![]() ![]() "By the same token, life moves on, nothing ever stays the same. Reluctance to let go of the name is understandable, said Plumeri, Willis Group Holdings' CEO. For tourists, glass-bottomed enclosed balconies on the 103rd Skydeck were opened earlier this month, giving visitors a 412-metre look straight down.Īll these efforts were part of a plan aimed at remarketing the building as a pioneer and reintroducing it to the world, owners say. Last month, owners announced a multi-million dollar greening effort, complete with wind turbines and solar panels, along with plans for a 50-storey luxury hotel. The new name isn't the only major change this year. "It is an icon, but I believe over time it will become known as Willis Tower," said John Huston of American Landmark Properties, who represents the building ownership. The Chicago tower's owners acknowledge it will take time for some people to accept the new name, but they're confident it will happen eventually. I think it's disorienting to try to change the name." ![]() It would be like trying to change the name of the Brooklyn Bridge. "I don't think people are going to let go," Lozito said. Getting the public to accept the Willis Tower name will be all the more difficult because the company is British and not immediately recognized by most Americans, he said. Many New Yorkers still refer to the Sony Building as the AT&T Building, said William Lozito, head of Minneapolis-based brand naming company Strategic Name Development. Still, the public hasn't always taken to renamed skyscrapers. The Sears Tower isn't the only well known building to undergo a name change - New York City's Pan Am Building became the MetLife Building and Chicago's Standard Oil Building is now the Aon Center, Willis said. They can be turned into money, and that's what the new owners are doing," she said. "Naming rights are an asset of the building. Historically, skyscrapers have themselves been businesses, acting as a commodity to compete for high rents and tenants, said Carol Willis, founder and director of The Skyscraper Museum in New York. "If we're good corporate citizens and do what we should, hopefully Willis and the tower and Chicago will all become synonymous." "Everybody knows that tower," Willis Group Holdings chief executive Joe Plumeri said ahead of Thursday's ceremony. A real estate investment group, American Landmark Properties of Skokie, now owns the 441-metre-tall building. The tower's original tenant, Sears Roebuck and Co., moved out in 1992 but its name remained. In Chicago we hold fast," Chicago teacher Marianne Turk, 46, said as she stood in line this week to go up to the building's Skydeck. It's part of Chicago and I won't call it Willis Tower. "It's always going to be the Sears Tower. The 110-storey skyscraper may officially have a new name for the first time since its 1973 opening, but many Chicago residents said they weren't buying it. "You will find over time that Willis is not going to just have its name on the building," Plumeri said. Plumeri has said the company plans to bring hundreds of jobs to the city and help in the community. That's positive," Plumeri said during Thursday's ceremony. Mayor Richard Daley and Joseph Plumeri, who heads Willis Group Holdings, the London-based insurance broker that secured the naming rights as part of its agreement to lease 140,000 square feet of space in the tower, unveiled a sign with the new name in the tower's lobby. The change marks a new chapter in the history of the giant edifice that has dominated the Chicago skyline for almost four decades. Spencer Green/Associated Press))Chicago's Sears Tower, one of the world's iconic skyscrapers and the tallest building in the U.S., was renamed the Willis Tower on Thursday in a downtown ceremony. Pedestrians walk past the entrance to the old Sears Tower in Chicago after it was officially renamed Willis Tower during a ceremony Thursday.
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