Close User Name Password
Travel alerts straight to your inbox:
 

Tags: / / / / /

Look Down: Sears Tower Jumps on the Glass Floor Bandwagon

Where: 233 S Wacker Drive [map], Chicago, IL, United States, 60606
May 2, 2009 at 1:19 PM | by Victor Ozols | 4 Comments

Not content with the regular views from its 103rd-floor Skydeck, the Sears Tower - which will soon be renamed the Willis Tower - is adding four enclosed glass-floored balconies where visitors can look straight down past their toes to the street 412 meters below. Building managers say that the inspiration for the innovation came from the hundreds of forehead prints left on the windows every day by people looking for the sensation of flight. They're also following the lead of several other observation decks around the world, including the Grand Canyon Skywalk, Canada's CN Tower, and Australia's Eureka Tower. If all goes according to plan, "The Ledge" should be completed next month.

I can't say for sure how awesome it would be to stand in one of these floating boxes. Maybe it would feel like you're hovering in mid-air, and maybe it wouldn't be much different than looking out a regular window. If they really wanted to enhance the experience of touching your forehead against the glass, though, they should angle the windows downward by about 45 degrees so you could lean your whole body over the void. That way you could actually see straight down without your big feet blocking the view. Just a thought.

[Photo: Sears Tower]

Related Stories:
· Sears Tower to Add Glass Balconies [Chicago Tribune]
· Sears Tower Skydeck [Official Site]
· Sears Tower Coverage [Jaunted]

4 Comments

Post a Comment
  1. ecortes

    Jaunted Member

    Reason 7

    Reason 7 why I don't like unsecured heights. You wouldn't find me leaning over anything. I was in the Sears Tower last July and to be honest it wasn't that exciting...maybe because it was foggy.
    May 3, 2009 at 6:34 PM
  1. JetSetCD

    Jaunted Member

    hmmm

    Considering that this will be a retrofit to the structure, I'd be more wary of it than the floor of the CN Tower (which, actually, I've already walked on). Also, loving how in the rendering above, they've included the guy in the white and khakis who looks like he's skeptical about the safety of stepping onto it.
    May 3, 2009 at 11:03 PM
  1. JetSetCD

    Jaunted Member

    oh yes

    Oh yes, and...extreme upskirt!
    May 3, 2009 at 11:04 PM
  1. philadelphiaguy

    Jaunted Member

    not so much

    I'm more than a little nervous about this idea to be honest. Those things better be ready for the dozens of overweight mid-Western tourists that are going to be jumping up and down on them all day long. Any idea that goes from "how do we keep people's greasy foreheads off our windows?" to "let's dangle them on a piece of glass 100+ stories up" can't be good. :-/
    May 4, 2009 at 1:25 PM

Leave a Comment

Not yet a member? Click here to become a member.

Already a member? Log in below:

Comment with your Facebook account.