, North America’s tallest structure, is getting it’s name changed to Willis Tower after insurance broker Willis Group Holdings signed a deal to lease w/ the building consolidating their offices in the tower.
Commence with the inevitible “Whatchu Talkin’ 'bout…” jokes…
The CN tower is taller. I think there is at least one radio tower that is taller too. It’s the tallest free standing, fully occupied structure, or something.
Fully habitable, self-supported, from main entrance to highest structural or architectural top. In short, “building.”
Ah, I said “structure” when I meant “building.” Carry on.
This is going to go over about as well as the whole Marshall Field’s-Macy’s thing. Sears is seen as a Chicago institution, Willis is…what, now? Some financial company that nobody around here has ever heard of?
Wait until they re-name Wrigley Field. That will be something to see.
Maybe the Willis Group should take a hint from the folks in New York City, where the Chrysler Building was NOT renamed by each of its owners, in particular the current owner: Abu Dhabi Investment Council.
Ah- changing the name of a famous icon? Good luck with that, Willis. All you’ll need to do is get the public to go along with it. I hope that’s worth your advertising dollar.
Why does the pubic need to go along with it? The Sears/Willis Tower is not something they’re selling to the public.
Renaming it? Pftt. Let’s paint the fucker silver!
I’m presuming that when they decided to change the name, they were hoping the public would call it the Willis Tower, too.
The OP’s link was changed or stopped working, so I’ve substituted a new one.
I find it extraordinarily unlikely that this would ever happen. Most Chicagoans still refer to U.S. Cellular Field as “Comiskey Park”.
Oh, I don’t think they have any illusions that people will start calling it the Willis Tower… right away.
But eventually they will. It’s a long haul thing.
Who cares what it’s called as long as the planes still land there?
(That one’s courtesy of my mom, a lifelong Missoulian and not a sports fan who was visiting Chicago for the first time with my dad not long before I was born.)
Supposedly the company didn’t pay anything extra to get the naming rights. Wonder if that was the cherry on top that sealed the leasing deal or if they were afraid to sell the rights in case the backlash was too sharp. Seems weird that there wouldn’t be an explicit contract for that.
I can personally say that Willis is a company I will never do business with now and will be added next to Macy’s as a company I will crush when I am a Billionaire Comic Book Villain. It baffles me why companies are so eager to antagonize their customer base.
Well the Standard Oil building became the Amoco Building and now is referred to by most people as the AON Building and it’s the REAL second tallest building in Chicago.
<rant>Trumps building has this dump 200 foot spire that looks like an antenna. But you can see the Aon Building BEHIND the Trump Tower which supposedly is tower </rant> 
Chicago is adaptable. We call the NW Train stations the Ogilvie Transportation Center, the Illinois Center (the IC) now is the Metra Electric. for the most part people refer to the El and subways by their color now. We adapt
Nothing that you mention here is iconic. Nothing is part of the Chicago Tour Guide Book. Everyone still calls the L the L when referring to the system as a whole. Even the Red and Blue lines are called “the L”.
This name change is different. The Marshall Fields catastrophe is more apt. It will not go well for the principles involved.
If you ask me:
The 49ers still play at Candlestick
The As play at The Colesium
UW Huskies play BB at Hec Ed
And if I ever go to Chicago again I’ll still be visiting Sears Tower.
I wonder how much paint it would take to coat it in silver?
How is that whole Marshal Fields name change going anyway? I won’t shop there, but I don’t live in Chicago anymore so I don’t really matter. I avoid Macy’s anywhere else.
No, don’t. If you want the best view of Chicago, go to the top of the John Hancock building. The view is spectacular, MUCH better than the Sears Tower (it will always be the Sears Tower to me) and even though the JH building is named for a company, it’s always been named for that company, like Wrigley Field.
Edit to add, I sneer at “Macy’s” every time I walk past. I wouldn’t go in there again for anything in the world. Well, lots of money, maybe. I went by there today and sneered.