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We Lived On The Edge And Visited Willis Tower's New Ledge

The Willis Tower installed "The Ledge," these new glass boxes that jut out 4.3 feet from the skyscraper to give you that standing-on-the-edge feeling in the pit of your stomach, on the west side of the building's Skydeck on the 103rd floor.

With a name like that, you'd think it was an amusement park ride. Adding to the amusement park novelty are shirts, mugs and other paraphernalia for sale that boast "Dare to Stand Out" and professional photographers on hand to take a souvenir snapshot of you in the floating box that will be printed and framed by the time you leave the building.

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Five Ways To Experience Chicago's Trump International Hotel & Tower

In January 2010, Chicago's Trump International Hotel & Tower will celebrate the one-year anniversary of its completion. We're talking the whole thing here—including the towering antenna which was placed on January 2, 2009, even though the restaurant and hotel had been open previously.

So how do you celebrate one of the country's newest, hottest skyscrapers? Well, you should swing by the Donald's towering siren and have a drink of course, or better yet—sleep with her. The Trump Tower is part hotel, part condo, and part upscale hotspot, and there are five specific ways to get all up in her without feeling like you're trespassing on Trump's property.

Five Ways To Experience Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago:

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The Impossibly High Burj Dubai Will Have 124th-Floor Observation Deck

To tell you the truth, we're torn on the issue of tourism in Dubai. Is it a theme park of a city that caters to tourists versus travelers, or is it worth the visit for the unique experiences? Who knows when we'll find out since the place is so firmly out of budget anyways.

Just in case you also like to entertain the thought that a trip to Dubai is in your future, you'll either be delighted or scared shitless to learn that the famous Burj Dubai skyscraper is due to have its observation deck on the 124th floor. Of course the 160+ story building needs to be completed first, and that won't be happening until early December. In the meantime, the building is readying to open the world's first Armani Hotel in the first 37 stories. But let's hear a little more about that vertigo-inducing observation deck, shall we?

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Look Down: Sears Tower Jumps on the Glass Floor Bandwagon

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.

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London Firm Renames Sears Tower, Pisses Off Chicago

Those little etched glass statues and various overpriced souvenir plaques of Chicago's Sears Tower will be discounted just as fast as they are snatched up as souvenir manufacturers race to create new "Willis Tower" tchotchkes. The surprise renaming of the iconic monolith won't officially happen until July, but it's got the city in an uproar now.

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Name That Tuned Mass Damper

These days, mega-skyscrapers have balls. Huge balls, up in their attic spaces, designed to swing back and forth in the opposite direction of the building's sway. These tuned mass dampers, as they're known, prevent the feeling of seasickness by occupants of the upper floors, but their real benefit comes during times of natural disasters, like tornadoes, typhoons and earthquakes.

Such was the case recently with the world's tallest completed building, Taipei 101, which felt aftershocks from the devastating 7.9 magnitude earthquake that hit China's Sichuan region on May 12 of this year. As it happens, a traveler with a video camera was enjoying a tour of the building and was wandering past the 728-ton stabilizing ball when the aftershocks hit, capturing this amazing video of the damper doing exactly what it was designed to do.

The iconic tower emerged unscathed, and nobody was injured, which both speaks to the amazing advances in architectural technology and the unspeakable devastation that results when builders lack the means--and scruples--to ensure that every building holds up against the forces of nature as well as possible.

Related Stories:
· In Action: A Skyscraper's Amazing 728-Ton Stabilising Ball [Deputy Dog]
· Skyscrapers coverage [Jaunted]

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Is the Poor Economy Saving Our Skylines?

The Western World may be losing it's dominance in the neverending skyline wars, but that might not be such a bad thing for American and European city-dwellers. German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reports that as the credit crisis is halting ambitious real estate projects in the States, emerging powers such as China, Dubai and Russia are building bigger and crazier skyscrapers than ever.

This skyline boom may be providing these nouveau riche nations with status symbols, but much of the construction is being criticized by architecture experts as environmentally and aesthetically harmful.

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