The Sears Tower is not only the tallest building in Chicago, but one of the very tallest in the world, even though it was built over thirty-five years ago. It is one of those buildings that instantly puts a city on the map, but then again Chicago was already quite firmly on the map before. So the Sears Tower, essentially, made Chicago an even bigger deal, being the world’s tallest building for a quarter of a century. It is still one of the biggest office buildings in the world, and stands at a height of 1,730 feet, more than half a kilometer in height.

Its observation deck is 103 floors up, or 1,353 feet and allows visitors to look down on all of Chicago and across the state to Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana. It is famously featured in a scene in the classic movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. All of this can be said for a building that is over thirty years older than a lot of its competition for the title of “most impressive building” – and that is impressive in itself. It was only surpassed in height in 1998 when the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur were completed. Its official title is set to change this year, to the Willis Tower, but in anyone’s estimation it is impossible to see Chicago residents starting to call it anything other than the Sears Tower.

The people of Chicago, after all, are very proud of the Sears Tower, and rightly so – it has been a major part of their skyline for more than a third of a century.