Rename the Sears Tower? Ooooh, that gives me an idea....

[ovidsen]

This is probably old news to most of you, but a British insurance consortium has agreed to buy Chicago's Sears Tower (once the tallest building in the world; still the tallest in the US) and rename it after itself. Now, I haven't lived in Chicago for 30 years, but I grew up and (after a stint at an eastern college) went back there to work for 5 years, before moving on to other places. But I still have siblings, nephews and nieces living in the Chicago area, and they are aghast at the renaming. It would be like renaming Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs). Or tearing down Comiskey Park (White Sox), building a new ballpark, and renaming it US Cellular Field, or whatever it's called today. Sorry, it's still Comiskey to me.

I'd drive down the Ike to work every morning in the early 1970s, and watch the Sears Tower being built, growing higher and higher every day. One of my greatest acid-casualty-of-the-70s memories is driving with some friends to the Sears Tower while tripping (warning! Kids, do NOT try this without intense adult supervision. Plus, it's illegal), taking the elevator to the skydeck, and watching as a classic midwestern thunderstorm rolled in from the west, until the building was surrounded by black clouds, rocking from the wind, as pulses of lightning crackled all around us. I'm sure many other Chicago natives have fond memories of the Sears Tower skydeck as well, though perhaps not as bizarre as mine.

Not surprisingly, Chicagoans are up in arms over the renaming plans. Click the NYTimes story below:

Some Chicagoans Lament Willis Name on Sears Tower

Willis Tower? Hey, that's so lame. Let's call it the "Willy Tower"! It has the potential of being one of the city's greatest tourist attractions. "Come see the biggest Willy in the world!". "Gasp at the view from it's plastic protected tip where on a clear day, you can see 4 states and clear across Lake Michigan". "Be the first in your group to join 'The Willy Club'. It may not be as impressive as 'The Mile High Club', but for a modest fee, private cubicles are available!".

Chicago. Home of the biggest Willy in the world. I bet those starched shirts at London's Willis Group Holdings will be soooo impressed!:evilfrown:

[no name no slogan]

1. They're actually renaming it for Wesley Willis

Chicago's finest poet.

[ovidsen]

2. You could be right.

I learned a long time ago that there are DUers who are smarter than I am, or at least know unusual stuff that I don't.

But according to published reports, the Sears Tower is being purchased by Willis Group Holdings, a London-based insurance brokerage concern. Now, maybe Willis Group Holdings was founded by Wesley Willis. Or his brother or father. But I find that claim dubious at best. And at any rate, the company has indicated it's renaming the building after itself, not for a much admired Chicago poet.

If you can post a link proving me wrong, I'll eat my allotted share of crow. With all respect, ovidsen.

Update: Willis Group Holdings was founded in London in 1828 by a man named Henry Willis. Wesley Willis, a punk rocker and performance artist as well as a poet was born in 1963 in Chicago and died in 2003, and appears to have no connection whatsoever with the late Henry Willis, or the firm that bears his name.

It would be nice if Wilis Group Holdings was renaming the Sears Tower after a genius schizophrenic artist who called Chicago his home all his life.

But given the stodgy nature of London's financial firms, I kind of doubt it. Sorry.

Revised for update.

[no name no slogan]

3. You obviously don't know who Wesley Willis was

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Willis

(yes, I was being facetious)

[ovidsen]

4. Well, I can't fault you for pulling a prank.

Actually, I did know who Wesley Willis was, sort of, though I'd never seen him. I really did grow up in Chicago. But I had to do a little googling because, for all I knew, you may have been "right" about some kind of family connection.

What the heck. If I can make a joke about the "Willy Tower", you can pull my leg about who the Willis was that the Sears Tower is actually being named after.

Have a good weekend.:toast:

[no name no slogan]

7. Y tu tambien

Chicago is my second-favorite city in the entire world-- the first being London. It's still gonna hurt calling it the Willis Tower. I like the Willie Tower better. Or maybe the could name it after Todd Bridges and call it the WatchooTalkinBoutWillis Tower?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

5. Could rename it the

World Trade Center

[TK421]

6. This is all so very weird...I could never think of it as any other name than

the Sears Tower

[ovidsen]

8. Names are hard to change

New York City's Triborough Bridge, actually a series of toll bridges connecting Manhattan with Queens and the Bronx was opened in 1936. If you've ever taken a taxi (or bus) from LaGuardia to Manhattan, you probably took the Triborough.

Last year it was renamed the "Robert F. Kennedy bridge", after the late President JFK's brother, the late NY Sen. RFK (D-NY), assassinated in LA in 1968.

As far as I know, everybody in New York still calls it the "Triborough". Call it the "RFK" and people look at you funny.

I get the feeling the same thing will happen with the Sears Tower.

[pokerfan]

9. whatchoo talkin' bout

Willis?