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Sears Tower Says It's Tallest --just Because
May 04, 1996|By Blair Kamin, Tribune Architecture Critic.

The proclamation of a council is very important in some minds," Wagener said, "but common sense would suggest that 1,518 feet is taller than 1,483 feet."

There is no disagreement about the 1,483 feet. That's the height of the Petronas Towers. But the real question is whether the Sears Tower should be measured at the 1,518 feet that the Buck Co. is now touting or the 1,450 feet previously claimed.

When the Petronas Towers were under construction, the Buck Co. and Sears' designers, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill of Chicago, began insisting that the base of Sears' broadcast antennas should count. That would have brought the tower's height to a still-tallest 1,518 feet.