‘Ledge’ at Sears Skydeck opens Thursday
By Admin on July 1, 2009
Reporters check out the new “Ledge” at Sears Tower
(Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune) SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE.
For those who can stand heights, the new “Ledge” that will allow visitors to the Sears Tower Skydeck to look straight down 1,353 feet opens Thursday at 9 a.m.
Video below: Tribune reporter Kristen Schorsch shows how it looks from the new Sears Tower “Ledge.”
An unidentified videographer from a local television station shoots from “The Ledge” today. The enclosed glass ledge juts out from the 103rd floor of the Sears Tower, the tallest building in the United States. (Jose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune)
First opened in 1974, the Skydeck attracts about 1.3 million people annually. (And its location, the Sears Tower, is still the Sears Tower. Its name won’t be changed to Willis Tower until sometime later this summer, according to a building spokesman.)
the Ledge’s construction on the 103rd floor of the skyscraper were installed by MTH Industries, the same
architectural metal contractor that installed the Cloud Gate sculpture
in Millennium Park, according to the Web site.
Tower’s original architects, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP. Each box
is made of three layers of half-inch thick glass, according to the Web
site.
our visitors curiosity,” said Randy Stancik, Skydeck general manager.
“You only need to see the forehead prints on the windows to know that
visitors are constantly trying to catch a glimpse below.” Visitors
will be able to see 1,353 feet straight down.
Some early visitors who got to get a sneak peek of the ledge were wide-eyed children, and adults, who gazed down at the city in amazement.
Adam Kane, 10, his three younger siblings and two friends walked all around one glass box, at times sitting with their legs crossed and talking about what they were going to tell their friends when they got home.
“When I look down it’s still pretty freaky,” said Adam Kane, who ventured to Chicago with his siblings and mom after learning about the Sears Tower in social studies class in downstate Alton. “I guess I just got used to the feeling.”
His sister Anna, 5, laid with her back to the bottom of the glass box, moving her arms and legs up and down as if she was making snowmen.
Darron Cooper, 30, of Atlanta, crept up to the edge of a glass box, eventually making his way inside.
“I’ve got a fear of heights and I’m looking straight down,” Cooper said. “It’s an experience you can’t pass up on. You’ve got to just chalk it up.”
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