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Since its completion in 1973, the Sears Tower was the undisputed size champ in the tallest-building category until the 1996 opening of the Petronas Towers in Malaysia. But the matter wasn't that simple. The 88-story Petronas Towers were shorter than the Sears Tower until two 111-foot decorative towers were added, topping the 110-story Sears Tower by 20 feet. Chicago's civic boosters licked their erectile wounds until the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, the international group that certifies tall buildings, came to the Sears Tower's rescue. In 1997 the council expanded the categories of tallest buildings from one to four: height to structural or architectural top; height to the highest occupied floor; height to the top of the roof; height to the top of the antenna.

Under this scheme, Petronas wins the first category until the opening of Taipei 101. Sears takes the second and third until the opening of Taipei 101, which left the latter the winner of the third and the second disputed. The taller of New York's World Trade Center towers took the fourth until September 11, 2001, when Sears once again regains the title. So thanks to a series of uncanny circumstances, Chicago and the Sears Tower still win at least one out of four.


It may be the world's tallest building, or it may not be, but there's no doubt that the Sears Tower has become a symbol of Chicago. It boasts the kind of stats that make good grade school presentations: 110 stories, 4.5 million gross square feet of floor space, weight of 222,450 tons, 43,000 miles of telephone cable, 2,000 miles of eletrical wire, 25,000 miles of plumbing, 2232 steps to the top and enough concrete to build an eight-lane highway 5 miles long. The highest occupied floor is 1431 feet above ground, the top of the roof reaches 1450 feet, and the antenna soars to some 1730 feet.


Much of what's inside the building is mundane office space. But the lure of the world's highest observation deck draws more than 1.3 million people a year. We joined the mobs on the Skydeck. Our journey to the top started with a slow elevator ride down to the charmless waiting area, where visitors queue for the US$11.50 tickets. A sign tells us it'll take 45 minutes to the top. It's said that on busy days it can be an hour or longer, so it'd be a good time to confirm the visibility displayed before investing time and money. We went up in the evening, when the visibility was 30 miles. On good days, it is said you can see 4 states: Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Wisconsin.

A dark series of rooms followed the ticketing area and cleverly disguised the full scope of the waiting line. Eventually, we reached a theater, where we watched a film titled Over Chicago. The syrupy narration of the aerial footage of Chicago seems endless, but the film lasts only 15 minutes, though the footage is rather spectacular.

More lines after the film mean that any lingering nausea will subside before the 70-second ride to the top in the world's fastest elevators (that move as fast as 1600 feet per minute). Your ears will definitely pop on the way up. Once there, we definitely thought the view was worth the price paid in money and patience: the entire city stretches below, and we took the time to see exactly how Chicago was laid out.


View to the southeast. You can make out the Museum Campus by the shores of Lake Michigan, and Soldier Field, home of the Chicago Bears.


View to the east. Lake Michigan shines brightly by the light from the Moon. The building in the middle echoes all White Sox fans, who rejoiced that night when the White Sox scored a fantastic victory.


View to the northeast. You can see Navy Pier in the background. This area (the Loop) is the commercial hub of Chicago, as evidenced by the skyscrapers. The tall building in the middle is the Aon building, the third tallest in Chicago.


View to the north. Wrigley field is on the right, home of Chicago's other baseball team, the Chicago Cubs.


View to the northwest. The long straight line of streetlights mark Interstate 94 that continues north toward Milwaukee, Wisconsin.


View to the west. You can see just how far the suburbs of Chicago stretch.