Feb 25, 2009 6:30 pm US/Central
A Silver Paint Job For The Sears Tower?
Owners Hope Job Will Bring Fresh Attention
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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The Sears Tower is the nation's tallest building.
CBS
The Sears Tower may soon be shimmering in the skyline, if the owners of the nation's tallest building go ahead with their plan.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the owners of the iconic building are considering giving it a silver paint job. They hope the paint job will make it stand out and bring fresh attention.
The paint job could cost $50 million or more, but it could also make the building more energy efficient.
The owners of the building might seek a silver Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating from a group that promotes environmental advancement. The building has already become a
leader of large-scale recycling in skyscrapers.
In a statement Wednesday morning, a Sears Tower representative said it was too early to decide for sure whether the silver paint idea would go ahead.
"There is a strong record at Sears Tower of improving energy efficiency and other changes that make the building more sustainable. We are actively looking at even more ways to save energy and improve the building," the statement read. "We are still examining our options, and any details at this point would be speculative."
British landmarks expert and architecture tourist John Wright isn't so sure about the plan. He is vacationing in Chicago to take in the Sears Tower and Chicago's collection of world-class skyscrapers.
"Painting it would seem from the outset to be a crazy thing to do," Wright said. "It's such a great iconic design it didn't need to be flashy and in my opinion, it still doesn't.
Silver and flashy just seem to go together, like another new skyscraper that's just been completed in town, courtesy of an equally flashy New Yorker – Donald Trump's Trump Tower. It's not at all like the solid, somber, all-Chicago Sears Tower.
"It's a classic and I think it should stay a classic, elegant. Silver's too flashy. There's a lot of silver buildings," Chicagoan Kim Lewis said.
If they do opt for a paint job, the city has no power to stop them. The Sears Tower may be a landmark to us, but not officially under city law, which means the exterior isn't protected against major changes.
The owners of the Sears Tower are also considering adding a building, possibly a hotel, at Jackson Boulevard and Wacker Drive next to the tower, the Sun-Times reported.
The Sears Tower was completed in 1973, and it was the tallest building in the world from its opening until 1996, when it was surpassed by the Petronas Towers in Malaysia. Its aluminum exterior has always been black.
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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