What the frick.

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WillisTalkingAbout.jpg
 
How gay is that? Honestly I can't believe it hasn't been renamed prior to this though, Sears hasn't had anything to do with that tower since 1992, and Sears lost its naming rights to it in 2003.


Still... Willis Tower? That just screams of homosexuality.
 
I don't even think of Sears the company when I say Sears Tower. I'm sure most other Chicagoans are the same.

You just don't go renaming major landmarks like that. Especially a UK company. Are they trying to alienate customers and spark boycotts? How would they like it if people from Chicago started a fund to buy the naming rights to Big Ben and officially call it 'The Really Big Clock', or 'Screw you, From America'?

The city barely lost the fight internally to stop the renaming of the Marshall Fields building. I see no resistance to the city stopping the renaming from going through this time. Heck, I wouldn't doubt it if Obama put in a few words against it.

And they want to paint it SILVER!!
 
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I like the one tenant in the article "I guess I'll just call it the building formerly known as the Sears Tower". Personally I don't think Chicagoans will let that habit die, it'll always be known as the Sears Tower.
 
I don't even think of Sears the company when I say Sears Tower. I'm sure most other Chicagoans are the same.
:werd:

You just don't go renaming major landmarks like that. Especially a UK company. Are they trying to alienate customers and spark boycotts? How would they like it if people from Chicago started a fund to buy the naming rights to Big Ben and officially call it 'The Really Big Clock', or 'Screw you, From America'?

even better call it the "Swatch Tower" and paint it some funky ass neon colors with blocky patterns and random squiggles
 
I don't mind the name change, I just hate what its being changed to. I think the Aon Center name fits the building better than its original "Standard Oil of Indiana" (73-85), and then "Amoco" (85-99) names when it was changed.
 
I like the one tenant in the article "I guess I'll just call it the building formerly known as the Sears Tower". Personally I don't think Chicagoans will let that habit die, it'll always be known as the Sears Tower.

:werd:

Rosemont Horizon
Comiskey Park

I still call all those buildings by their original names... But this one... This is different! I think I need to get involved against this one.
 
just like the "dodge theatre" here. i still call it the "meadows" because thats what it is.
 
How gay is that? Honestly I can't believe it hasn't been renamed prior to this though, Sears hasn't had anything to do with that tower since 1992, and Sears lost its naming rights to it in 2003.


Still... Willis Tower? That just screams of homosexuality.

arent you building the sears tower with legos?
lol
 
Does anyone think about George E. Rushmore when someone mentions Mount Rushmore? No... you think of the Presidents carved into the mountain.

The landmark takes the name for its own. That building has taken on the Sears name, and it no longer has anything to do with the Sears-Roebuck company. It's ingrained into everything Chicago is about... To change it now is an insult to the city.

savethesearstower.com was registered moments before I could do it, and I'm in talks with the guy who registered it about it now. Citigroup is still a major tenant, I have a contact there who is going to try and get me in touch with the tower's lease administration office... I'm going to see if the naming rights can be purchased and separated from the Willis Group's tenant agreement. I'm checking with fundable.com to see if they have the infrastructure to handle a national-level fund raising campaign, and I have legal support through work... I'm having them get me info on registering as a charitable group tax-wise... I'll get Chicago's citizens to buy the damn name back if I have to.
 
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our two sources of entertainment here, well used to be two.
one is now the sommet center, was formally the nashville arena, and before that was the Gaylord entertainment center (the GEC, everybody just called it that.)

even though it has changed, many times, everybody here still calls it the GEC.
 
arent you building the sears tower with legos?
lol

Yeah. Which is why this really annoys me... first the owners want to fuck with the exterior facade of a 36 year old landmark, now they are letting someone change the name when this tenant is only going to be using around 3.5% of the total rentable area in the building.

Does anyone think about George E. Rushmore when someone mentions Mount Rushmore? No... you think of the Presidents carved into the mountain.

The landmark takes the name for its own. That building has taken on the Sears name, and it no longer has anything to do with the Sears-Roebuck company. It's ingrained into everything Chicago is about... To change it now is an insult to the city.

savethesearstower.com was registered moments before I could do it, and I'm in talks with the guy who registered it about it now. Citigroup is still a major tenant, I have a contact there who is going to try and get me in touch with the tower's lease administration office... I'm going to see if the naming rights can be purchased and separated from the Willis Group's tenant agreement. I'm checking with fundable.com to see if they have the infrastructure to handle a national-level fund raising campaign, and I have legal support through work... I'm having them get me info on registering as a charitable group tax-wise... I'll get Chicago's citizens to buy the damn name back if I have to.


Show me where to sign up, I'm down for donating some money.
 
Canned response from the Willis investor relations director, I highly doubt public opinion will sway them much anyway.

Mayor Daley seems to care less about the name changing, but getting in front of the Chicago legislature to grant landmark status is another option.

Waiting on a reply from my contact at Citigroup to get a hold of the tower's lease administration people, if need be I have a backup contact at Kushman & Wakefield that may know someone who knows someone.
 
Imagine the furor that would be caused if the Statue of Liberty came to us from France.
 
Imagine the furor that would be caused if the Statue of Liberty came to us from France.

More like if they decided to call it the French Liberty Statue.

Renaming a regular building is one thing. Renaming a landmark, the defining object of an entire city, is another.

The entire city fought against renaming the Marshall Fields building when Macy's bought them, it was >< this close to becoming an official landmark building which would have protected it from being renamed. That building is nothing compared to the Sears Tower, so I don't expect to be alone in this one.
 
It came with a little pamphlet: "Care and cleaning of your new Statue of Liberty", but it was in French. :D
 
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