Willis Tower

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Willis Tower

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Overview

The Willis Tower is a 110-story, 1,450-foot skyscraper in Chicago. At completion in 1973, it surpassed the World Trade Center in New York City to become the tallest building in the world, a title that it held for nearly 25 years; it was also the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere for 41 years, until the new One World Trade Center surpassed it in 2013.

While it held the title of "Tallest Office Building" until 2013, it lost the title of "Tallest Man-Made Structure" after only 3 years. The CN Tower in Toronto, which serves as a communications tower, took over the title in 1976. The Willis Tower is considered a seminal achievement for engineer Fazlur Rahman Khan. It is currently the third-tallest building in the United States and the Western hemisphere – and the 23rd-tallest in the world. Each year, more than one million people visit its observation deck, the highest in the United States, making it one of Chicago's most popular tourist destinations. The structure was renamed in 2009 by the Willis Group as a term of its lease.

Address: 233 S Wacker Dr, Chicago, IL 60606, United States
Height: 442 m, 527 m to tip
Construction started: 1970
Floor count: 110 (+3 basement floors)
Top floor: 1,354 ft (413 m)