No, the tallest building in North America isn't being torn down--that would be one hell of a demolition job.
The name of the building is, though.
Global insurance broker Willis Group Holdings is consolidating all of its local offices to one location--guess where?--and is formally changing the name of one of Chicago's most recognizable architectural icons to Willis Tower.
It's not like the change is unprecedented in this city. A few years back, U.S. Cellular bought the naming rights to the baseball stadium where the White Sox play, Comiskey Park, and renamed it U.S. Cellular Field; it's now popularly known as "The Cell." The Standard Oil Building, opened in 1974 and bearing a now-eerie resemblance to the World Trade Center, later became the Amoco Building and now is called the Aon Center. And Wrigley Field? Was only called that after the Wrigley family bought the Cubs in the 1920s; before then, it was known simply as Cubs Park or by its original moniker, Weeghman Park (when it housed the Chicago Whales of the short-lived Federal League).
There was also a brief discussion of selling naming rights to the home of the Bears, Soldier Field, after it was "rehabbed" (i.e., gutted and rebuilt to look like a spaceship crashed upside-down in the original stadium), but there was substantial backlash against the Bears for even thinking about it, especially from veterans' groups who argued that such a deal would be a slap in the face to the men and women of the armed services to whom the stadium had been dedicated.
Still, it's probably best that Willis reportedly didn't have to pay for naming rights as part of their deal for moving into Sears Tower, since it's unlikely anyone outside the company offices will ever call it by its freshly minted appellation. The building has been called Sears Tower since it opened in 1973, even though Sears moved its headquarters out to the Chicago suburb of Hoffman Estates years ago and hasn't had any offices in the tower since 1992. It'll likely be called Sears Tower as long as it and the city that surrounds it stand.
Just try, a few months from now, to tell a cabbie to take you to Willis Tower. He won't know what the hell you're talking about.
3 comments:
You're right, bro: Sears Tower is the name most everyone will continue to use.
I'm just hoping the silliness of calling it the Whatchutalkinbout Willis Tower won't catch on.
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT????
(Cellular Field? I refuse to call it anything other than Comiskey Park.)
See, I'm OK with "U.S. Cellular Field," but only because it isn't the original Comiskey Park--that would be where the parking lot across the street is now.
There's now a Facebook group specifically opposing the name change, so one might hope that, in this economy, Willis might rethink the decision.
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