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The Sears Tower
May. 4th, 2009 07:16 amWhen I was seven years old, my family moved to a suburb of Chicago for a year. I went to school there, we had relatives there, my dad did research at Northwestern University while we were there. We also, while we were there visited the Sears Tower.
Now this may sound odd, but I don’t have memories of visiting the Sears Tower, but I have memories of recounted my memories of visiting the Sears Tower. I remember distinctly relating to my father about how he lifted me up onto the hand rail at the window of the Skydeck and I could look down 1700 feet to my doom.
I remember saying that I thought that that episode was responsible for my fear of heights and he recounted that there was a glass flooring near the edge of the building that made it look as if I could have actually fallen a lot more than four feet.
I have a pretty decent fear of heights although it has some funny particulars. Flying doesn’t bother me at all. I have to be standing near an edge -- of a building, gorge, hilltop, that sort of thing.
So anyway, I thought that since I had a few spare hours and I was going to be a few blocks from the Sears Tower, I would go up there and revisit the ‘scene of the crime’. There was one problem though. The ‘real’ Skydeck on the 103rd floor was being renovated and so they were only taking people to the backup Skydeck on the 99th floor. So I couldn’t see the same scene that I had seen as a child.
They did however, have ads describing what the new Skydeck would look like. It is going to feature what are essentially entirely glass ‘window boxes’ that project out of the side of the building so that visitors are standing over the street, actually looking straight down 103 floors to their doom 1700 feet below. Not that I had any doubt of it, but I completely believe my dad that there was a glass border that let viewer look down at the street.
Once I got up to the 99th floor it was pretty anti-climactic. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I didn’t feel anything. The Skydeck looked like it had taken over office space and the decor was definitely lacking. The view was good but without knowing the city at all lacked any meaning or context. Honestly, I think it would be better at night because the south and east views pretty ugly examples of urban neglect, freight yards and industry.
I guess the thing that impressed me the most about it was that while we were waiting for the elevator, they were showing a Discovery Channel video about the construction of the skyscraper. It said that the Tower was finished in 1974, which meant that my parents took me to see it when it was only two years old. I’m sure they wanted to see it too, but I’m pretty impressed that took us to see what must have been the newest and greatest example of human engineering and what must have been a source of pride for not only Chicagans (?) but for all Americans as it was then the tallest building in the world.
Now this may sound odd, but I don’t have memories of visiting the Sears Tower, but I have memories of recounted my memories of visiting the Sears Tower. I remember distinctly relating to my father about how he lifted me up onto the hand rail at the window of the Skydeck and I could look down 1700 feet to my doom.
I remember saying that I thought that that episode was responsible for my fear of heights and he recounted that there was a glass flooring near the edge of the building that made it look as if I could have actually fallen a lot more than four feet.
I have a pretty decent fear of heights although it has some funny particulars. Flying doesn’t bother me at all. I have to be standing near an edge -- of a building, gorge, hilltop, that sort of thing.
So anyway, I thought that since I had a few spare hours and I was going to be a few blocks from the Sears Tower, I would go up there and revisit the ‘scene of the crime’. There was one problem though. The ‘real’ Skydeck on the 103rd floor was being renovated and so they were only taking people to the backup Skydeck on the 99th floor. So I couldn’t see the same scene that I had seen as a child.
They did however, have ads describing what the new Skydeck would look like. It is going to feature what are essentially entirely glass ‘window boxes’ that project out of the side of the building so that visitors are standing over the street, actually looking straight down 103 floors to their doom 1700 feet below. Not that I had any doubt of it, but I completely believe my dad that there was a glass border that let viewer look down at the street.
Once I got up to the 99th floor it was pretty anti-climactic. I don’t know what I was expecting, but I didn’t feel anything. The Skydeck looked like it had taken over office space and the decor was definitely lacking. The view was good but without knowing the city at all lacked any meaning or context. Honestly, I think it would be better at night because the south and east views pretty ugly examples of urban neglect, freight yards and industry.
I guess the thing that impressed me the most about it was that while we were waiting for the elevator, they were showing a Discovery Channel video about the construction of the skyscraper. It said that the Tower was finished in 1974, which meant that my parents took me to see it when it was only two years old. I’m sure they wanted to see it too, but I’m pretty impressed that took us to see what must have been the newest and greatest example of human engineering and what must have been a source of pride for not only Chicagans (?) but for all Americans as it was then the tallest building in the world.
