WILLIS TOWER

BY
1962 KAAMANA SAHU
1965- ALIPTHA SHETTY
1967- MUSKAN SHIKALGAR
1968- AJAY SHAW
 Location
Sears Tower – Willis Tower The Tower is strategically located in the business district of Chicago, Illinois, United States,
ARCHITECT: OWINGS & MERRILL SKIDMORE, BRUCE GRAHAM
on 233 South Wacker Drive, in the heart of the West Coast, the first sub-market town,
YEAR: 1970 - 1974
LOCATION: CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES home of his coorporations largest and railway stations used by people living outside the
Architect city.
Height Its construction occupies the entire block, 12.140.57m², Francklin Street bounded by
Owings & Merrill Skidmore 527,3m
Bruce Graham Wacker Drive, Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard.
Roof Height
Engineer 442.14m Willis Tower is the heart of downtown Chicago and the future of work and play. The 110-story
Myron Goldsmith Top Floor Height building is one of the tallest buildings in the world and the second tallest building in North America,
Structural Engineer 412.69m making it impossible to miss when appreciating the city’s skyline.
Fazlur R. Khan Cost The magnitude of this magnificent steel frame skyscraper can seem incomprehensible.
Developer $175.000.000 USD
Sears,Roebuck & Company Location ● The original vision for Willis Tower came to life in 1969 when Sears Roebuck and
Built in Chicago, Illinois, United States Company decided it needed a central office space for its 350,000 employees.
1970 - 1974 ● Willis Tower’s was designed by architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill.
Weight ● After breaking ground in 1970, it took three years to complete the tower.
+225.000tn ● 2,000 construction workers took part in building Willis Tower.
● The building features a steel-framed bundled-tube construction method.
● Construction was completed in May 1973.
● Willis Tower was the world’s tallest building until 1998.
● After 18 years, Sears Roebuck and Company sold the tower and moved out of
the building.
● In 2009 the building was renamed Willis Tower after the Willis Group Holdings,
the global insurance broker who calls the Tower its Midwest home.
● Willis Tower was purchased by Blackstone in 2015 for $1.3 billion.
Design
The first designs were for a boxlike structure exclusively for Sears, but
architects and real estate advisers lobbied to lift a taller tower with
leasable upper floors. With 110 plans and 443m tall structure proposal
it exceeded the World Trade Center for approximately 30m. SOM
proposed a superstructure of nine interlocking tubes of varying
heights, divided in 75' x 75' squares that are separate buildings joined
together as one

The iconic setback design of the structure was conceived as a direct

result of the client’s space requirements. The designers were required
to develop a building that incorporated not only very large office floors,
which were necessary for the company’s operations, but also a variety
of smaller floors for tenants requiring less floor area. The basic
structure developed for this program of the tower consists of nine
75-foot-by-75-foot column-free square tubes at the base, forming a
cellular-tube frame. Floor sizes were reduced by eliminating
75-foot-by-75-foot increments at varying levels.
Concept

One of the very important aspects to consider when a skyscraper is done is that the higher the
greater height is the effect of the wind on its structure. To counteract this effect at lower buildings it
is common to stiffen the structure with a bracing X to prevent deformation or displacement thereof in
some cases by the outside or with walls of reinforcement around the vertical communication cores.
This process in a steel structure high-rise would be extremely expensive, in the case of the Sears
Tower.

It was necessary to develop new structural concepts, not just costs, but also because the client did
not want a reinforcement X on the front of his building. The original engineer of Bangladesh, Fazlur
Rahman Khan was asked to respond to these needs by creating a new structural concept known as
“screen tubes” concept became the basis for the construction of tall buildings today and earned He
is considered the “father of the tubular designs” in skyscrapers. For these Sears Tower “tubes”
midsize create a structure that appears to the eye created by a series of individual towers joined
ending at different heights and provide free plants in columns ranging from 3,800 to 1,100m2, with a
maximum wind drift, on top of the building, just 0.30cm.
SKYDECK & THE LEDGE
● Skydeck opened in 1974 and attracts more than 1.7
million visitors annually.
● In July 2009, U.S. Equities Realty led the design and
construction of a multi-million-dollar renovation of
Skydeck Chicago.
● With the renovation of Skydeck came The Ledge, a series ●
of windows that extend from the building offering views
straight down over the city of Chicago.
● Inspiration for The Ledge came from hundreds of
forehead prints left behind on the Skydeck windows each
week as seen in the memorable scene from Ferris
Bueller’s Day off.
● The ledge is 1,353 feet and 103 stories up.
● Skydeck is the highest observation deck in the United
States.
● The Ledge is made of three layers of half-inch thick glass ●
laminated into one seamless unit.
● The Ledge is built to withstand four tons of pressure and
can hold 10,000 lbs.
● Each Ledge box has “heat tracing” to melt snow off.
● The boxes retract into the building for easy cleaning and ●
maintenance.
● On a clear day, views can span 50 miles and four states:
Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan.
● Guests can enjoy interactive and educational attractions
that highlight the iconic building and celebrate Chicago’s
sports, architecture, history, food, music and people.
WILLIS TOWER TODAY
● Willis Tower is owned by Blackstone and managed by EQ Office.
● The tower is home to more than 100 businesses including law,
insurance, transportation, financial companies and more.
● Radio and television stations are broadcast from Willis Tower’s
rooftop.
15,000 people work at Willis Tower each day, not counting the
thousands of building and Skydeck visitors.
● 12 million people pass by and through Willis Tower each year.
● Willis Tower contains approximately 4.56 million gross square feet
which would cover 105 acres if spread across one level, the
equivalent of 16 city blocks in Chicago or 101 football fields.
● Willis Tower has a rentable area of 3.8 million square feet.
● Each floor of the building is divided into 75-foot column free squares,
or “mega-modules” which provide maximum planning, flexibility and
efficiency.
Some of the finest materials like travertine, stainless steel, granite
and other decorative features are used throughout the buildings
common areas to highlight the property’s prestige.
● In 2017, 125,000 square feet of new amenity space including ‘Tower
House’ and ‘Altitude’, were built exclusively for Willis Tower tenants.
Tower House is located on the 33rd and 34th floors featuring a bar,
café, conference center and 30,000 square foot fitness center called
TONE.
● Altitude is located on the 66th and 67th floors featuring a café,
relaxing lounge seating, informal meeting spaces, and breathtaking
views of Chicago’s lakefront.
Structure
● It is the tallest building in the world with all-steel structure, columns and beams in a system “of
megamódulo”.
● This tower is built with structural steel that was prefabricated and then joined with bolts on the
construction site.
● The skin of this building is formed with a glare-reducing glass curtain wall that is made of black
aluminum and bronze tint. This skin acts as an insulator that maintains a constant temperature
between the exterior and interior of the building which in turn helps in controlling the expansion
and contraction of the frame of the building
● The tower is composed of nine bundled structural tubes resting on reinforced concrete caissons
that go down to bedrock. The caissons are tied together by a reinforced concrete mat.
● Welded steel frames form vertical tubes that support one another to provide the rigidity needed to
limit the lateral sway from wind forces. Variations in the height of each individual tube also disrupt
air currents, which reduces the stress of the wind on the structure. This system minimizes the
amount of structural steel required for a building of its great height. The steel was prefabricated,
with nearly all welding done off the erection site and bolt connections made at the site.
● Due to the rapid construction process, prefabrication was one of the
most important principles employed during the building of the
Sears Tower. Structural units called ‘Christmas trees’ allowed for a
95% reduction in welding on the job site.
● The units were welded offsite and consisted of a two-story column
with half-length beams welded to either side of the column. On site,
the units only needed bolted splice plate connections between
beams and web bolted connections for the column splices.
● The assembly process was also streamlined through the use of four
standard S2-type stiff-legged derricks. These derricks were used to
lift modular units of up to 45 tons up to the 90th floor construction.
A final guy derrick was added on the 90th floor for construction up
to the roof. For the entire construction process, the derricks were
moved after four stories had been completed (two tiers of the
prefabricated steel units).
● With this efficient use of machinery, the erection speed was
typically eight stories a month. The steel construction assembly
finished on time after 15 months.
● Overall, the construction of the Tower was mostly without incident,
as the designers and contractors obviated most issues associated
with super tall steel building design.
● The tower structure is solved with nine bundled structural tubes
resting on reinforced concrete caissons that go down to bedrock,
each rigid within itself without internal supports. The floors are
suspended from the tubes, a technological innovation of the
engineer Fazlur Kahn, based on the theory that a building built on a
series of tubes would be lighter and stronger than a building built to
a traditional steel skeleton.
● At the base of the building, these bundled tubes were interlocked
and divided into 75 x 75 feet square blocks that were joined
together to make a cellular tube frame.
● From this level the number of modules / tubes decreases until it
became only two steel tubes from the 90th floor to the top.
● The structural modules are inserted into reinforced concrete
caissons reaching bedrock and are also joined by a concrete mat.
The structural steel frame was pre-assembled in sections and then
bolted in place. Each module 7.6×4.6m was prefabricated and then
to be taken to place large trucks and once placed in place by cranes,
join connections.
● At first, a setback was observed in meeting the client requirements
as more spaces were needed but when this tubular system was
employed, the floor sizes were reduced by reducing the square
blocks as per requirements. This allowed for big open space offices
at lower levels of the building and the smaller floors were increased
in height without any obstruction. It proved to be cost-effective as
nearly 10 million dollars were saved in structural steel due to that.
Materials

1. The mega structure was mainly made with structural steel.

2. 7.6×4.6m each prefabricated module is formed by a steel column
with a height of two floors and a girder welded on each side in
the middle.
3. These beams are those that were screwed together, once set in
place.
4. The tubes were reinforced trusses wrap covering two floors,
around levels 29-31, 64-66 and 88-90.
5. Each floor slabs are of reinforced concrete and are supported on
rolling 1m depth trusses bolted to the columns.
6. The Sears Tower has a black anodized aluminum exterior with
tinted glass in bronze black lines vertically tours that highlight the
tubes.
7. In the common areas of the building quality materials that
enhance the prestige of the building, is the travertine plates
coated with stainless steel together
8. Polished granite is used as a flooring material
Conclusion

1. 76,000 tons of steel is used in construction

2. The tower has 16,100 bronze-tinted windows
3. Each floor of the building is divided into 75-foot column free squares, or “mega-modules” which
provide maximum planning, flexibility and efficiency.
4. Some of the finest materials like travertine, stainless steel, granite and other decorative features
are used throughout the buildings common areas to highlight the property’s prestige.
5.