Sears Tower
From Archiplanet
 | Sears Tower |
| Designer | Bruce Graham/ SOM |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Date | 1974 to 1976 |
| Building Type | corporate headquarters, skyscraper, commercial office tower |
| Climate | temperate |
| Context | urban |
| Architectural Style | Corporate Modern |
| Street Address | |
| Notes | At 1450 feet and 110 stories, the tallest building in the United States. Until recently the world's tallest building, and still has the highest occupied floor level in the world. 75-ft square tubes end at staggered levels to step back the overall massing. |
| At Great Buildings | http://www.GreatBuildings.com/buildings/Sears_Tower.html |
Contents |
[edit] Images
[edit] Discussion
Commentary
"The Sears Tower is the world's tallest building. The stepback geometry of the 110-story tower was developed in response to the interior space requirements of Sears, Roebuck and Company. The configuration incorporates the unusually large office floors necessary to Sears' operation along with a variety of smaller floors. The building plan consists of nine 75 x 75 foot column-free squares at the base. Floor sizes are then reduced by eliminating 75 x 75 foot increments at varying levels as the tower rises. A system of double-deck express elevators provides effective vertical transportation, carrying passengers to either of two skylobbies where transfer to single local elevators serving individual floors occurs."
—from Bruce Graham. Bruce Graham of SOM. p56.
The Creator's Words
"Tall buildings are man-made. Towers have historically been not only the pride of their temporary owners, but of their cities as well. So the Sears Tower, one more mountain, was created for this city on the plains. Sears is very direct in its structural solution, a new concept of cluster tubes, originally fifteen, reduced to nine when the hotel was eliminated from the plan. The Sears Tower itself is much like the idea behind San Gimignano, but unlike most tall buildings in New York, it is a tower of the people, not the palace of a bank."
—Bruce Graham. from Bruce Graham. Bruce Graham of SOM. p56.
Details
1450 feet tall (1468 or 1470 feet by some sources) — about 100 feet taller than the Pentagon
The plan consists of a square bundle of 9 square tubes, each 75 feet on a side. All nine tubes reach up through the 49th floor, where three terminate. Two more opposite corner tubes terminate at a slightly higher floor, two more end with the 91st floor, and two tubes extend to the full height.
[edit] Maps
[edit] References
Judith Dupre. Skyscrapers. Black Dog and Leventhal, June, 1996. ISBN 1-8848-2245-2. — A fun and informative gift book in skyscraper format, 18" tall and 7.5" wide, with perfect pictures and key information on tallest buildings over the decades, up to the 1998 Petronas Towers. Available at Amazon.com
Bruce Graham. Bruce Graham of SOM. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1989. ISBN 0-8478-1087-9. LC 89-42 689. NA737.G715B7 1989. discussion p56.
Johnson Architectural Images. Copyrighted slides in the Artifice Collection.
Marcus Whiffen and Frederick Koeper. American Architecture, Volume 2. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984. commentary, p411. aerial photo, f329, p413.— An excellent survey of American architecture. Reprint Edition available at Amazon.com
[edit] External Links
The Sears Tower Home page — official site by the building owners.
Hundreds of photos around and from the Sears Tower projected in google maps
