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Farewell, Sears Tower...
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Whatchu talkin' bout, Willis (Tower)?
So there's no Sears Tower in Chicago anymore.
With a comparatively small amount of fanfare (outside The Loop anyway), 'they' officially renamed The Sears Tower yesterday. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present 'Willis Tower', the tallest building in the United States of America.
Willis Group Holdings, an insurance broker based in London, got the naming rights as part of an agreement to lease more than 140,000 square feet of space in the tower.
Personally, I've only been to Chicago once...for half a day...about 20 years ago. But this seems about as wrong as re-naming Fenway Park (not that anyone is...don't panic!)
Since its opening in 1973, it's been the Sears Tower. And I can't imagine many Chicagoans are all of a sudden going to start calling it 'Willis Tower'.
Sure, Sears vacated the skyscraper 15 years ago...
And, yes, Willis Group says they will have a strong community presence and hire a bunch of people...
But really... 'Willis Tower'? (Insert Diff'rent Strokes joke here.)
After a certain amount of time, some things go from being 'just' what they are, and they become institutions. When the Boston Garden was torn down, the folks at TD BankNorth had the good sense to keep 'Garden' in the title...since there's not a sole alive who calls that building anything other than 'The Garden' anyway.
Kudos to Alex Lucas, a local guy who started a petition website to get the name reverted back. Almost 50,000 people have already signed, but the truth is, it's not necessary.
The Sears Tower is an institution. Twenty years from now, people will still call it The Sears Tower, and it will cast its shadow each day on the lovely people of Chicago, as they walk into Comiskey Park (oops! US Cellular Field).
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